Precision Disc Blog

At Precision Disc we have two standard print solutions for our replicated CD and DVD discs – up to six spot-colour silkscreen printing as well as CMYK offset printing.

While silkscreen printing is definitely ‘old school’ technology, when compared to CMYK offset printing spot-colour silkscreen printing can still provide superior print results for some designs. We won’t get too involved in the graphic design aspect within this article but we do have other resource material available on the topic of graphic design.
 

 
The benefits of silkscreen printing on CD or DVD

Silkscreen printing spot-colours for CD and DVD utilizes pigmented inks with a gloss finish. This is different than CMYK offset printing which utilizes translucent inks and has more of a matte finish.

Due to the consistency of the pigmented spot-colour inks they provide better and more consistent coverage for large areas of solid colour and, additionally, the gloss finish is very appealing to the eye.

Basic design rules for silkscreen printing on CD or DVD

As noted above, when compared to CMYK offset printing, silkscreen printing can provide superior print results for some designs… some, but not all. The best results generally come from artwork that is designed as follows:

• Maximum of six colours (including white flood)
• Using line art – not bitmaps.
• Utilizing large areas of solid colour.
• Graphics that are bold and don’t feature a lot of fine detail.
• Text that is relatively bold – not small or featuring fine detail.
• Avoiding drop-shadows and other effects that feature less than 100% solid colour.
• Don’t use Photoshop as it outputs graphics and text as bitmaps – not line art.

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Choose Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. as your factory-direct partner for CD DVD manufacturing and CD DVD duplication along with eco-friendly print and packaging solutions. Our offices and manufacturing facility are located in Surrey, BC (a suburb of Vancouver) and we ship to clients throughout Canada and the U.S. daily.
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For inexperienced designers, figuring out the correct page sequencing when designing a CD Booklet or DVD Booklet can be rather confusing. This article is intended to clarify the difference between what looks right and what is actually right. In short, Printer Spreads versus Reader Spreads.

If you’d like to include additional information in your CD duplication or DVD duplication project you will likely need to incorporate a booklet into your budget and designs.

Booklets tend to be more popular than “folders” because we’re much more accustomed to the format of a booklet. Just like a book or magazine, a booklet is folded in half and is stapled in the middle, so they are very compact and easy to browse through.

Printer Spread Page Sequencing

Designing the booklet for your CD duplication or DVD duplication project shares many of the same design rules that apply to every other aspect of your project, but there is one commonly overlooked aspect we want to bring to your attention: Printer Spreads.

Through a whole lifetime of familiarity with books and magazines we know that ‘page 3’ comes after ‘page 2’ and then ‘page 4’ comes after ‘page 3’. This is absolutely correct after a book has been printed, cut, assembled and stitched but you actually have to design it counter-intuitively.

For the purposes of your CD duplication or DVD duplication project your ‘booklet’ is a series of 2 panel folders that are stacked together, stapled and then folded to create the book. There is a specific page order required to assure the booklet has the correct page sequence after it has been assembled, and this sequence (or page order) is referred to as Printer Spreads.

Create A Mock-Up

The best way for you to see this is to make a Printer Spread mock-up of something simple. Here’s how you can create a Printer Spread mock-up of a 4 panel (8 page) booklet using two pieces of scrap paper:

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Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. provides factory direct CD DVD manufacturing and CD DVD duplication in eco-friendly print and packaging for clients throughout Canada and the USA. Get an instant online quote now!

In the past year there has been a noticeable increase in audio clients who are creating their own Master CDs for CD manufacturing or duplication. While it seems most of the audio clients have an understanding of what CD Text is, there is still a lot of confusion about how to create CD Text and where you can view it. This article was written to clear up some of the confusion.

What exactly is CD Text?
 
CD Text is a technology that is used on audio CDs which enables low bit rate information such as the song name and the name of the artist to be stored on the within the disc itself. If CD Text is included on an audio CD, specific devices and applications that are able to read and display this information will recognize this information, retrieve it and, in turn, display it to the user.

Is CD Text visible on all players and programs?
 
No – and this happens to cause a great deal of confusion and worry for clients, because they often think there is something wrong with their CDs due to the the CD Text not being displayed. A particular culprint for such anxiety is Windows Media Player  – while it is one of the most commonly used computer programs for playing music, it doesn’t display CD Text unless you install a plug-in. (FYI – when you do see song and title information being displayed by Windows Media Player, it’s not actually CD Text that is generating that data).

