OT: Inexpensive CD and DVD Label Printing

[William Bushnell]

Anyone besides me looking for inexpensive solutions to print labels on small quantities CD and DVD disc? The automated CD and DVD disc printers are good but from my view point, have a couple of disadvantages . One is cost. The other is the automated disc printers I have checked out us a single ink cartridge for all colors. When you run out of one color you replace the cartridge. Sure you can save these used cartridges and use the remaining colors on another project but who wants to keep track of what cartridges have what colors left?

I have come up with another solution that for me addresses the cost and single color cartridge issue. That is use multiple inexpensive inkjet printers such as the Epson Photo R200. For about $500.00 I can get six R200 printers (at Sams). The only thing is, I want to print to all of the six printers at the same time as this will be a time saver. I found a print utility that does this and more. It is ePrint from Lead Technologies http://www.leadtools.com/ . I tested the eval version of ePrint with two Epson Photo R200 printers (USB connections) and it works great. It is on sale at this time form Lead Technologies for $49.00.

Now, to find a utility that will let me burn to multiple CD or DVD drives at the same time.

[Steve L]

I use labels only from NEATO (Neato.com) I bought a program a few
years back called Record Now Max that allowed me to burn to multiple burners
however the program does not support very many newer burners. I recently
aquired a Composer Plus from Primera and the program that comes with
it is a newer version of RecordNow called Primo DVD by Prassi. It will record to multiple burners even when the robot (Composer Plus) is not connected.
It has the cabability of using a printer with the robot but I think I'll stick to
labels.

[Jon Stoll]

William,

Thanks for this information. I was looking for something like that. As for burning multiple CDs Nero 6 has that capability. CDRWin is another inexpensive program that can burn up to 32 at a time, but they have to be identical burners.

Jon

PS I just noticed that they have a new version, so I am not sure that they have to be identical burners. I'll investigate further.

[AlanH]

I used to use sticky labels but was concerned about them peeling off over time.

I'm now using a Canon i865 inkjet printer (recently superseded by iP4000), which prints directly on inkjet-printable CD-Rs. Results are excellent IMO, and I can print CDs faster than I can burn them. Have also tried spray lacquer - sold for the purpose - to give a more glossy finish.

This solution seems practical for up to say 20CDs, which is enough for review copies in my case. Only problem is white printing background only.

Incidentally, using the Canon printer with hp "Brochure and Flyer paper" (thin semi-gloss photo card) in the printer gives CD inlay/booklet mockups - printable on both sides! - as close to glazed offset-litho printing as I've seen.

Cheers,

Alan

[Naturally Digital]

Now, to find a utility that will let me burn to multiple CD or DVD drives at the same time.There's Feurio. http://www.feurio.com/English/index.shtml

[Naturally Digital]

Have also tried spray lacquer - sold for the purpose - to give a more glossy finish. Wow! Why didn't I think of that? Does it make the ink water resistant?

Has anyone seen or heard of a printable clear plastic (mylar, pvc or something) label? Does such a thing exist?

I just got a signature Z1 but I haven't fired it up yet.

[Pedro Itriago]

Here's (http://www.discmarket.com/items_by_Cat.aspx?item=CD-030-00030) one of them

There are also both with or silver top printable Taiyo Yuden (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00065DGZA/qid=1125630840/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl147/103-0944985-0480640?v=glance&s=pc&n=507846)


Wow! Why didn't I think of that? Does it make the ink water resistant?

Has anyone seen or heard of a printable clear plastic (mylar, pvc or something) label? Does such a thing exist?

I just got a signature Z1 but I haven't fired it up yet.

[Naturally Digital]

Has anyone seen or heard of a printable clear plastic (mylar, pvc or something) label? Does such a thing exist?Answered my own question... From the same people that bring us Fix-it spray...

http://www.medeainternational.com/acatalog/PressIt_CD_DVD.html

[Angie]

Neato (Fellows) used to make clear CD labels. Maybe they still do. It was awfully hard to apply them without bubbles forming. You'd think you'd applied it bubble free only to have bubble marks appear later. Maybe PressIt has improved them.

[AlanH]

Originally posted by David Vanderploeg
Wow! Why didn't I think of that? Does it make the ink water resistant?Haven't tested it but the manufacturers claim so. You can build a really high gloss by applying several coats, at which point it's probably bulletproof!


Originally posted by Pedro Itriago
There are also both with or silver top printable Taiyo Yuden Thanks, Pedro - will try to find some of the silver ones here in UK.

