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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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!

Making a good first impression is always important, and it’s no different for your CD or DVD project. Long before your disc ever gets played it actually gets judged on the quality and design of the CD packaging or DVD packaging, so a professional image is very important.

If you need assistance with graphic design for your discs and CD packaging or DVD packaging, the professionals at Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. can help you.

Standard Design Services: In many instances, our clients already know what they want their disc and packaging graphics to look like, but they don’t have the ability of experience to create the design to commercial printing standards. Our answer is this: Send us your design idea, images, graphics, text and then we take it from there. Proofs are provided for your review so we can make sure you’re happy with the work that’s taking place.

Price List for “Standard Design Services [.PDF format]

Content Creation: Sometimes clients don’t have suitable imagery or copy for their discs and CD packaging or DVD packaging designs, but at Precision Disc we can help you with content creation and copy writing as well. Our standard rate is $60 per hour. Please contact us to discuss your specific needs.

Concept & Design Services: If you don’t know what you want your disc and CD packaging or DVD packaging graphics to look like, we can still help you. Our designers can consult with you and then the vision for the graphic design can be decided upon collaboratively with you. Our standard rate is $60 per hour.

Happy Graphic Design Clients:

It’s always nice to be complemented on a job well done. Here are a few recent comments from clients who came to us for graphic design assistance on their discs and CD packaging or DVD packaging:

“Wowee! You’re a damn genius! I love, love, love it!” – Troy K.

“Just a note to thank you very much for the great job you did on the discs and sleeves! I am more than pleased with all your work! Thanks again!” – Robert K.

“I really appreciate the great job you have done.” – Rick V.

“We are good to go – looks fantastic!” – Norine B.

“Everything looks good. It’s a go on all fronts…Great Job.” – Bill W.

Graphic Design Project Example:

Graphic Design Requirements: Concept and Design
CD Packaging: Standard CD Jewel Case
Disc Specs: Short-run CDR duplication with colour inkjet print
Paper Print Specs: 2 panel (4 page) insert + traycard, printed 4/4

For this project, the only design assets the client had were some low-resolution photographs of the band members, some biography text and thank-you notes and the request from the client was to have a simple yet eye-catching design. Looking for inspiration, our designer decided to pay homage to the band’s mascot (a blind dog named “Elmo” which is owned by one of the band-members) by incorporating dark sunglasses and paw-prints. The design was kept bright with an uncluttered look to parallel the upbeat style of music – classic black, white, red and grey colours to provide a cool and stylish look.

Client reaction to the design:”We think your artwork is FABULOUS. Better than we hoped for!”

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’?