CD printers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig McWalter
  • Start date Start date
C

Craig McWalter

Hi,

Are there printers that can print on any CD, even ones that have been
previously printed commercially (silkscreened)? I thought you could only
print on the special coated discs to do it but someone is telling me
otherwise.

Thanks
 
Apart from inkjet, which can only print on "inkjet printable" discs, you
might be talking about thermal labelers.
You can see some of those at www.rima.com . They use fairly expensive
consumable ribbons, but will print very nice one-color lettering/graphics on
any disc.
 
Hi,

Are there printers that can print on any CD, even ones that have been
previously printed commercially (silkscreened)? I thought you could only
print on the special coated discs to do it but someone is telling me
otherwise.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Thermal printers can print on any CD surface. The "ink" is actually a
melted wax, so the effect is very similar to professional silk
screening. Some work like inkjets by melting the wax pellets/crayons
and spraying the melted wax. Some use ribbons, and use a process
similar to the old dot matrix printers to transfer the wax to the
surface. The upside of thermals are that you can print on any CD
surface, the results are very professional looking, it's dry as soon
as you pop it out of the printer, and it's waterproof. The downside
of thermal technology is that the printers are expensive, as is their
"ink", and the affordable units with pricing below $1000 are typically
monochrome.

Inkjets CD printers require you to either use specially coated discs,
or apply an adhesive inkjet label to the surface of the target disc.
The upside is that you can get the same level of print quality as you
can with the paper inkjets, so you've got a lot of colours available
and you can do photo realistic prints. The drawbacks, aside from
having to use special print surfaces are that the inks aren't usually
waterproof, it's quite obvious it was printed on an inkjet, and it
takes several hours to fully dry. While I wouldn't consider them
cheap to buy or run, they're MUCH cheaper to buy and use than thermal
CD printers.

Just be aware that if you intend to print over a previously printed
disc, you still need to cover up the previous printing. I'm aware of
no printers that put any sort of "base coat" to cover up what was
there previously. You'd probably have to stick an adhesive label on
the disc if you want to do that, regardless of the technology you
choose to employ.
 
Are there printers that can print on any CD, even ones that have been
previously printed commercially (silkscreened)? I thought you could only
print on the special coated discs to do it but someone is telling me
otherwise.
Click to expand...

What is your application? As someone else pointed out there are wax
transfer systems, the slightly cheaper thermal ribbon systems, and I
imagine someone could retrofit a flat bed plotter to handle tiny
sharpies and CDs.

I could print on standard uncoated CDs with my epson r200, but the
output was dotty, took months to dry, and could be rubbed off with a
finger.
 
Thermal printers can print on any CD surface. The "ink" is actually a
melted wax, so the effect is very similar to professional silk
screening. Some work like inkjets by melting the wax pellets/crayons
and spraying the melted wax. Some use ribbons, and use a process
similar to the old dot matrix printers to transfer the wax to the
surface. The upside of thermals are that you can print on any CD
surface, the results are very professional looking, it's dry as soon
as you pop it out of the printer, and it's waterproof. The downside
of thermal technology is that the printers are expensive, as is their
"ink", and the affordable units with pricing below $1000 are typically
monochrome.

Inkjets CD printers require you to either use specially coated discs,
or apply an adhesive inkjet label to the surface of the target disc.
The upside is that you can get the same level of print quality as you
can with the paper inkjets, so you've got a lot of colours available
and you can do photo realistic prints. The drawbacks, aside from
having to use special print surfaces are that the inks aren't usually
waterproof, it's quite obvious it was printed on an inkjet, and it
takes several hours to fully dry. While I wouldn't consider them
cheap to buy or run, they're MUCH cheaper to buy and use than thermal
CD printers.

Just be aware that if you intend to print over a previously printed
disc, you still need to cover up the previous printing. I'm aware of
no printers that put any sort of "base coat" to cover up what was
there previously. You'd probably have to stick an adhesive label on
the disc if you want to do that, regardless of the technology you
choose to employ.

---------------------------------------------
Thanks.


MCheu
Click to expand...


You forgot Lightscribe....
 
Arthur Entlich said:
I've never heard of such a device.
Art
Click to expand...

It seems Casio do something, eg: Ebay item no: 6811709255

From the looks of it this (end of line) machine only prints text, but
presumably a more expensive version would print anything.
 
Fair enough, it looks like they have printers designed to print on
standard CD surfaces using specialized inks or tapes, as suggested by
others.

Go to know, and could have some interesting uses. Thanks,

Art
 
ian lincoln said:
There are also the pressit label kits. Adhesive labels that can be stuck
onto any CD.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I'd trust myself with one of those, I can imagine it going
on askew then either peeling off and damaging the data, or peeling off
inside a drive and knackering it.
 
[email protected] said:
I'm not sure I'd trust myself with one of those, I can imagine it going on
askew then either peeling off and damaging the data, or peeling off inside
a drive and knackering it.
Click to expand...

You print the label then apply to cd. As it is applied to the other side
even if it did come off it does not affect data. It is also unlikely that
the thing will peel off in one go inside the machine. minor peeling will
also be highly noticeable. Don't forget the reading laser is on the
underside so it won't get affected.
 
ian lincoln said:
You print the label then apply to cd. As it is applied to the other side
even if it did come off it does not affect data. It is also unlikely that
the thing will peel off in one go inside the machine. minor peeling will
also be highly noticeable. Don't forget the reading laser is on the
underside so it won't get affected.
Click to expand...

But remember that in the case of those "unbranded" CDs, the silver surface
you stick the label on *IS* the back of the data layer. The glue will soak
through that layer eventually - sometimes taking years, sometimes months;
but it will happen.
Decent quality CDs with a coating layer (paint) over the silver layer, or
DVDs where the data layer is sandwiched between the plastic discs, don't
suffer from that problem... but to be honest its a damn sight easier to use
printable discs.
 
I'm not sure I'd trust myself with one of those, I can imagine it going
on askew then either peeling off and damaging the data, or peeling off
inside a drive and knackering it.
Click to expand...

I've used them for a long time and have never had any trouble.

The only trouble is when you don't apply them correctly, they're off kilter
a bit and overlap the edge. Readers hate that! Won't read the cd.
You have to make sure there is a tiny bit of clear acrlix space on the lip
of your cd/dvd black when applying.

Otherwise, just fine.

My only gripe is that most of the labels are matte finish, and the gloss
are very expensive. The matte looks unprofessional even if you use the
highest settings.

What I'd love to find is some stickons, very thin, glossy, for a good
price.
<sigh> No paper co. out there seems to get it.
 
But remember that in the case of those "unbranded" CDs, the silver
surface you stick the label on *IS* the back of the data layer. The glue
will soak through that layer eventually - sometimes taking years,
sometimes months; but it will happen.
Decent quality CDs with a coating layer (paint) over the silver layer,
or DVDs where the data layer is sandwiched between the plastic discs,
don't suffer from that problem... but to be honest its a damn sight
easier to use printable discs.
Click to expand...

If they didn't cost a fortune, did more than 2 colors, wern't all sepia and
faded looking, and all printers could do them, I'd agree.
 
Back
Top