Thermal ink jet CD label printing and inkjet CD label printing are general terms used for ink jet printing utilizing a nozzle or 'jet' to spray ink in a very precise manner.

• Thermal inkjet
• Pizzo-electric inkjet
• Bubble-jet

 Thermal Inkjet printing heats up the ink to create 'pressure' that causes the ink to spray out of the print head nozzle.

Pizzo-electric uses a device similar to the old 'joy buzzer' that vibrates when electricity is applied to it.  This creates a very precise metered amount of ink to spray out of the print head nozzle.  The effect is a well rounded 'dot' instead of a irregular shaped application.  

We have released our new CD/DVD printer buyers guide which covers the world of 'on-demand' disc printers.

• Learn which DVD CD label printer meets your need
• Learn the differences in printer technology 
• Compare CD printer technologies

To request your free disc labeling please click on the button below and get your guide!

Professional BD, DVD, CD printers

Unlike the home CD printer a professional DVD/CD printer is designed for continuous CD printing and features a built in disc tray that self aligns itself.

The links provide greater information on each DVD CD label printer to avoid a major novel on one page. If you have any questions or observations please give us feedback via the comments. We would love to hear from you. :)

Primera Technology

Primera uses in-line robotics in it's newest offerings. A long way from the old Composer series which had a swinging robotic arm.

Bravo II Auto-loader: Primera's auto-loaders and automated DVD duplicators use a Lexmark print engine. The Bravo II series use a two ink cartridge system. Primera/lexmark ink is proprietary, that is one can only buy Primera 'branded' cartridges. The Bravo II is PC and Mac compatible and connects via a USB cable. Includes disc labeling software. One year warranty

CD Printer Review

Our yearly review of DVD CD printers will cover home CD printers in the first part and professional DVD CD printers in the second part so the reader has a wider knowledge of the technologies available. Home CD printers change model numbers at a fairly quick rate so we would recommend Epson and Canon as a general rule for the casual disc labeling job.

Home CD printers use a special plastic template that guides the printable disc through a standard model ink jet printer that allows for straight path printing (can feed horizontally in addition to top feed). Disc labeling software is necessary for designing and printing and is included with advertised CD/DVD printers. It is possible

Surprisingly the cheapest way to print high quality CD-R and DVD-R is to out-source your production.  That is have a service bureau or duplication business do the printing for you.  The price may seem high until one figures in the cost of purchasing CD printer equipment, printable discs and ink.  Also any labor costs need to be figured into the cost. 

Lets move onto some other cheap methods for printing labels.  Probably the most obvious and also the worst method of labeling CDs and DVDS is to use stick on labels.  Several major issues with stick on labels include the glue damaging the recording layer, label peeling off in the player and the unbalancing of the disc while recording and playback. This wobble damages the drive and makes a poor quality copy.

When asking "what is the best inkjet printer for CDs" there are several additional questions to ask yourself.

• How many discs do you want to produce in a day, week or month?
• Will you be doing full color printing or just text and simple graphics?
• Are you looking for a dedicated CD printer or a multi function printer? 

The quantity of discs you want to produce has a large influence on the type of inkjet CD printer you are going to need. There are three types of CD inkjet printers.

People are often surprised to find out that a silver inkjet printable surface is available for CD-R and DVD-R and DVD+R. The more common white inkjet CDs or DVD is far more common and has a noticeably different printed label result. White provides an excellent background to most colors and helps make the colors really pop from the label printer. The white surface is applied in a single layer and has no real "depth" to it. It does provide a base white background to the image. White inkjet printable discs are used the most in our experience.

Silver inkjet CDs are meant to mimic a shiny silver thermal printable disc .  Shiny silver discs have a mirror like finish to them.  When they are printed on, the print appears to hover above the reflective surface because there is a clear coat the ink sits on.

A very confusing term for CD label printers is the use of the word “thermal”.  In this article I will explain the difference between thermal inkjet and inkjet as related to CD labeling.

The first thing to understand is thermal direct printing and thermal inkjet are not related in anyway except for the fact that they are both CD/DVD printing methods.  One can not print on thermal printable disc media with a ‘thermal’ inkjet printer unless you want a big smear of ink on your disc.  The printable media for thermal printing and thermal inkjet printing are completely different. Inkjet printable media absorbs ink unlike thermal printable discs that are designed not to absorb ink.

Printable CD media comes in inkjet CD, thermal printable CD and thermal re-transfer for the Rimage Everest & Teac P55. We are often asked the difference between thermal and inkjet printable discs.

Printable CDs for inkjet CD printers come in white printable, silver printable and gold printable ink absorbent surfaces.This is an additional coat on top of a thermal printable surface.

For the most part inkjet printable CD-R surfaces appear matte in finish.  Printable CD discs come 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.   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 gray 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.

 Finding an inexpensive CD printer can be problematic.  Epson makes some caddy based all in one devices which contain a scanner and inkjet printer or just the inkjet printer alone. Epson seems to keep discontinuing the models so it's a bit difficult to speak of a specific models performance.   Caddies are a plastic template that holds a CD or DVD and moves through the printer feeder like an envelope with the disc held in place as the ink jet print head passes over the inkjet printable disc.  

Two entry level CD/DVD printers available in the marketplace are the DYMO DiscPainter and the CD Dimensions DISCPRINTER thermal disc printer. The two represent different printer technologies available today. the Dymo relies on ink jet technology and the DISCPRINTER uses thermal transfer technology. Even more unique in the case of the DiscPainter is the radial printing technology incorporated into the DYMO DiscPrinter.

An extremely important point on CD labels is to use some kind of printing method outside of using stick-on labels. Stick on labels are just as bad for recordable DVDs. A misapplied label unbalances the disc (it does not take much) making it prone to errors and damaging the drive in the process.Stick-on labels have come off in CD players and easily jam up car stereos with slot loaders. A CD label maker is the solution.

The choices for printing on a recordable CD is based on several factors. Budget, how much money do you want to spend?, What is the usage you expect from the disc printer? and how involved to you want to be in the printing process?

The on-demand disc printer technologies available fall into 4 categories: thermal transfer, thermal re transfer, dye sublimation and inkjet printing.