The Gerber group of formats is used as a standard in the production of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and contains over 30 extensions describing different details connected to such boards, including copper layers, silkscreens, solder masks, drilling data etc. Some of the most popular PCB layout design programs in the industry are Eagle, Orcad and Protel – each using different standardized extensions to describe PCB data packed as 2D vector images.
All formats in the Gerber group can function as input files for photoplotting equipment or similar machinery used in the fabrication of PCBs.