Issues with quality Silkscreen Logo on PCB - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: cidcorp
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2013, 01:37:54 am
content: I already asked for assistance on the Diptrace forums, but last time I checked I had no responses.Has anyone had any issues using JPG/BMP files in Diptrace for Logos? The logo I was using was a black and white bmp, 1000x1000pixels.The 3D preview of the board looked fine, but the preview of the gerbers generated were all blocky and difficult to make out.I tried lowering the minimum silk line to 6 mils (my manufacturer handles as low as that) but it made absolutely not difference on the Logo,although the text and other silk lines we noticeably thinner.Anyone know a magic solution to getting a fairly good quality image on the silk layer please spread your expertise.I'll include the 3D/Gerber preview sample graphic so you get an idea what I'm taking about.Chris

author: adam1213
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2013, 02:04:02 am
content: I don't have a magic solution.You could try reducing the width of lines / fonts in the jpg/bmp.

author: cidcorp
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 07, 2013, 02:19:56 pm
content: I guess I should have included a sample of the original as well. The line thickness doesn't appear very thick at all...but as a brute forcestyle of solution, I'll just modify the bitmap and see if it improves.Gone for the next couple days but when I'm back at my bench I'll see how that goes. I'll post results on how it improved. I'll try to adda preview of the original bitmap as well (including the preview of the updated bitmap, 3D and Gerber views).Thanks for the response.Chris

author: vsq
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2013, 07:01:50 pm
content: I had a similar issue in Mentor Pads Layout when trying to export Gerbers for a board with a 0.5 mm pitch QFN chip. The default line width of the exported layers was too large, so the pads of the QFN were messed up.The layer properties in the Pads CAM-exporter had a section called photo plotter setup where you could define the minimum line width. I'm not sure how this is done in Diptrace.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 07, 2013, 08:54:49 pm
content: it seems that diptrace is still not very good at converting bitmap to vector. send a suggestion to them to do the improvement.

author: cidcorp
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 09, 2013, 04:10:52 pm
content: Response given by Diptrace Technical Support:QuoteThere was a noticeable improvement when adjusting this setting. Ultimately the best method would probably be use the Vector based solution of importing the image as a DXF file, but after trying to do that a couple times via Illustrator -> Autocad WS (or Inventor Fusion) -> DXF, I have absolutely no luck starting with the illustrator logo (with the understanding I'm only a casual user of both applications). So for now the 'recognize accuracy' (I assume this is similar to whatvsqwas trying to identify) will do the job.

author: DerekG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 27, 2017, 03:11:48 am
content: Quote from: cidcorp on October 09, 2013, 04:10:52 pmGenerally not an issue. Most board shops adjust the silkscreen width to suit there own manufacturing equipment.You can always import the dxf logo, drag it to an empty space on your screen, redraw on top of it using the polygon feature in DipTace, then drag the end result to the location on your board that you desire. You only have to do this once of course.Or you can do the above in the Pattern Editor & save it as a component.

author: novarm44
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2017, 08:01:24 am
content: QuoteReduce "Recognize accuracy" value in Gerber window

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 05, 2017, 08:14:37 am
content: What font did you use for the logo?