Gerber 转 PDF 教程 — PCB 文档化工作流

Yes, and you should — for fitment checks, this is the whole point. Open the PDF in any reader, hit Print, set Scale to 100% (Acrobat: Actual Size; browser: 100%, NOT 'Fit to Page'). Margin settings should be None or Custom: 0 to avoid auto-shrinking. Print on a normal sheet, then hold a real connector or BGA over the printed footprint — pad alignment will match exactly. Off-by-1mm errors caught here cost you a printer cartridge; off-by-1mm errors caught at fab cost a respin.

Bad rasterizer. Gerber's draws are stroked lines with a defined aperture (width). A correct converter renders the line as a filled path with the aperture's geometry. A naive converter rasterizes to a hairline, ignoring the aperture, which makes every trace look as thin as the printer's minimum stroke width. Use KiCad's File > Plot > PDF or gerbv's PDF export — both honor aperture widths correctly. Avoid converters that show 'lines' in the output preview; you want filled regions.

Both, for different audiences. Fab approval workflow uses one PDF per layer — top copper, bottom copper, top mask, bottom mask, top silk, bottom silk, plus drill — because the fabricator signs off each layer separately. Internal design review uses combined views — top copper + top silk + outline on one page, bottom equivalent on another — because the engineer needs to see the relationship between layers, not isolated artwork. KiCad's Plot dialog has checkboxes for both modes.

Color the layers when generating the PDF. KiCad's Plot dialog lets you set a color per layer (red top copper, blue bottom copper, white silk on dark background — the standard 'PCB review' look). gerbv stores layer colors in its UI; print to PDF preserves them. Black-on-white is the canonical fab approval look (matches a print plot). Dark background with bright traces is the canonical screen review look. Pick whichever matches your audience's expectation; your team has a convention even if nobody wrote it down.

Yes, as a separate page or merged into a copper layer view. Drills go on the same coordinate system as copper, but Excellon (.drl) is a separate file from Gerber. Most converters merge the drill hits onto a designated layer — typically rendered as small circles on the copper PDF — which lets the reviewer see drill alignment relative to pads. KiCad's Plot dialog has a 'Plot drill marks' checkbox that overlays drill positions onto each layer PDF.