Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

I use Eagle's image export to a .bmp file for my 1 and 2-sided boards. I then take the image(s) to Photoshop and convert them grayscale, set the contrast, clear up any suspect clearance issues, change some pad sizes, tweak the foil-filled areas and add text.

I then make a test print on paper using my inkjet printer, and I use a machine-pin DIP socket placed on the print to make sure the image is correctly scaled.

I worked with graphics a long time before I started making PC boards with CAD programs, so it is a natural process to me. I have an example of an edited exported image in my Photos folder "Brother/Paper/Resist tests.