 For the structural aspects of packaging such as folding cartons and corrugated boxes, the industry's "sample maker" tables for prototyping and short run production, and "die vinyl plotters" used to print layout guides, and routers for making steel rule die, are based in significant part on the technologies originally developed by Gerber in plotting, drafting, and other fields.Other industries

Gerber's plotters and photoplotters brought transformative computer-automation to the labor-intensive field of cartography, once the province of labor-intensive and highly skilled tasks and of cumbersome photographic processes.In addition, under Gerber's leadership, the company fostered the development of innovations in machine tools and medical, cryogenic, defense, and anti-terrorism products through its partially owned subsidiaries.