PCB Material Type

Hello, I am a beginner in electronics and I have made a couple PCBs but I am very dissatisfied with the look, I know it shouldnt matter but I want my projects to look perfect.
Anyways I usually use Pad2Pad and made a new design and I want it to be a black pcb and it needs to look great like the Arduino. The Arduino looks perfect, it looks clean, fresh, and a bit shiny, its like a jewel. What material type is this or can any recommended manufacturers?

Thank you :slight_smile:

Most PCBs are green, the shinyness and color comes from the Soldermask applied to the board.

You could try covering your pads and spraypainting the board, or use nail polish.

Itead has different colors including black. And they look good. I've got blue, green and black ones from them.

CrossRoads:
You could try covering your pads and spraypainting the board, or use nail polish.

Do you have a good method for covering the pads?

I think nail polish would get pretty messy and most likely remove the paint from the surrounding PCB paint as well?

What about stickers? Though it may be difficult to find little dots that small. I've seen 1/8 are readily available.

So etch
Apply stickers/dots
spray paint
remove stickers

What I think your asking about is solder mask. It's whats used to color the boards. Solder mask - Wikipedia

I have never done it myself but from what I understand you can buy the lacquer and do it yourself but I'm not sure whats involved.

You can also buy PCBs that are already colored... however I have yet to find a place, I only know they exist... mostly through DIY forums.

Hope this helps