Pale IC label prints (called that?)

[kothoma]

Every time I see build reports with shiny white lables on ICs I feel envy and doubt.
As far as I recall all ICs I ever bought have barely readable label prints.
I have to hold them in different angles agains the light to read anything.
And my feeling is this got worse over the last decades.
Is it just me or my eyes?

BTW Transistors aren't really better.

[muddyfox]

now that you mention it... never really paid much attention to it but i do remember some logic chips from sgs thomson a decade back that had simply blindingly white text on them. none of that going on these days... i wonder if that's just me not handling enough ics or i'm only gettng chinese fakes...


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[RobA]

Most of mine are a drab tan/olive/brown something color. (I guess it could be a really thin yellow print.) Pretty much the only white printing I have on IC's is on JRC parts.

[Scruffie]

Varies part to part, batch to batch, year to year. Would you believe i've seen some BBDs with hand drawn labelling!

Don't ask me why it varies but it does... even with fakes!

But you are not alone, my eyesight is good but in some lighting it's just impossible to read some chips.

[kothoma]

Thanks guys, good to know.

So I'll just continue putting everything in little bags and labeling them immediately...