Custom Camera Calibration Targets | ChArUco, Checkerboard, ArUco & AprilTag Boards, CNC-Cut & UV-Printed

A calibration board printed at a copy shop is a guess. This one comes with its measurements.

Every camera calibration starts with the same assumption: the pattern on the board is exactly the size the software thinks it is, and it is flat. Print a checkerboard on paper, tape it to foam board, and neither is true — the printer scaled it a fraction of a percent, the board bows, and the corners sit under a gloss that blows out at the exact pixels the detector needs. The error ends up baked into every measurement the camera makes afterwards.

We cut the board on a CNC router and print the pattern on a flatbed UV printer against the same edge, in the same building. The pattern is generated at true millimetre size, the print scale is verified against a measured bar on the production material, and every board ships with a measured report and a definition file your software loads directly.

Pattern families

• ✅ ChArUco — our recommended default: checkerboard precision with marker IDs, so detection survives partial occlusion and odd angles
• ✅ Checkerboard — classic intrinsics calibration; specify inner corners and square size
• ✅ ArUco single markers and arrays — pose, extrinsics, camera–LiDAR registration, scene and fixture registration
• ✅ AprilTag (tag36h11, tagStandard41h12) for robotics and ROS workflows
• ✅ Asymmetric circle grids for high-precision centroid detection
• ✅ Kalibr aprilgrid for camera–IMU calibration on drones and vehicles
• ✅ Siemens star and slanted-edge focus/MTF charts, 18% gray and white-balance cards, verified scale bars
• ✅ Your own artwork — supply a 1:1 vector PDF for the print and a DXF for the cuts; we return an overlay proof with the datum mapping before production

Specification

• ✅ Catalog sizes 300 × 200, 600 × 450, 900 × 600 and 1,200 × 900 mm; custom to a single sheet up to 2,440 × 1,220 mm (8 × 4 ft)
• ✅ Substrates: 3 mm or 6 mm matte-white aluminum composite (ACM) as standard; 6 mm PVC for pads and budget boards; 6 mm acrylic or polycarbonate and 3 mm aluminum plate for precision bench boards
• ✅ Matte finish, UV black on white stock. No gloss — specular highlights saturate pixels at the corners the detector needs
• ✅ Cut and print on one datum. Outline, through-holes, cutouts, keys and mounting features are routed first; the pattern is printed in a square-stop fixture referenced to the same two edges, so print-to-cut registration is a measured number, not a hope
• ✅ Mounting features machined in: 1/4-20 and 3/8-16 tripod inserts, VESA 75/100 patterns, keyhole slots, stand points, handle cut-outs, robot-flange patterns on hand-eye boards
• ✅ LiDAR and multi-sensor targets with large through-holes and corner markers, built from your DXF
• ✅ Every board carries a serial, revision and QR code in the margin
• ✅ Ships with a Measured Target Report: measured outline and hole positions, marker-to-edge distances, print scale in X and Y against nominal, flatness as supported with the method stated, and a raking-light photo
• ✅ Ships with a board definition file (pattern family, dictionary, rows, columns, square and marker size, IDs, origin) that loads straight into OpenCV, so the board in your code is the board on your bench

Sizing a target

The pattern should fill roughly a third to a half of the frame at your working distance, and each square or marker should span at least 20–30 pixels in the image; below that, corner-detection noise dominates the calibration. Send us the camera, lens and the distance you calibrate at and we size the board and the squares for you. For multi-camera rigs we build two boards on the same dictionary with non-overlapping IDs so both can be in frame at once.

Infrared, LiDAR and the honest answer

Carbon-black UV ink absorbs near-infrared, so 850 and 940 nm cameras see the pattern; white ACM returns strongly to 905 and 1,550 nm LiDAR while the black returns weakly, which gives intensity contrast as well as the geometric cutouts. We don't publish reflectance numbers; we send a printed swatch so you can check it with your own sensor before we make the board.

Straight talk about what this is not

These are measured fabrication parts, not accredited metrology artifacts. The report states what we measured and with what instrument; it is not a NIST-traceable calibration certificate. A target gives your software known geometry — it does not make a camera calibrated, and we make no claims about the accuracy your calibration will reach, which depends on your optics, your images and your method. Large-format full-coverage white ink and gloss finishes are not offered.

Who buys this

Robotics and autonomy teams calibrating camera–LiDAR and multi-camera rigs; university and government research labs; vision startups standing up a station; integrators who need a registration plate matched to a fixture; anyone who has lost a day to a board that was 0.4% too small.

How a quote works

Use the quote form with the pattern family, size, camera and working distance (or attach your artwork and DXF), the substrate, any cutouts or mounting features, and the quantity. We send a true-size proof and the board definition file for approval, then build. Repeat boards of an approved revision price lower because the proof is already done. Standard boards ship in 10 business days or less from approval.

Cut and printed in Rocklin, California. One-year warranty against delamination and print failure, and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.