kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, May 01, 2014 at 04:05:09PM -0400, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> My preference is 50mils but no matter what field text size you choose,
> please revise all of the existing symbols accordingly.  As of right now,
> symbol field text sizes are all over the map which makes for some ugly
> looking schematics.

For reference, I use 60mils for designator and name, 30mils for the
package and 50mils for pin and labels. Probably 50mils for everything
would be OK, except for packages which now have really long names...

Of course there is an ISO standard for lettering, too... given the ISO
font (a little more compressed than the kicad one), standard text
heights are 1.8, 2.5, 3.5, 5, 7, 10, 14 and 20mm. For paper sizes A1-A3
the recommended sizes are 2.5/3.5mm (text and titles) A0 and A4 use
respectively 3.5/5 and 1.8/2.5mm.

So according to ISO, the most common text size would be 100mils (from
this the rule for 200mils between labeled lines, to avoid confusion).

IMHO this could be too big for current usage, unless you use large
format printers. I sometime handled *junction sheets* in A0 size, only
containing the index and intrasheet connections (something like a root
sheet in hierarchical design). A termocouple conditioner was something
like an A2 sheet... they where hand-drafted in the '80, however:P

There is a trick however: since everything is designed to be up and down
scaled across the A-series sizes, you can set paper to A3 and print to
A4. Or A2 and print to A3. It's a miracle how it still stays legible...

-- 
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl