I know I know … I see your face already “oh no … silly question from silly user” …
JLCPCB is starting offering the multicolor SilkScreen
And soon or later will be followed by the other ones (if they aren’t already there with)
Sooo … I no want to use their crapy EDA for this stuff at all.
I’m wondering if KiCAD can do something about.
Indeed I tried to import a multicolor SVG into the silkscreen: it doesn’t work of course.
Needless to say that by porting a picture into the layer, ti’s not represented (and of course it cannot)
However this is a fancy things when we create PCB kits for hobbyists, gadgets, toys etc.
May be can be implemented somewhere, somehow, somesomething?
I suppose some work will be needed by both Kicad and JLC.
I wonder if one day I will have a PCB with the “Mona Lisa”, in glorious full color, screen printed all over my PCB
I already designed a PCB with multi-color silkscreen in KiCad. White (normal text), yellow and black (for a symbol). Each color has its own layer and Gerber file. After a quick talk with the manufacturer, they were able to do it without any problems.
the process sounds annoyingly complicated, but compatible with kicad: just use text or whatever drawing in a layer which matches your intended color, export the layers as a PNG (also stupid that they do not support SVG or other vector formats for this purpose ) and follow their process from there on.
In my view it would make more sense to be able to import additional user layers as silk in their tool and mark them with whichever color you want, but i am not a PCB manufacturer
This actually can be more useful than it sounds - it all depends on pricing.
I’ve been using PCB as cover panels for various cases or even for a 19" rack shelf. Having the ability to make it multicolor would be great…
Indeed. I have made a couple of times Control Panels on that way and I was constrained with black and white and stop.
Here one recent case … a 0.6mm PCB as panel.
White text and ok the gold coated tracks.
In other cases I would preferred to have it coloured but not choices.
now, “if” and “when” KiCAD will support such stuff on the silk layer, it will be indeed viable.
If KiCad implements “vector graphics” as an object one day, someone could make a plugin that takes these objects and encrypts them using EasyEDA’s algorithms and keys.
Obviously this coudn’t be in core KiCad because JLC may change the format/algorithms/keys.
I think PCB/schematic files are less likely to change, compared to keys and URLs.
I’ve kept the EasyEDA STEP model downloader as a plugin because it depends on a specific URL, which can be changed by JLC, or some authentification mechanism introduced.
If for whatever reason it takes off JLCPCB will beg Kicad Devs to implement it or do it themselves in the form of a plugin, lets see how this pan’s out
I’d find it hard to believe there would be anything “special” about these multi color silkscreens. EasyEda, is a part of JLCPCB as far as I know. Multi-color silkscreen has been done before, and I guess that most manufacturers that are willing to support this would simply accept a separate gerber file for each color. I did have a look though the Gerber (X2 / X3) standard from Ucamco, and it appears there is no data in those files specifying the color of the Silkscreen (Legend). Another missing piece of the puzzle is in which order to print those colors.
I never looked into those other artwork output formats. Do any of them support this?
I’m in the chat with JLCPCB and they told me right this “At present, our production process exclusively supports Gerber files featuring colored silkscreen layers”.
Not clue if this is a special thing only used in EasyEDA or it’s kind of enhanced standard.
They just gave me this link which is an How-To.
I think you have the competences to understand the details.
The big issue with supporting this feature is that the Gerber format spec does not support the concept of color, let alone support jpeg/png. It would not be wise to deviate from PCB industry format standards.
As others mentioned you can include multiple silkscreen layers for each color but that will not produce the color blending that I am seeing in the link.
Does someone have an example Gerber from easyEDA with embedded color image to inspect?
I suspect they are using a commercial printer not made for PCBs to print.
) and follow their process from there on.
