Requirement	Required for	Notes
Go 1.26+	Build and run	See `go.mod` for the exact toolchain version.
`rsvg-convert`	PDF export only	Part of librsvg. The server starts without it; PDF endpoints return an error until it is installed and on `PATH`.

Installing `rsvg-convert`

Examples:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install librsvg2-bin

# Fedora
sudo dnf install librsvg2-tools

# Arch / Manjaro
sudo pacman -S librsvg

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install librsvg

Verify:

rsvg-convert --version

Build

From the repository root:

go build -o printer-backend .

Run

Start the API and admin servers from the repository root (or any directory where you want the data/ folder to live):

./printer-backend serve

Defaults (no config file):

API: http://127.0.0.1:8080
Admin dashboard: http://127.0.0.1:8081

Stop with Ctrl+C.

Optional configuration

Copy config.example.json and pass it with --config:

cp config.example.json config.json
./printer-backend serve --config config.json

Field	Default	Description
`host`	`127.0.0.1`	Bind address for both servers
`api_port`	`8080`	REST API port
`admin_port`	`8081`	Admin UI port

Legacy field port is still accepted and maps to api_port when api_port is unset.

Data directory

All runtime data is stored under data/ relative to the current working directory:

data/
  plates/           # plate definitions (JSON)
  svg_template/     # item SVG files and metadata
  configurations/   # plate + item + spacing presets (JSON)
  orders/           # orders (JSON) and uploaded images per order

Directories are created automatically when you save plates, items, configurations, or orders. Run serve from the project root if you want to use the bundled sample data.

Other commands

# Print version
./printer-backend version

# Generate an SVG item template (writes to data/svg_template/)
./printer-backend template -o my_item.svg -w 100 -H 50 -r 8 -b 2 -m 5 -p 3
# Square shortcut: -s 80 sets width and height
./printer-backend template -o square.svg -s 80 -r 5 -b 2 -m 5 -p 3

Quick check

After starting the server:

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8080/health

Open the admin UI in a browser at http://127.0.0.1:8081.

README.md

Alox printer backend

Requirements

Installing rsvg-convert