At Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. we provide two options for printing your replicated discs: Offset Printing (with CMYK ink) and Silkscreen Printing (with Spot Colour ink).
These two printing processes are very different and have very different strengths and weaknesses. Due to this, as a designer it is always in your best interest to steer your design towards the strengths of the print method or printing equipment and away from the weaknesses. By doing this you will get the best printed result.
Designing for Offset Printing is more intuitive than designing for Silkscreen Printing – especially for inexperienced designers – so we see quite a few designs that are set-up for Offset Printing that would have been much better suited for Silkscreen. Before you begin designing your CD or DVD, review this list of strengths and weaknesses and decide which printing method would be best for the design you have in mind:
- Offset Printing:
Strength: Photographic images
Strength: Unlimited colours
Strength: Higher resolution
Weakness: Large areas of solid colour (other than the white flood)
Weakness: Ink is not glossy.
- Silkscreen Printing
Strength: Spot colour printing
Strength: Large areas of solid colour
Strength: Bold designs
Strength: Gloss ink
Weakness: CMYK printing
Weakness: Rasterized text and images
Weakness: Small/fine text and images
Weakness: Subtle design elements
Weakness: Maximim of six colours (including white flood)
Example 1 : This ‘Stevens Pass’ mini DVD is a good example of a design that is best suited for CMYK Offset Print: Photographic imagery, well balanced text and graphics, no large areas of solid colour.

Example 2 : This ‘Image Engine’ disc is a good example of a design that is best suited for Silkscreen Print: Three colour design (black, white and grey/blue), it’s a bold design that isn’t trying to be subtle, it uses large areas of solid colour, created completely in line-art (including the logo at the bottom).

Specifying Colours for Silkscreen Printing
When designing for Silkscreen Print the spot colour values must be specified using the Pantone Matching System (aka: PMS) Solid Coated colour palette. This particular colour palette is referenced by the letter “C”. For example: PMS 185 C
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Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. provides factory direct DVD CD manufacturing services along with the best eco-friendly print and packaging solutions in the market. From our office and replication plant in Surrey, BC (a suburb of Vancouver) we ship to clients throughout Canada and the United States daily.