Schematic and PCB Color Scheme

[nathanpc]

I've moved from Eagle to KiCad a while ago and something that I've always thought about tinkering was the color scheme in the schematic editor and PCB layout to something a little more pleasing than the default, so I would like to ask how does your setup look like to have some inspiration or blatantly copy it.

[MarkF]

Here is the color scheme I'm using for DipTrace.  I've only done two layers at this point but have defined additional colors for other layers as the need arises.

[m98]

This is the scheme I use for four layer layouts, color values can be found in the .txt file(which is actually .col file, in case someone uses Target 3001).

[exmadscientist]

Here's mine for Altium. I've put way too much time into making a nice scheme, but considering how long I spend staring at it, it's probably been worth the investment. This scheme started out based on these recommendations but has evolved over time. I'd show it in action, but I almost never look at all layers at once. I'm usually viewing a particular layer or layer set, and that leaves way too many combinations to show. For me being able to tell at a glance what set I have active is probably the most important thing.

[AndyC_772]

This is a very personal thing; wars have been started over less!

I always use red for the top layer and blue for the bottom.

Layers 2 and 3 are GND and power, and they're green and yellow respectively.

On a board with more layers, it gets more difficult. I keep the same colours for the power planes, because they're the same colours that I'd usually use to highlight the power and ground nets anyway. On a 6 layer board, the middle two layers are orange-ish and pink-ish. Beyond that, you're on your own.

I have in the past also been known to follow the same colour sequence as snooker balls: red, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, and dark grey

[kendalll]

I was sitting next to my girlfriend on the couch one night and she remarked how "ugly" the colors in the layout were. I changed to colors more similar to what m98 and MarkF have shared and I was surprised how much easier on the eyes and pleasant it was to work on!