PRINTER SPINS IMAGES DIRECTLY ONTO DISCS
 Making your own CDs and DVDs with a computer is old news. But making
them look as good as the ones you buy is another story. In lieu of
the ugly magic marker which we used to scrawl upon the disc its
contents came the CD label.
These are first inserted into a printer and afterwards are stuck
directly onto the disc. This rather inelegant solution is rife with
problems. If you don't stick them centered exactly in place, what
you wind up with is a lopsided mess that can actually cause the disc
to malfunction as it spins.
Plus it just looks bad. To help solve this problem, some printer
models have appeared that let you print directly onto the disc using
CDs and DVDs that have a printable surface. And while these do a
really decent job and can produce discs that rival the appearances
of professionally mastered media, they can be somewhat difficult to
use. Most require a special insert into which you mount the disc and
require some extra setting up before you can get to the matter of
printing which can become tedious, especially when you want to print
more than one. And while the attempt to make a paper printer that's
capable of printing CDs is an admirable one, it's an afterthought at
best. Why not invent a CD printer that's specifically designed to
print CDs and DVDs from the start. Dymo has.
Dymo is introducing a brand new type of printer that's made to print
onto printable optical media. The Dymo DiscPainter is a little
desktop USB 2.0 CD/DVD printer that will produce a full-color, 600
DPI image in about one minute. 1200 DPI images can be completed in
around three. These faster printing speeds are realized in how the
DiscPainter prints. Instead of the typical back and forth movement
used by a conventional paper printer, the DiscPainter uses Dymo's
new RadialPrint that literally spins the disc as it prints onto it.
The DiscPainter is capable of printing to matte or glossy printable
discs and it can print those images on the entire printable face of
the disc, from the outer edge to the inner hub. Users can also
select from nine ink density settings.
To print a disc, simply insert the disk and as you see it spin
through the clear cover, you actually see the image appear as the
printer's head moves across the face of the disc. Disposables are
easy to handle as the DiscPainter uses a single-cartridge ink system
that capable of printing up to 100 discs before needing replacement.
Included with the DiscPainter is the Discus for DYMO software that
includes dozens of ready-made templates to help you get on the road
to disc design.
An included photo collage tool lets you create designs using up to
16 photos. The DiscPainter can also print images from popular design
applications such as Adobe's PhotoShop, Illustrator and InDesign,
QuarkXpress and SureThing. The DiscPainter can also print to the
smaller mini-disc form factor and works with both Windows and
Macintosh OS X.
The DiscPainter is being released this month and will sell for $279.
Anyone who has watched someone making pottery on a spinning wheel
knows how more efficient the spinning process works on objects that
are round. Sure you could come up with a way to make pots using a
loom or something that moves back and forth but why would you want
to? Spin printing onto a disc is a better idea and I'm surprised it
took this long for someone to come up with a way to do it. Better
late than never, Dymo!
www.dymo.com
| Craig Crossman is
a McClatchy-Tribune newspaper columnist writing about computers and
technology. He also hosts the nation's longest running nationally syndicated radio talk show on
computers and technology, Computer America, heard on both the Business TalkRadio
Network® and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network®, weeknights at 10PM Eastern
time. Visit his website at http://www.computeramerica.com |
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