Thanks sublimeartistry, I hadn't thought of doing that, this could work but do you know if this will cause any problems with the PCB fabrication and assembly?
Could there be an issue with the silkscreen ink being pushed through the vias and getting close to a pad on the other side, affecting the solder reflow?
I've been looking at the silkscreens on the back of Arduinos and they seem to do it without the via being plugged.
My understanding is there can be three treatments for vias; standard open vias, via tenting where the soldermask goes over the hole, and plugged vias where either conductive or non-conductive fill is put into the holes. ( Fritzing doesn't support the latter two )
Does an unbroken silkscreen design necessitate any measures to be taken in the soldermask layer like tenting or plugging vias?