Photo to PCB Converter Online: Free, from a Phone Photo or Scan
Photograph a drawn circuit or an old board and get PCB artwork: shadows levelled, specks cleaned, traced to a Gerber layer or a 1:1 etch mask, with the narrowest track measured for you.
How it works
Add the picture
A phone photo or a scan, straight on, in even light. The light across it is levelled for you.
Set the real size
Type the board width in millimetres. The narrowest line is measured and checked against what etching and board houses can make.
Download
A Gerber layer for a board house, a 1:1 etch mask to print, or SVG and DXF.
Photo to PCB online: from a phone photo to a board you can make
Photo to PCB without a scanner: take a phone photo of your drawn circuit or an old board, drop it here, and get a Gerber layer or a mirrored 1:1 etch mask. This photo to PCB converter online levels the light across the picture (the shadow of your phone, a lamp to one side) so only the ink or copper is kept, then cleans off paper grain and traces the shapes.
Photo to PCB online free means free: no account, no watermark on Gerber files or etch masks, and nothing uploaded, the photo stays on your phone or computer. As a photo to PCB converter it tells you the narrowest track it found, because a line that looked fine on paper may be 0.2 mm on the board and break when etched.
How to take a photo that converts well
Lay the sheet or board flat, hold the phone straight above it (not at an angle, or the board comes out trapezoid), light it evenly from two sides or by a window, and fill the frame. Crop to the board edge before converting so the width you type is the width of the picture.
Reverse engineering an old board
Photograph or scan each copper side separately, straight on. Scan at 600 dpi if you can: a flatbed has no lens distortion. Convert each side to its own layer at the board's measured width; the bottom photo is seen from below, so tick mirror for the bottom layer.
Reproducing a PCB from a scanned image
Reproducing a PCB from a scanned image works one copper layer at a time, and this page does that layer: scan the side, drop the scan here, type the board's measured width, and download the copper as a Gerber or as a 1:1 etch mask. For a good PCB reproduction from a scanned image: scan flat on a flatbed at 600 dpi (a phone photo works, but a lens bends straight lines near the edges); lay a ruler beside the board and crop the scan exactly to the board's edge, so the width you type is the width of the picture; and scan both sides separately. A board still under green solder mask shows little difference between copper and bare board, so the threshold may need setting by hand.
What a scan gives you and what it does not
A PCB from a scanned image gives the copper shapes, tracks and pads, at the right size, with the holes in pads kept as holes in the copper. It does not give a drill file, a board outline or a schematic: drill the holes from the pads, or draw them and the outline in KiCad or EasyEDA, where the scanned layer can be imported as graphics (File > Import > Graphics) and the circuit redrawn over it. The bottom side is scanned as seen from below; leave "Artwork for the bottom is drawn as seen from below" ticked and it is mirrored into place.
People also search for
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Why it matters
Nothing uploaded
Unreleased boards and client work stay on your computer. Everything runs in this tab.
Real size, always
Every output is in millimetres at 1:1. Printed masks carry a 50 mm bar so you can check the printer.
Checked for etching
The narrowest line is measured and compared with toner transfer (0.4 mm), photoresist and board-house limits (0.15 mm).
Questions
Why does my photo come out patchy?
Uneven light. Keep "Level the light" on, shoot in even daylight, and avoid the phone's shadow. A scan is always cleaner than a photo.
Can it find the components and connections?
No. It converts the shapes in the photo, the copper or the drawing, to PCB artwork. Working out the circuit from a board is reverse engineering, done in a schematic editor.
Can I copy an old PCB from a scan?
The copper layout, yes: scan each side at 600 dpi, crop to the board edge, set the width and download each side as its own Gerber layer or etch mask. Holes, outline and the circuit itself are added in a PCB program.
Which files can I open?
Gerber RS-274X (with or without X2 attributes) from KiCad, EasyEDA, Eagle, Altium, OrCAD, DipTrace and gEDA, and Excellon drill files. A zip of all of them works.
Is my board uploaded?
No. The files are read in this browser tab.