Makernet was a little cagey about their process, but my samples show shading in the color. They were using a full-color process where any (or all) colors could be produced in a single pass.
You are right that pad/silk printing would be too limiting if your goal would be to print anything. The goal of pad printing is just to put _a_ color on a board, and then modify your design to that (or two colors, with the tide pod). There are definite tradeoffs. Good work.
Great that you're doing so well! I used to buy some components off you when LB was still a part time thing for you... many many moons ago. Love that you're still exploring and pushing your own boundaries!
>> Makernet
I believe they were only doing pad printing/silk printing.
>> The problem with _all_ of these solutions is that these coatings do not work in a reflow oven.
PCBs can be printed on before population with parts (although not always required depending on the design).
We bake our PCBs, specifically in reflow ovens. We adjust our colours so that they match the target colour after heating cycle completes.
>> The solution I've found is pad printing
We looked into pad printing, but it was too limiting in terms of setup time and graphics.
It also lacked the ability to for mass customisation of products.