Looking for software to automatically scan & print CD/DVD labels

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom

I'm looking for a program that will let me put a CD/DVD on my scanner, and
then scan the disc label and print a copy onto a printable disc; all in one
operation.

I have a stack of old archive CDs with lousy handwriting on them and it's
easier just to scan & print than it is to create new labels. Right now I have
to go into my scanner program, preview, select, final scan, then go into the
label printing program, import image, resize, align, and print. This gets
rather tedious after a while.

Is there any program that can automate this task?

If it matters, my scanner is an HP Scanjet 4c and my printer is a Canon
iP4000 with CD tray B and I'm using generic inkjet printable CDs.

PS. Sorry for the crosspost, I'm hoping somebody in one of the three groups
will have come across something like this.
 
Tom said:
I'm looking for a program that will let me put a CD/DVD on my scanner, and
then scan the disc label and print a copy onto a printable disc; all in
one
operation.

I have a stack of old archive CDs with lousy handwriting on them and it's
easier just to scan & print than it is to create new labels. Right now I
have
to go into my scanner program, preview, select, final scan, then go into
the
label printing program, import image, resize, align, and print. This gets
rather tedious after a while.

Is there any program that can automate this task?

If it matters, my scanner is an HP Scanjet 4c and my printer is a Canon
iP4000 with CD tray B and I'm using generic inkjet printable CDs.

PS. Sorry for the crosspost, I'm hoping somebody in one of the three
groups
will have come across something like this.
Click to expand...

1st, never use "generic discs", you are running the risk of throwing your
hard work away.

2nd, no there is no automated way to do this. The scanned image must be
correctly cropped and aligned on the disc in CD-LabelPrint. Once you get it
down, it's not a time-consuming task. I recommend scanning discs at 300 DPI,
then cropping and re-sampling to 150 DPI in Photoshop. This step removes
most of the moiré that occurs with scanning printed media. If the disc
image is correctly cropped, you simply use it as a "background" in
CD-LabelPrint and it's automatically aligned and sized.
 
Tom said:
I'm looking for a program that will let me put a CD/DVD on my scanner, and
then scan the disc label and print a copy onto a printable disc; all in
one
operation.

I have a stack of old archive CDs with lousy handwriting on them and it's
easier just to scan & print than it is to create new labels. Right now I
have
to go into my scanner program, preview, select, final scan, then go into
the
label printing program, import image, resize, align, and print. This gets
rather tedious after a while.

Is there any program that can automate this task?

If it matters, my scanner is an HP Scanjet 4c and my printer is a Canon
iP4000 with CD tray B and I'm using generic inkjet printable CDs.

PS. Sorry for the crosspost, I'm hoping somebody in one of the three
groups
will have come across something like this.
Click to expand...

I don't get it, why scan the old disk, at all?
If they are really "old archive CDs with lousy
handwriting on them" wouldn't it be easier (and
provide a more legible result), to just type the
label info into your CD printing program.

For most such labeling, I find that there is a good
deal of repeated information and/or formatting - so
you should be able to have some "fill in the blanks"
type prepared cd printing layouts.

Luck;
Ken
 
surething.com

Tom wrote:

I'm looking for a program that will let me put a CD/DVD on my scanner, and then scan the disc label and print a copy onto a printable disc; all in one operation. I have a stack of old archive CDs with lousy handwriting on them and it's easier just to scan & print than it is to create new labels. Right now I have to go into my scanner program, preview, select, final scan, then go into the label printing program, import image, resize, align, and print. This gets rather tedious after a while. Is there any program that can automate this task? If it matters, my scanner is an HP Scanjet 4c and my printer is a Canon iP4000 with CD tray B and I'm using generic inkjet printable CDs. PS. Sorry for the crosspost, I'm hoping somebody in one of the three groups will have come across something like this.
 
Ken Maltby said:
I don't get it, why scan the old disk, at all?
If they are really "old archive CDs with lousy
handwriting on them" wouldn't it be easier (and
provide a more legible result), to just type the
label info into your CD printing program.

For most such labeling, I find that there is a good
deal of repeated information and/or formatting - so
you should be able to have some "fill in the blanks"
type prepared cd printing layouts.

Luck;
Ken
Click to expand...

The OP is lying about his real intentions.
 
I don't get it, why scan the old disk, at all?
If they are really "old archive CDs with lousy
handwriting on them" wouldn't it be easier (and
provide a more legible result), to just type the
label info into your CD printing program.
Click to expand...

I started doing this with the first few discs, but it obviously takes longer
to re-type than to simply scan and print. Also, most of these are
multi-session CDs with lots of files and some discs have a list of files
written on them and then a "v3.5" written in the corner with a different color
sharpie. So which file does that apply to? I'll let the user figure it out :)

As for Dan's comment about generic CDs, I've had just as many problems with
generic CDs as name brand ones. I have a few Verbatim DataLifePlus discs here
(the ones with the blue recording surface) from around 1997. Since then the
coating near the edge of the CD has literally started to peel off rendering
the last few files on the disc unreadable. A Pioneer disc from around the same
period (green recording surface) reads perfectly well. The generic Ridata
blanks I'm using now seem to be OK, but who knows how they'll hold up ten
years from now.

I've tried SureThing CD labeler Deluxe and the "Acquire Image as Background"
feature seems to do what I need, although it still pops up the annnoying Twain
screen where I have to center the image manually. Is there any way around
that?
 
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