Printing CD business cards in Epson R800

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Dyer-Bennet
  • Start date Start date
D

David Dyer-Bennet

Possibly experience from the R200 or R300 might be relevant as well,
if the printers are similar enough.

Looking at Epson's CD printing software, it doesn't have support for
CDs that aren't circular. On the other hand, looking at printing
options in other applications, I see that it's possible to select CD
printing directly from those other applications. Looking in the
manual, I see not word one about this.

Has anybody already experimented? I'd guess it would be fairly
important to make sure the document printed didn't try to put ink
anywhere the CD didn't have a proper receptive surface; it would make
quite a mess spraying it on the carrier sheet, for example.

Also, I note that when CD media is selected, the only available size
is A2. A2 is huge. Is there some kind of scaling down going on
automatically in the printer driver, or what? (A2 is the only size
available in the Epson CD printing application as well; I know from
using that that it works fine on full-size printable CDs.)

Generally speaking, it would be easier to be able to design and print
the CDs directly from applications like Photoshop or Corel Draw,
rather than having to design them in Epson's comparatively weak
program.
 
Looking at Epson's CD printing software, it doesn't have support for
CDs that aren't circular.
Click to expand...

I've not tried it, but set up the guides. Click a ruler and drag it onto
the page. Draw/type inside your defined area. Or drop in a graphic
image.
Generally speaking, it would be easier to be able to design and print
the CDs directly from applications like Photoshop or Corel Draw,
rather than having to design them in Epson's comparatively weak
program.
Click to expand...

Just do it ;-) Save the completed image as a jpg (just use minimal
compression) at high resolution and then import it as an image into the
Epson software and scale it to fit.

I do mine with PaintShop Pro (not CD bus. cards though)

HTH

Dave
 
The R200 is not capable of printing on "business card" CD's. The paper size
specified in the R200 manual is A4 with the media type as CD/DVD. I would
guess that you are right, you would be creating quite a mess to try printing
"business card" CD's.
 
Kevin said:
The R200 is not capable of printing on "business card" CD's. The paper
size
specified in the R200 manual is A4 with the media type as CD/DVD. I would
guess that you are right, you would be creating quite a mess to try
printing
"business card" CD's.
Click to expand...

There's a supplied adaptor with the R200 for printing on 8cm CDs, and it
looks like it should hold the business card type CDs too, but I've not tried
it. I can't see why it would make a mess though if you don't try and print
outside of the printable area of the disk - an adaptor wouldn't really be
needed as the holder holds the CD by the centre hole (just about), and a bit
of thin cardboard cut to the right shape would stop the CD from turning
around.

I can't honestly say I'm over impressed with the R200's CD printing feature
though, the quality is fantastic; but the mechanics are temperamental and
quite often the printer reports that the CD tray hasn't loaded when it
clearly did. Fortunately its not a feature I use everyday.
 
David Dyer-Bennet said:
Possibly experience from the R200 or R300 might be relevant as well,
if the printers are similar enough.

Looking at Epson's CD printing software, it doesn't have support for
CDs that aren't circular. On the other hand, looking at printing
options in other applications, I see that it's possible to select CD
printing directly from those other applications. Looking in the
Click to expand...

==============================

The R200/300/800 CAN print CD business cards (no matter what 'kevin' says)
I've done some Verbatin cards, and they print extremely well using the
supplied tray insert.

You can't do it through the miserable Epson software though - I use 'Sure
Thing CD Labeller' which has options to print business card CD's
(rectangular and circular) via the 200/300/800 printers.

If you're just printing a few, download the 15 day demo version - it's fully
working and will be all you need.

www.surething.com

Hope that helped
 
Kevin said:
The R200 is not capable of printing on "business card" CD's. The paper size
specified in the R200 manual is A4 with the media type as CD/DVD. I would
guess that you are right, you would be creating quite a mess to try printing
"business card" CD's.
Click to expand...