Creating CD Text
 
It’s actually quite simple to create your audio Master for CD duplication or CD replication, but you need to be using a disc burning program (such as Toast or Nero) that allows you to enter in the appropriate data. 

I’ve already made my CD Master – can I add CD Text to it?
 
No, it is not possible to add CD Text after you’ve already created your audio Master. If you’ve already created your CD Master and you want to add CD Text after-the-fact you will have to create a new Master.

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Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. provides factory-direct DVD and CD manufacturing, DVD and CD duplication, eco-friendly print and packaging. Located in the Surrey, B.C. (a suburb of Vancouver) we ship to clients throughout Canada and the U.S. daily.

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This is number three is a series of graphic design tutorials for Silkscreen printing CD and DVD discs. This tutorial relates to designing your CD or DVD print without a white flood (aka: white backprint).

Other graphic design tutorials that we recommend for your review include creating colour separations and using less than 100% solid colour for your Silkscreen Print design, as well learning the issues relating to colour correctness.

It’s possible to use the shiny aluminum/silver disc surface colour in your design. Doing so can be very effective but it’s important to understand how much room you actually have to work with.

Regardless of whether you are creating a design with ‘positive’ print (solid lettering and/or graphics printing on the silver background) or a ‘negative’ print (printing a solid colour that utilizes the disc’s surface as the colour for your lettering and/or graphics) be aware that there are actually three different parts of the disc that can be printed onto:

1. The largest area is the aluminum/silver coloured area that holds the disc data/content.
2. Closer to the middle there is the “mirror band” which is a very shiny/reflect silver colour. 
3. Surrounding the center hole there is an area which will either be clear plastic (as is generally the case with a CD disc) or additional shiny/reflective silver (which is generally the case with a DVD disc).

Avoiding The “Danger Area” In Your Disc Design – As noted above, there are actually three different parts of the CD or DVD that can be printed onto. If you’d like to utilize the aluminum/silver colour of the disc’s surface in your design but avoid the hazards of any unsightly overlaps onto the mirror band and/or center section of the disc, the ‘danger area’ is within a 36mm diameter (18mm radius) of the center of the disc.

Read this entire graphic design tutorial complete with illustrations. 

Our first Tutorial for Silkscreen Printed discs was how to create colour separations, and based on the positive feedback we’ve received we have followed that up with  Tutorial Number Two: Using Less Than 100% Solid Colour.

From our experience a lot of todays do-it-yourself designers (as well as a fair few professional graphic designers) aren’t experienced in designing for commercial print and don’t realize that designing for the internet or multimedia applications has a different set of rules than that of commercial print. For those designers Silkscreen printing must seem like a plot to drive them crazy.

One of the best features about many methods of modern printing is designing on a computer-screen where “what you see is what you get” (aka: WYSIWYG) … you get to proof your designs on the very same display device that the finished design will be viewed on (though we will conveniently ignore the fact that the colours may look different when viewed on different computer monitors).

With commercial print, what you see on your monitor may very well NOT be what you get… with Silkscreen printing being the biggest offender. Proof-in-point is when you use less than 100% solid colours in your design but, rather than re-explain it all here in this post, it’s better to read out our tutorial which shows images of the difference between what you see on your monitor and what will actually go to print.

CD and DVD manufacturing, print and packaging involves a lot of technology and complicated equipment, so it does seem kind of unusual that such an ‘old school’ method like Silkscreen Printing is still so viable for CD and DVD printing.

Precision Disc offers both CMYK Offset Printing and Silkscreen Printing for our CD and DVD discs, and there’s no doubt that Silkscreen Printing is still the best choice for *some* types of disc designs. Unfortunately there is an inherent difficulty with using such an old school style of print, in the fact that so very few graphic designers are experienced with it and know (A) what the limitations of Silkscreen Printing discs are, and (B) how to properly set-up their design files for Silkscreen Printing discs.

The largest single issue we experience is colour separations… or lack thereof… so we have created a very simple tutorial to get your graphic design started in the right direction.

Additional aspects of graphic design for Silkscreen Printing CD and DVD discs will be covered in later installments, which will include the use of bitmap images, designing using colours that are less than 100% solid, and specifying the correct colour values for Silkscreen Printing on CDs and DVDs.

