does the permanent marker need to be black or can it be any solid color for proper etching?

 

Sharpie Permanent works pretty well. I don't thin k color matters.
https://www.staples.com/Sharpie-Permanent-Markers-Ultra-Fine-Tip-Black-37121/product_593980

 

Any colour, asl long as it is permanent. But some have trouble staying on the pcb or doing fine lines with enough coverage. A lot of trial and error, or repairing of tracks.
Unless the board is bigger than 100x100 I would go with chinese fab like jlcpcb. I even redid a layout of one board just to split it into two parts by function and ordered two sets that would fit in 100x100 - filled the rest of space with square vias to serve as a protoboard.

 

I've only used markers with black ink, but as long as the ink isn't water soluble, it shouldn't matter what color you use. It had been my experience that the common Sharpie marker worked well, but at some point they re-formulated the ink they use and it is now somewhat water soluble. I now use the variety called "Sharpie Industrial" which has ink which is not water soluble. The ones in the extra fine point are getting rather hard to find, however.
Here's an example of a board I recently made, using one of the pens in my plotter...

 

Any colour, asl long as it is permanent. But some have trouble staying on the pcb or doing fine lines with enough coverage. A lot of trial and error, or repairing of tracks.
Unless the board is bigger than 100x100 I would go with chinese fab like jlcpcb. I even redid a layout of one board just to split it into two parts by function and ordered two sets that would fit in 100x100 - filled the rest of space with square vias to serve as a protoboard.

boards are already on their way from jlcpcb but it will take a while for them to arrive.

I have both vero and copper clad boards and I just dont do well on vero boards. the last attempt to do it via vero board went to the trash. Transfering this amount of toner should be easier especially because the tracks are thick.

 

Years ago, a group was investigating using modified inkjet printers for printing the resist. Yellow worked better than black. The logic is that black is often a pigment (very small particles), the other colors are dyes, which when thoroughly dry are more impervious. Also,the ink jetters heated after printing and the dyes tended to fix better to the PCB than black.

Of course, black is easier to see, so that may offset any advantage of being more impervious that colors have.

 

Unless the formulation has been changed, Sharpie Industrial Super Permanent doesn't work.

Sharpie fine point and ultra fine point permanent markers work. I've only tried black.