Silkscreen Text Colors

Layout
1

I am a bit confused regarding the colors used in Pcbnew to represent the silkscreen. Please see the attached image.

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“C1” is cream colored. This footprint came from the KiCAD library.
“U1” is blue colored. I drew this footprint.
“J1” is grey colored. I drew this foorprint.

If I uncheck visibility for the F.SilkS layer then blue lines dissappear but none of the text.

If I create a 3D render then the silkscreen looks ok.

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What do the different colors used represent and why doesn’t the text dissappear when I uncheck the F.SilkS layer?

Using KiCAD 4.0.7. Thanks!

2

I suspect that some footprints may have a fab layer overlaying the silkscreen? That would explain why the lettering doesn’t disappear.

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3

Although the references are on the silkscreen layer, there is a separate checkbox for references. If you go to the “Render” tab, there is a checkbox marked “References”, which will control the visibility of the references.

4

Thanks! I understand what is happening now. The library parts have the same text but on the F.Fab layer. The color of the F.Fab text for the references plus the blue color of the silkscreen references combines to make a different color for the text. Then for all parts the color of the fab layers plus the color of the text combines to make a different color, depending on what is “behind” them, as hermit pointed out.

My footprints don’t use anything on the F.Fab layer, so the color of the references text is different.