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GD Studio

Generative art, made to plot.

GD Studio lets you design generative artwork for pen plotters. Pick a pattern, shape it with live controls, add text or SVG elements, and export a plotter-ready file.

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Requires macOS 15 or later

GD Studio main window — a finished line-art design on the canvas with the Inspector open showing pattern controls

Who is GD Studio for?

GD Studio — short for Generative Drawing Studio — turns mathematical patterns into designs your pen plotter can draw, without writing a line of code. If you own a plotter, or you're simply drawn to the look of machine-drawn line art, it's built for you.

  • Generative artists and creative coders — explore parametric patterns visually, with live feedback, instead of recompiling a sketch to see a change.

  • Designers and makers — produce line-art posters, cards, logos, and lettering as clean vector strokes.

  • Educators and math enthusiasts — see curves, tilings, L-systems, and packings come to life and reshape as you change a single parameter.

  • Plotter-curious newcomers — start from a curated preset and tweak; no setup, no scripting, just continuous strokes that are ready to draw.

Dozens of patterns, endless variations

Explore 50 patterns across 8 families, from classic curves like Trochoids and Harmonographs to tilings, packings, generative systems, mazes, flow fields, and differential growth. Start from curated presets, then make each design your own: adjust its parameters, change how it is drawn, apply stroke, fill, line-style, and repeat modifiers, split it across colors, or combine multiple patterns in layered compositions. No pattern is limited to a single image. Each one is a flexible system with effectively endless variations. And because every design is built from continuous strokes, the canvas gives you a precise preview of the pen’s path: what you see is what the pen draws.

A grid of GD Studio patterns and variations, all as clean linework

Layers, pens, and multi-pen plotting

Build each drawing as a stack of layers, with independent control over pen color, stroke width, dash, transform, and render style. Restyle any line with wobble, hatch, stipple, nested outlines, and more using Line, Fill, and Repeat modifiers. Assign each pen to its own layer, or split a single pattern across several pens by path length, tile orientation, spiral arm, contour level, and other pattern-specific properties. Each layer exports as its own labeled SVG group, making it easy for plotter tools to guide pen changes between groups.

The GD Studio layer list with layers in different pen colors next to a multi-color design

More than patterns: text, SVG, and calibration layers

A layer doesn't have to be a pattern. Add text rendered as real plotter strokes (single-stroke and outline fonts, plus your own custom SVG fonts), import an SVG file to bring existing line art into your design, or drop in a calibration layer — a crosshair for pen registration. Imported SVG and text become regular layers: give them any pen, restyle their lines with the same Line, Fill, and Repeat options, mask them, and transform them like anything else.

A GD Studio document combining a pattern layer with a text layer and an imported SVG logo, all as linework

Export — or plot directly with Plotter Hub

Export SVG (Inkscape / axicli layer-group convention), PDF, or print directly — each pen layer is written as its own labeled group, ready for any SVG-capable plotter workflow. Or skip the file step entirely and plot straight from GD Studio with Plotter Hub: it turns a Raspberry Pi into a networked plot server for your AxiDraw-compatible plotter, optimizes the SVG before plotting, and automatically pauses between layers so you can swap pens for each color.

Exporting from GD Studio and plotting directly via Plotter Hub

How it works

One-Time Purchase

€24.99

VAT included (except US & CA)

Free trial, no time limit. Save and export Trochoid documents free; a license unlocks save and export for all 50 patterns.
Single payment. No recurring fees.
Single user, multiple Macs. One license covers all the Macs you use.
Download Free Trial
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GD Studio FAQ

Getting Started

What's in the free trial?

The full app with no time limit. You can open and explore all 50 patterns and tools. Saving and exporting are available for Trochoid-only documents in trial mode; a license unlocks save and export for every pattern.

Patterns & Design

How many patterns are there?

50 patterns, grouped into 8 families: Curves, Shapes, Points, Multi-line, Tilings, Grids & Packing, Generative Systems, and Simulation. Many patterns also include several built-in Types — each a distinctly different design — multiplying the number of variations several times over. Each pattern ships with curated presets, and fine-grained sliders make the practical variety effectively unlimited.

What's the difference between Design mode and Formula mode?

Design mode gives you high-level controls; Formula mode exposes the underlying mathematical parameters for full control. Simpler patterns show a single set of controls.

Can I randomize or start from a preset?

Yes — every pattern includes curated presets, plus shuffle and reset controls.

Plotters & Export

Which plotters does GD Studio work with?

Any plotter that accepts SVG. GD Studio exports one labeled group per layer (Inkscape / axicli convention), so axicli, vpype, and Inkscape's plotter extensions can route each layer to its own pen. AxiDraw-class plotters are also supported directly via Plotter Hub.

How do I assign different pens to different parts of a drawing?

Put each pen's content on its own layer — each layer carries its own pen color, stroke width, and dash, and exports as a separate group. To split one pattern across pens, use the Split section of the Pattern tab (by path length, tile orientation, spiral arm, contour level, and more).

What can I export?

SVG, PDF, and direct printing, plus sending straight to a plotter over your local network with Plotter Hub.

Why does my exported SVG look different from the canvas?

Hidden layers are excluded, the page background isn't plotted (it's written as a CSS background that viewers show but plotters ignore — PDF export bakes it in), and the viewport is the drawable area, so anything outside the margins is clipped.

Layers, Text & SVG

Can I add text?

Yes — text is rendered as true plotter strokes, using single-stroke and outline fonts.

Can I use my own fonts?

Yes — add your own custom SVG fonts in Settings and use them in any text layer.

Can I import my own SVG files?

Yes. Add an SVG layer and its lines become the layer's path; you can then restyle those lines with any pen and render style, mask them, or transform them like any other layer.

What's the calibration layer for?

A crosshair for pen registration and plotter calibration.

Settings & Defaults

Can I change the measurement unit?

Yes — choose millimeters, centimeters, or inches in Settings. Every length input across the app follows your choice. It's a display preference only; documents always store dimensions in millimeters, so switching units never changes how a saved drawing measures on paper.

Can I set my own defaults?

Yes. In Settings you can manage the paper-size list — including adding your own custom sizes — and set the defaults a new document inherits: paper size, orientation, background color, and margins. You can do the same for stroke defaults (line width) and for fonts, including importing custom SVG fonts and choosing the default font and height.

Can I control the output resolution?

Yes. A render-resolution setting controls how closely each curve is followed when it's flattened into plotter segments — from ultra-fine (0.025 mm) for tiny details to draft (0.5 mm) for quick proofs. Lower values give smoother strokes at the cost of larger files and slower exports.

Privacy

Does GD Studio send my work anywhere?

No. It runs entirely on your Mac. The only network traffic is opt-in: sending to a Plotter Hub server you configured (usually a Raspberry Pi on your own network) and, if enabled, checking for app updates. Documents, layer content, and pattern parameters never leave your machine.