Digital Workshop

Anyone any experience of using printers to print directly onto CDs?

Having published in Opus, I am still sticking labels onto CDs - (anything from 1 to 100 copies).

Just wondered as to the results.

Glenn

Glenn

I print regularly on CDs. I chose a Canon i865 after carefully considering alternatives. In some parts of the world the i865 comes with the accessories to do this. In others they are sold as extras.

I find it very simple using the software supplied (much simpler than printing labels, a task that I thankfully never need to do again.

The actual printing takes mostly about 25-35 seconds the way I do it.

Ink usage seems to be very economical.

HTH

Glenn,

There are several inkjet printewrs out there that will print on a CD or DVD, but what we chose to do was combine a burner and printer in one unit and get the Bravo from Primera. It has a cd or DVD burner integrated with an injet printer. It has robotics to move the disks around so I can set-up a job to burn and print up to 50 at a time and just walk away.

The drawback is that it is a bit more pricy than a simple inkjet printer, but for the convienence of being able to set-up a job, walk away and return to find everything burned and printed, it was worth it.

Here is a link to the current model. I thought I saw an announcement that they have a new version about to break that has a faster burner and a larger capacity for blank disks.

http://www.primera.com/bravoII_disc_publisher.html
http://www.primera.com/bravopro_disc_publisher.html

Good luck with whichever way you decide to go. I don't envy you sticking those labels on.

I use the Epson Stylus R200.

Easy to use, but slow. However, it is quicker than using labels and looks much better.

As far as I can tell, no printer delivers smudge proof print onto CDs. If you want that you will have to spray a fixitive on them. I tried the one available from Jessops - but I couldn't get it to provide an even, smooth finish. It always comes up speckled. I now don't bother to fix, and I've had no complaints from users - yet!

By the way. I buy Taiyo Yuden Inkjet printable CDs. 48 speed 80min, from CD-RMedia.co.uk. 100 on a spindle for £28.09 plus delivery and VAT. Total cost, postage and a slimline black jewel case comes in at £47.99.

If you know of anywhere more cost effective in the UK, let us know.

HTH

John

We've been over this process many times. And we keep coming back to using labels done on a good quality colour laser.
Higher quality, no smudge, 10 times faster, cheaper, more professional looking.

I've not experienced a problem with this.

I accidentally reversed the suggested order of processing. First I printed the CD, and then I burned the CD.

Perhaps the heat(?) from the burning process fixes the inks? Perhaps it's something to do with the inks used by Canon? Perhaps it's the CDs themselves which are semi-gloss white generics which I buy for AUD 44 per 100. And, no, it's not my imagination -- they do not smudge.

HTH

That's the way I do it too - print the discs first using an Epson R300 (IMO far more pro looking than stuck-on labels), then burn them. The quality of the R300 (and 200 or 900) is superb, especially for images using photographic material. But the R300 is a bit slow ... and (genuine mfr) inks are expensive. Still - the same amount of ink would be used whether label or surface printing ...

There is a lot of debate about whether stick-on labels ultimately 'damage' DVDs (not CDs so much). My next puiblication will have to be on DVD (stacks of short videos included), so I'll definitely be going the surface printing route.

I originally used an Epson 950 but found printing on CDs a very fiddly process (& the ink costs extremely high). Have just bougt a Canon Pixma IP6000D and it's much simpler & cheaper to run with no smudging problems. It also does borderless colour photo prints of high quality.

www.span.com do printable CDs - Verbatim for .25p (+VAT + delivery) in spindles of 100 and unbranded CDs cheaper.

if you're on a budget the TDK thermal printer can produce good results for text.

I currently use the silver ink onto a purple metalic CDR and it looks top notch