Different colors in same Silkscreen

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Hello ,
is there any way to have different colors in same silkscreen or a method to use different layers for this?

I would like to add text and logo to my pcb, but using different colors on same side of pcb.

Thanks for any hint.

Regards,
Mono

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I think you’ll find that fabs only allow you to choose one colour for the silkscreen. If they really can do multicoloured it would cost extra.

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You may be able to use different layers for a color effect. Possible layers include at least silkscreen, mask, and copper.

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thanks for the comments. I am aware of the extra cost.

Is it possible to create 2 silkscreens?

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Contact the vendor. It may be as simple as using an used layer and renaming the gerber to something like front_silk_2.

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thanks this is a good recomendation. This is more a manufactoring topic rather than a tool one. Thanks to all for your fast feedback

I just contacted my fab…So let’s see

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There is nothing special about “silk screen”.

In fact, on the Gerber level all layers are the same.
It’s even easy to make a mistake and have your silkscreen etched in copper and the tracks printed over it as silk screen.

Normal some kind of naming convention is used to prevent such mistakes, and PCB manufacturers normally do manual checks to prevent this from happening. I believe the “new” Gerber specification has real layer info embedded.

Some artful PCB’s use gold plating on bare copper, and extra cutouts in the solder mask layer to expose some copper (gold) and bare PCB regions.

This give you already 3 layers for artwork on a standard PCB:

  • Copper
  • Solder Mask.
  • Silkscreen.

Combine this with custom milling, holes and backlight LED’s and there is plenty of room for creativity.

for some inspiration:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pcb+artwork&t=hk&iax=images&ia=images

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Fabs already offer different colours for silkscreen. It’s necessary because white silkscreen wouldn’t work well on a white board, or black on purple. It’s only a question of whether they are willing to do > 1 colour and if so, what they will charge.

Judging from the fact that the production time increases when a different colour is chosen, one interpretation is that they batch up jobs with the same board and silkscreen colour combination until they have enough to fill the panel.

Silkscreen uses neither silk nor screen, printing is done by inkjet printers. If there is > 1 colour this means either multiple nozzles or multiple runs for the panel. It should be interesting to see what OP’s fab offers.

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