In today's business arena, it is more important than ever to project an image that attracts potential customers and clients. Businesses go to great lengths to make sure that they're professionally groomed and personally prepared, but it's important that you make sure that all your business paraphernalia look polished and professional, too. You may have taken the time with your printed materials and they look great, but what about your digital based information? Are you making a lasting impression with your employees, vendors and clients when you disseminate your organization's digital assets? Printable CD technology helps you achieve you goals.
For home users, your memories precious so they need to be properly labeled and protected. Your digital photos and home movies are irreplaceable, making it critically important that you properly protect these priceless possessions so they can be preserved and shared with future generations. It may not be wise to trust your PC's hard drive or your camcorder tapes for that job.
So the questions comes up - which printable CD media will provide the best storage and have the best print surface for your digital assets?
Printable CD blanks come in several storage capacities: 74 minute, 650 Mb and 80 minute, 700 Mb printable CD media. There are some other specialty printable CD products like mini CD discs and business card discs. These run between 30 Mb to 180MB for the mini printable CD discs. These are somewhat of a novelty item and the manufacture is very limited. Printable CD media that is above 700 Mb is out of spec. and is considered defective. If you use it you are on your own.
The type of printable CD you use really depends on the type of printer you use. Please read our CD printer information page if you have questions on CD printer technology.
Printable CD media comes in inkjet printable CD, thermal printable CD and thermal re-transfer for the Rimage Everest & Teac P55. Additionally a labeling technology exists that etches an image in a laser sensitive coating on the disc. LightScribe labels in a monochromatic hue unlike the three color CD printer technologies. Finally there is the CD disc pen if all else fails. We have always found the thermal printable CD blanks very good with the CD disc pen. White or silver (we tend towards the white thermal printable CDs because they do not show fingerprints) thermal printable are both good choices.
Printable CDs for inkjet CD printers come in white printable, silver printable and gold printable. For the most part inkjet printable CD surfaces appear matte in finish. There is one special surface: Taiyo Yuden Watershield printable CD discs are both glossy and water resistant. Printable CD media comes in both a standard print diameter and a hub printable CD. This allows printing right up to the center hub (hole) in the printable CD-R discs. There are some manufacturers who coat to the hub with the special inkjet coating but do not extend the silver or white coating thus creating a difference in color hue. White printable CD media and silver printable CDs both have their own unique printing characteristics. What we look at in both surfaces is the drying rate, bleeding, surface color. Many surfaces are not pure white nor pure silver. The drying characteristic of the printable CD tends to make the printable surface off white. Silver inkjet printable runs in a range of metallic grey silver to a white silver, almost a pearl white. Silver printable CDs special feature is it's 3-D effect on the disc label. Silver inkjet tends to mute the colors down a bit but is very eye-catching with the reflection.
Thermal printable CD blanks come in shiny silver and white. Some special surfaces are available in other colors (you name it) but requires special coating. This can be done as a special order.
Thermal re-transfer printable CD media is similar to thermal printable media except it has additional coatings on the label printing surface to protect it against the heat of the CD printer. It is a specialized type of printable CD media that is made for production thermal retransfer like the Rimage Everest CD printer and the Teac P-55 dye-sublimation printer.
Printing costs money so it makes sense to make sure the discs you are printing to are of high quality. Bargain printable CD media can be a lot more headaches than one could ever expect. The printable CD surface can actually peel off spraying particles of disc coating all over the drive's interior.
Who do we recommend for printable CD?
- Taiyo Yuden
- MAM-A
- Verbatim
- FTI (Falcon Media)
- SKC
- CD Dimensions Brand Printable CD