The R210 comes with an insert for the CD holder. Its for small CD's and
business card CDs. It will print an 8cm CD and hold a rectangular
shaped CD. But in the CD printing program, which comes with the
printer, I can't find a template for a rectangular CD.
 
Pinky & Perky ham it up said:
==============================

The R200/300/800 CAN print CD business cards (no matter what 'kevin' says)
I've done some Verbatin cards, and they print extremely well using the
supplied tray insert.

You can't do it through the miserable Epson software though - I use 'Sure
Thing CD Labeller' which has options to print business card CD's
(rectangular and circular) via the 200/300/800 printers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the confirmation of capability!
If you're just printing a few, download the 15 day demo version - it's fully
working and will be all you need.
Click to expand...

That's an approach, and I may not need that many. It's at worst a
useful backup plan. Thanks!

However, I've already got graphics programs I know well and am happy
with, and I'd just as soon figure out how to print from them.

Oh, my R800 does indeed have the rectangular business card cutout in
the subsize CD adaptor, just as you report. I should have mentioned
that originally; it's additional evidence that this printer can do it
somehow.

I tried one more experiment, which failed but (I think) didn't damage
my printer. I taped a piece of paper to the adapter tray, in the
place where the CD goes, loaded that into the printer, and printed a
simple label. The tray loaded okay, and the printer seemed to be
printing, but no ink appeared on the paper. I ran two blank sheets
through for cleaning, and they came out clean. I printed a normal
page, and it printed okay. So I don't *think* my experiment damaged
anything, but it certainly has me more worried about playing around.

Also, I mistakenly read "A2" as the page size; in fact the page size
forced in manual sheet mode is "A4", which makes sense, that adapter
tray looks about A4.
 
Rob said:
The R210 comes with an insert for the CD holder. Its for small CD's and
business card CDs. It will print an 8cm CD and hold a rectangular shaped
CD. But in the CD printing program, which comes with the printer, I can't
find a template for a rectangular CD.
Click to expand...
---------------------------------------

There is no business CD card template in Epson 'Print CD' - which is why I
use 'Sure Thing', that has the necessary rectangular templates - and a
billion other things as well.

Actually, when compared with a dedicated CD label software package like Sure
Thing, the Epson offering is so weedy that it's scarcely worth installing.

My advice to anyone purchasing a 200/300/800 would be to just install the
drivers and leave all the children's printy stuff off your computer - not to
mention that derisory 'photo editor' that they bundle!.
 
Possibly experience from the R200 or R300 might be relevant as well,
if the printers are similar enough.

Looking at Epson's CD printing software, it doesn't have support for
CDs that aren't circular. On the other hand, looking at printing
options in other applications, I see that it's possible to select CD
printing directly from those other applications. Looking in the
manual, I see not word one about this.
Click to expand...

There are several freeware programs for printing on CDs.
All more professional than Epson's feeble attempt.
 
Cool. So the R200 can print to business card (rectangular shaped) CD's
using a third party application. It just can't do it using the Epson Print
to CD software. Thanks for the information.
 
Kevin said:
Cool. So the R200 can print to business card (rectangular shaped) CD's
using a third party application. It just can't do it using the Epson
Print
to CD software. Thanks for the information.
Click to expand...


You're welcome -and, remember, you can download the 'Sure Thing CD Labeller'
software (trial) for free from www.surething.com which will give you 15 (or
it might even be 30) days unlimited use, and has the necessary rectangular
template specifically for the R200/300/800 - and you can print an awful lot
of business card CD's in 15 days!....

I wasn't able to find any freeware that supported CD business cards (lot's
of stuff for ordinary CD's) - so if anyone knows of something, do tell...

Finally, make sure that the orientation (Portrait/Landscape) is set
correctly in printer options. I was genuinely impressed with the accuracy
and quality of the finished card - and Sure Thing is a terrific programme
that has more background/text/manipulation options than you can shake a
stick at.

It was extremely mean of Epson not to include at least on business card
template on their bundled software - but, there you go....at least the
printer is first rate.
 
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