Anyone have an Inkjet that prints CD labels??

[powderfinger]

How do they look? Do you have any digital pics of the results that you'd be willing to share? I'm thinking about getting one, but haven't heard much about quality........

[Blue Bear Sound]

Works fine for roughs and demos.... won't work for "release" stuff...

[lotuscent]

depends on your printer and the quality of your images. My wife publishes fine art prints on archival quality paper with archival quality ink. She is an incredible painter and a computer graphics whiz.

Her prints are better, truer and more durable than 4 color separated lithograph (until recently, the standard for fine are print reproductions).

With CD labels, I have used her printer a couple of times just for kicks, using templates she created and images she scanned and prepared - awesome quality but WAY TOO EXPENSIVE! That ink is bucks!

When they are done on my printer, they look OK, but not awesome. I used for a couple X'mas albums I released locally and an Ep.

[powderfinger]

hmmm....hard to say if it's worth considering then.....do you typically just print on to the CD in one color, or can you experiment more than that?

[Digital Smith]

I use the Primera Bravo for CD & DVD duplicating and printing. This allows runs up to 50 at a time, duplicating and inkjet printing. Set it and forget it!

For my clients they love it more than lables and it looks great and very detailed but in no way is it thermal quality or durability printing. Blue Bear is right.

The downside to inkjet is that this ink can scratch or rub off, especially if wet, but you can spray Krylon if need be. Also this duplicator cost $1800. You can fined printers that are cheaper in price if you look around.

[tjohnston]

good topic! I think that if your trying to sell cds with a paper label than people will laugh at you and write you off as some amature. However, that graphic artist I am working with says that she can make paper labels so good it will be hard hard to tell that its not thermal laser printing. I wont believe it until I see it.

[Brad]

I am using a loaner Epson Stylus 900 inkjet that prints directly on CD-R's and DVD-R's (Note that you have to buy special inkjet printable CD's!) and I have had some really nice results when using silver on silver printable discs and just black printing. Looks very much like a store bought CD. Now, I have a little graphic design background (Well, not really, but I dated a pro for long time) and she would give me pointers. Someone could take this same formula of black ink on silver/silver discs and make an amateur looking product depending on the graphics. Or if you change your font with every line of text (very common mistake).

The CD-R's with the silver (diamond) tops and silver record side really make a big difference, IMO. The black only ink works nicely, and be sure to have some standard media graphics like these:

[Brad]

Oh, and here is the Epson Stylus Photo 900 Printer.


Not bad for $200.


Brad

[David Hooper]

There are ways to modify a normal inkjet to do this. You should be able to find plans online.

David

--
KR TIP SHEET - Film/TV Music Placement and more...

www.krtipsheet.com

[powderfinger]

Originally posted by Brad
Someone could take this same formula of black ink on silver/silver discs and make an amateur looking product depending on the graphics. Or if you change your font with every line of text (very common mistake).

The CD-R's with the silver (diamond) tops and silver record side really make a big difference, IMO. The black only ink works nicely, and be sure to have some standard media graphics like these:

Good info Brad. Great Idea with the disc graphics too.

So the black ink is actually semi professional? That's all I was looking for anyways..

How much are the silver cds? Can you get them anywhere?

[tanlith]

hehehe... when I worked at Ford as their Network Admin I had my very own $30,000 Laser printer that did Full color 2 sided up to 11" X 17" You could just fit 2 4 panel CD Covers on one of those... *sigh* I miss working there...

I also had full access to a killer plotter that did full color at 1200 X 1200 dpi 40" rolls of paper up to 100' long ...

Did a couple life size posters of my GF

- Tanlith -

[Brad]

Originally posted by powderfinger

So the black ink is actually semi professional? That's all I was looking for anyways..

How much are the silver cds? Can you get them anywhere?

Well, I think using black ink only *looks* a little more professional - if you are a minimalist about it. You remember, when CD's first came out, it was black printing on the silver disc and that was it. Some CD's still come out like that. It is better than getting all silly with different colors, I think.

The Silver on Silver discs I have only found on-line (I will re-check the price and post back here). I found silver print side / blue record side in a pro media shop. If you just go to a computer or electronics store, you will probably only find Memorex printables, and they are white.


Brad

[powderfinger]

Sounds good. I'll have to look into those cds. You don't happen to have a digital pic of one you've designed do you?? If not that's fine, the description is good.

[tanlith]

Check these guys out... they do thermal printing right on the CD / Sleeves etc. I hear they're real good and I'm definitely going to use them for my next project.

Oh yeah... and they do small orders too. (as in 20, 50 etc...)

www.moderncd.com


- Tanlith -

[Jblount]

Comp USA has a new product that I was going to try. It is metalic labels. They print from a regular ink jet, but they are shiny and the same color as silver cd side up. You just print color or black stuff on it, slap it on your cheap tdk cd to cover up dumb product label. I will try them and post how they perform.

[tanlith]

Depends on which ones they are... I had the ones that were thick (like the regular ones, but with a shiny silver side) they sucked...

... there was a store in town that sold actual foil lables... real thin, hard to work with, but do a real good job... look for those...

- Tanlith -

[Jblount]

These that I saw are probably the thick ones. Where can you find the foil ones?