Why does the text/font in my silkscreen appear different on the boards I received than the font I used when designing?

If you have designed a PCB using DipTrace or PCB Creator and then submitted your order for manufacturing directly through the DipTrace or PCB Creator software, you may have received PCBs with text that appears slightly different from the font you used in your design. Why?

When an order is placed via DipTrace or PCB Creator, the original data files (.dip or .bac) are transmitted to us along with the other order details. In order to prepare the data file for manufacturing, we open the file in DipTrace and export the file to Gerber. If you have used a non-standard font that we do not have installed on the machines we use to perform the Gerber export, the font will default to Arial, which may not be what you intended.

So, how can this issue be resolved? 

If you're a DipTrace user, here is what we recommend: 1. Place your order through the DipTrace application as you normally would. 2. Export your files to Gerber (Gerber X2, ODB++ are OK too). 3. Email [e-mail] and request that we use the Gerber file package you have included for production instead of the files submitted with the order. Of course, we'll also need to know the order number.

Unfortunately, PCB Creator users do not have the same export capability, so the only way to resolve this issue is to upgrade to DipTrace (https://bayareacircuits.com/pcb-creator-upgrade/).