Trademarks

Gravograph, Gravotech, Gravostyle, and GT Smartstream are trademarks of Gravotech Group. GratisGraph is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by Gravotech. These names are used only to describe hardware compatibility.

Interoperability research

GratisGraph is the result of independent interoperability research conducted on hardware owned by its authors, for the purpose of building an open-source driver. No proprietary source code was used or reproduced, and no proprietary binaries are distributed.

Licence

GratisGraph is free software under the GNU GPL v3. It comes with no warranty: this software moves real motors with real cutters — keep your hands clear and test with a pen first.

Bundled fonts

• Tinos (Serif) — © The Tinos Project Authors. SIL Open Font License 1.1.
• Arimo (Sans) — © The Arimo Project Authors. SIL Open Font License 1.1.
• Great Vibes (Script) — © The Great Vibes Project Authors. SIL Open Font License 1.1.
• Open Gorton (Plate lettering) — © 2020 dakotafelder. MIT License.
• Hershey (Engraving, single-stroke) — originally created by Dr. A. V. Hershey at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards; data format by James Hurt (Cognition, Inc.). Public domain, distributed with attribution.

Full licence texts are included with the software in fonts/. Fonts you load yourself via “Custom .ttf” are processed entirely in your browser and are never uploaded.

GratisGraph gives Gravograph M20-series engravers a second life. These are lovely, overbuilt little machines — but they were chained to old Windows-only software and ageing dongles. This sets them free: design on whatever computer you already own, send straight to the machine over USB, and keep working.

Why it exists

A good machine shouldn't be bricked by an OS upgrade or a misplaced licence key. GratisGraph is the result of a lot of patient tinkering to understand how the M20 talks, rebuilt from scratch as something open that anyone can run, inspect, and improve. Everything happens locally — your designs never leave your computer, and nothing phones home.

Made by

Built with care by Stephen Arsenault as an open-source project — nights, weekends, and a fair bit of trial and error on real hardware. If GratisGraph saved your machine or your afternoon, a star on the repo or a small donation keeps the work going. No pressure; the software is yours either way.

The fine print, kindly

Free software under the GNU GPL v3, with no warranty. It moves real motors with a real cutter, so please keep your hands clear and test a new job with a pen first. See Legal & attribution for trademarks, fonts, and the interoperability notice.

github.com/Stephen-Arsenault/GratisGraph — issues, ideas, and pull requests are all welcome.

What the pairing code is

GratisGraph runs a tiny server on your own computer that does the actual USB talking to the engraver. The pairing code is how this browser tab proves it's allowed to send jobs to that server. Without it, the page can see the server but can't drive the machine.

Where to find it

The code is printed when the server starts — in the terminal window, or in the GratisGraph menu-bar (tray) app. Paste it into the field, and you're paired. It's remembered on this computer, so you only do it once per browser.

If it's rejected

Restarting the server generates a fresh code, so an old one stops working. Grab the new code from the terminal or tray and re-pair.

Is it private?

Yes. The server only listens on 127.0.0.1 — your machine, not the network — and the code never leaves your computer. It's a local handshake, not an internet account.