As always, before beginning the graphic design for your CD and DVD duplication or CD and DVD replication project, follow our artwork specifications and use our design templates – that on its own will help you avoid the most commonly made mistakes!

One of the leading causes for order delays and extra charges throughout the CD and DVD industry is artwork that isn’t supplied correctly. This issue can be split into two separate areas –  the first of which being the actual design components of the artwork and then, secondly, the physical dimensions of the design (ie: length x width). Contrary to the popular saying, ‘size’ it would appear, actually matters, and a graphic design template will help you on your way to successfully submitting your artwork.

One of the most common misconceptions about designing for CD or DVD manufacturing or duplication, is that there is an industry ‘standard’ whereby all suppliers of discs and related packaging use the same sizing guidelines and have the same requirements. This couldn’t be further from the truth as it is very common to find variations between different vendors. Therefore, choosing which vendor you are going to use should take priority over finalizing your artwork. Once you’ve decided on the company who will manufacture your discs, download the applicable graphic design template for your needs and then finish off your design.

A good template should show you a number of visual references:

1. Crop marks: These are fine black lines generally located at the corners of the template and they will actually print, so don’t move them, removed them or change their colour values. The crop marks are used to line-up the cutting blade that will trim the print down to its finished size.
2. Keylines: These are used as guidelines to provide you with a visual reference of where the page will be cut, folded, perforated, etc. Keylines are for visual reference only and will not actually print but they are much easier to use as reference points than the crop marks.
3. Bleed: If your design is supposed to touch the edge of the finished product (as represented by the keylines and crop marks) you must extend, or ‘bleed’, your design 1/8” past that finished edge. Your graphic design template may provide you with a separate keyline to give you a visual reference of how far to bleed the design. Due to variances and tolerances in the cutting process, bleed ensures you won’t see white unprinted paper or board-stock running along the edge of your print.
4. Gutter: A common design mistake is to crowd the finished edges or folds with text and graphics – the result of which negatively affects the visual appeal and legibility of your design. If you look at a book or magazine you will notice that there is a significant border that frames any non-bleeding text and imagery from the edge of the page and folds. This border is called ‘gutter’. In the CD and DVD manufacturing industry an absolute minimum gutter of 1/8” is generally advised but you may want to experiment and increase it to 3/16” or 1/4″ or greater.

Using the correct graphic design template will help you to create a design that’s right, but before you finalize your design it’s always recommended to create a printed mock-up of your artwork. Print it and use the crop marks to trim it to size, then fold it or assemble it using tape or staples as required. This is the best way to determine if your design really works as intended. Is the text large enough to read? Have you used enough gutter? Did you create bleed in all the appropriate areas? Does the design look… ‘right’?

While it great to see more and more people feeling empowered to produce their own Music CD projects, it can lead to mistakes caused by inexperience. This can lead to head-aches when the time comes for CD manufacturing.

Without a doubt, design related issues are still the largest source of delays, but there is definitely a new up-and-comer on the scene. Namely, do-it-yourself Music CD Masters.

Here’s a quick Top Five List of the most common mistakes we see… I hope that it helps you (or someone you know) when the time comes to get CD manufacturing started.

1. Recommended maximum duration for a replicated Music CD is 74 minutes.

2. Make sure you’re creating a music/audio disc and not a data/CDROM disc. Any reasonable disc copying software should ask you what type of disc you’re trying to create so make sure you have chosen the music/audio format.

3. Before you burn your Master disc make sure the software settings are set to ‘finalize’ your disc after the burning stage is completed – this may also be referred to as ‘single session’ or ‘closed session’ or perhaps even ‘disc at once’. You do not want to supply an ‘open session’ disc as it can lead to problems when we try to make the glass master and replication stamper from it.

4. Create at least three copies of your Music CD Master disc, always keeping the original copy for you own safety and back-up purposes. The additional two copies should go to the CD manufacturer (if anything goes wrong with one copy the CD manufacturing company can use the second copy as a back-up).

5. Listen to your Master(s) from beginning to end to ensure they perform exactly the way you want them to, with no pops, skips or any type of error or mistake. That means listening to the entire CDR all they way through – not just the beginning and endings of songs. Remember, the CDs that get manufactured will be exact clones of the Master disc you supply to the CD manufacturing company.

Please visit our website for additional Music CD Master information.