PCB Logo Guidelines - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: mercury841
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 08, 2015, 11:40:32 pm
content: Have you some useful guideline about how can i design a logo that looks nice on the PCB?Copper, silkscreen, full or just contours?Thanks in advice- beginner designer

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2015, 11:51:27 pm
content: Upload your logo an.d planned board layout ideas...Maybe we can critique our impressionsRelevance of different styling will depend on the typefaces, size/position wrt other nearby parts etc.Silkscreen vs copper / solder-mask colours.Front or rear of board?What is the image you're trying to portray? Performance, strength, compliance, accessibility etc...

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 12:23:19 am
content: just make sure it is manufacturable. no elements smaller than the minimum line width. no acute angles.

author: mercury841
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 12:34:37 am
content: You rised good points, this is my first (actually second) manufactured PCB so i still not have a defined idea to show you...What typeface can you advice to me? What's differences between top and bottom about logo design?

author: SL4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 12:55:17 am
content: Quote from: mercury841 on January 09, 2015, 12:34:37 amIt's your logo... no offence intended as it seems you're starting out from scratch.There is a significant difference between just placing type on a layer, and designing a 'logo'... check the dictionary.A logo may contain typefaces - or not. Stylising your identity into a logo may present opportunities to use the specific medium (PCB artwork) to make it 'pop'... so you have an advantage there. e.g. using the dot of the letter 'i' to be the power on LED or something cheesy like that.Recesses (voids in the PCB) may play a part - it's all up to your initial design - then carry it across to the front-panel, PCB, letterhead etc as you need.It's great to think about this up front, as carrying some design elements across to other media may not work so easily... e.g. LED on letterhead.

author: TriodeTiger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 01:09:46 am
content: Find the DPI the fab uses and match it (OSHPark used 200DPI) and it should do fills and sharp angles decently. I noticed if you remove the soldermask for a logo, if the gold is thin it can wear off easily and appear tarnished if it is not protected (as seen in copyright text down below), but the silkscreen is of course more robust being an epoxy ink.QuoteIf just plain text, vector font is what I've seen stay true to size and everyone has it - but if in bitmap, it's your choice, and as long as you can distinguish the letters in a broad view of the PCB it will probably print well on the actual board (my font in the logo is 0.82mm in height!)

author: mercury841
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 02:50:17 pm
content: As you can see I put in the middle of top view and lower left in the bottom view. I "rendered" only the silkscreen and pads so you can see more clearly the outline.Some advices?I'm at this stage with design, only text... maybe I am better as engineer than designer

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 03:07:56 pm
content: Quote from: mercury841 on January 09, 2015, 02:50:17 pmSome of the part identifiers will be covered by the parts. Is it intentional?

author: mercury841
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 09, 2015, 06:05:19 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on January 09, 2015, 03:07:56 pmYes because it's still a prototype so i can refer to my own datasheet once populated.

author: marshallh
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 10, 2015, 07:10:43 am
content: ENIG will not tarnish easily, and LPI soldermask gives you some possibitilies. Russ Dill's experiment:You can also be more flashy. Be careful with large raster graphics. instead use polygons where possible:For this one I imported the BMP onto a separate layer (Back when I used eagle) and manually drew polygons over it to reduce overhead