Semitransparent nickel coating used for cover lens of display was deposited on glass substrate by DC magnetron sputtering, the variation of surface roughness, transmittance and thickness of the nickel coating obtained with different sputtering process was tested. The influence of sputtering gas pressure, sputtering power and carrier moving speed on coating properties were discussed. The result shows that the surface roughness of the coating increases along with the increase of sputtering power, the nickel coating with 50% transmittance can be obtained with appropriate sputtering gas pressure, sputtering power and carrier moving speed.