Cheers,

Alan

[William Bushnell]

Thanks all for the info on burning to multiple CD & DVD drives. It looks as though at this time a software-only solution is questionable. It would be interesting however to find out if multiple USB2 or Firewire burners would work. Because of the cost, SCSI burners don't seem like a solution worth considering. I should have paid more attention at NAB last year. There are generally several venders at that show selling hardware solutions. Perhaps some of these venders will be at AES this fall.

[Tim Miskimon]

The problem I have with the stick on labels such as Neato - I was told by a few guys at pressing plants that they cause reading errors - therefore I don't use them anymore unless the customer insists on them.
It was explained that the labels cause the disk to be unbalanced which causes the disk to wobble and create reading errors. True??? - Seems possible so why take a chance.

[UpTilDawn]

I've read that some people have tested this by burning a disc, confirming that it plays, attaching a label, finding the disc would no longer play, then removing the label from the disc and finding that the disc would then play again without the label.

I routinely use labels on my audio cds with no more wasted discs than I experience without the labels...... I've heard that dvdrs are much more sensitive to the slightest imbalance or weight change and because of this, I have yet to apply labels to them.

DanT

[bcorkery]

I haven't done any DVD's (I just sharpee them for archive) but have had good results on CD labels with “CD Stomper”. It has a clever way of making sure the label is concentric with the CD. I kinda thought Neto had a similar system. I think I got CD Stomper on sale at Frys for $10 (usually around $20) and got a $10 mail in rebate on top of it. I’ve been using it for about 5 or 6 years and have never had a client complain.

I use Discus (http://www.magicmouse.com) to set up the labels though. I think it was Total Sonic Steve who turned me on to this program and it works great!

[Craig Allen]

The problem I've seen with some labels is they make the CD to thick to fit into a GM factory car CD player. I've found the Stomper brand labels do not get stuck nearly as much as the Neato brand.

[TotalSonic]

I second the kudos for Magic Mouse's Discus. Incredibly easy to use program that lets you make a label design in almost no time and then has one click templates you can choose for nearly every CD printer and premade CD label configuration so that your printing nearly always goes smoothly.

re: stick on labels - yuck
They eventually fall, flake or bubble off - unbalancing the CD (as mentioned here earlier in the thread) - which usually ends up increasing errors when it is read. I definitely don't recommend using stick on labels for anything you intend as a replication master.

Personally for printers that you are going to use for masters I also greatly prefer to use a printer that has a dedicated drawer style CD tray (such as the Primera Z6 or the EZCD 6500) instead of one that comes with a caddy that is drawn thru the printer (like the cheaper Epsons or earlier EZCD models) as I've found the caddies eventually wear down leading to the bottom surface of the CD-R getting scratched when it is pulled through the printer. The drawer style printers are a lot easier to use than the caddy style also.

One option that hasn't been mentioned if you just want to label on the cheap are the inexpensive thermal printers (such as the Primera Z1 - street price $140). These have the advantage of being water proof (unlike the ink-jet prints) and of using less expensive media. The disadvantage with the cheap thermal printers is that you are limited to a single color, the resolution is lower, you can't print half tones, and you are limited in the areas you can print to,

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[William Bushnell]

An added thought on the ePrint utility that will print to multiple printers at the same time. If anyone hase the need, ePrint also does file conversion. I have used it to convert MS Word files to PDF files. Works great.

[Scott P]

The problem I have with the stick on labels such as Neato - I was told by a few guys at pressing plants that they cause reading errors - therefore I don't use them anymore unless the customer insists on them.
It was explained that the labels cause the disk to be unbalanced which causes the disk to wobble and create reading errors. True??? - Seems possible so why take a chance.

Tim,
I've used stick-ons by the thousands and rarely have anyone complain about them. About the only complaints are that they don't work well in some cars because of the added thickness. Now granted none of these people have BLER counters, but they've not called and claimed that they were unusable.
Granted, now I have an on-CD printer, but only because I had a large job that essentially paid for it. It's a Microboards PF-2 and so far has been great.

Scott

[Tim Miskimon]

Tim,
I've used stick-ons by the thousands and rarely have anyone complain about them. About the only complaints are that they don't work well in some cars because of the added thickness. Now granted none of these people have BLER counters, but they've not called and claimed that they were unusable.
Granted, now I have an on-CD printer, but only because I had a large job that essentially paid for it. It's a Microboards PF-2 and so far has been great.

Scott

Hi Scott,
I have also used them for years but after having several mastering guys & pressing plants tell me they cause errors (some uncorrectable) I stopped using them. Digital audio AKA CDs & DVDs are touchy enough without adding to the problem.
I have dozens of audio CDs of my own music with stick on labels on them and I am just curious how they are being affected by those crappy labels. I figure - why take a chance?
Tim