PRINT DIRECTLY ON CD-R and DVD MEDIA
The next time you go shopping for your next batch of recordable
optical disks, you may notice there's a new kind of disk cropping up
on the shelves. And if the trend continues, they just may become the
only kind of disk you'll be able to buy. These new recordable CD and
DVD disks are calling themselves "Printable" or more specifically,
"Inkjet printable" disks.
Originally, if you wanted to label your creation on optical disk,
you either reached for a felt-tipped pen or applied a label. Those
home brewed solutions were amateurish at best. We wanted our disks to
look just like the professionally mastered ones. So the market
responded with round CD labels. With the proper software, you can
print highly stylized images and text onto these matte and glossy
finished circular labels with an ordinary inkjet printer. Once
printed, peel off the label, place it on one of those round CD label
holders, position the disk on top, press it down and voila! You have a
CD that looks a lot like the professionally printed kind. Well,
almost. Peeling the printed label off the sticky backing can cause it
to curl up and it may not lay flush to the CD onto which it is
pressed. Or sometimes an air bubble can get caught between the label
and the CD and that can look kind of tacky. And if you've ever tried
to peel off the label so as to try and stick it on again, you already
know how great that's going to look.
So if your quest to find the best way to produce a quality
appearing CD or DVD has not turned up a solution, let me direct you to
these new inkjet printable disks. Now available from several
manufacturers such as Memorex, Maxell and Verbatim, these printable
versions are already being priced near their non-printable
counterparts. For example, a 30 pack of Memorex Inkjet Printable 48X
CD-R disks goes for $14.95. This is one of the reasons I'm lead to
believe that eventually, most all of these consumer optical disks will
be of the printable variety. After all, you can still use a
felt-tipped pen or press-on label with them if you must.
Of note is a newer inkjet printable disk from Maxell that features
a rich blank silver matte finish. Printing a color label on one of
these yields a disk that in this columnist's opinion, is virtually
indistinguishable from one that has been professionally mastered.
As to exactly how you print onto these disks, you need
an inkjet printer designed for the job. Recently, Epson introduced two
inkjet printers that have the ability to print directly to inkjet
printable optical disks.
The Epson Stylus Photo 900 is a 6-color photo ink printer that uses
4 picoliter ink droplets. When printing images on glossy paper, it's
hard to distinguish between a color photograph and the images produced
from this printer that can produce border-free images. This printer
features a small tray onto which you lay any inkjet printable disk.
Using the included software or templates for other popular printing
applications such as Adobe's PhotoShop or Elements, the printer will
print directly to the disk. At $199, this is an excellent printer for
all of your color printing needs. The other Epson model is a bit more
pricey ($349) but offers an even higher print quality with its even
smaller 2 picoliter drop size. The Epson Stylus Photo 960 also sports
a 6-colot photo ink system but with individual ink cartridges for each
color including black. The other nice feature of the 960 is that the
printable CD is front loaded and printed so that the printer's back
can be next to a wall. The 900 requires room in back as well as the
front as the CD must pass completely through the printer's horizontal
slot.
Both models connect to your computer's USB port and work with both
Windows and Macintosh systems. Whichever Epson model you choose,
you'll be producing some of the best looking CDs and DVDs you've ever
seen. The disks you produce on these printers will be worthy of
holding your best audio and video creations. |
