Printing on CDs

February 11, 2005 @ 10:29 pm

Anybody know of any decent CD Printing software for printers that can directly print onto a CD?

I have an Epson Stylus Photo 960, but the software that comes with really sucks. It's so bad I ended up designing the image outside of it and tried to get it to size properly simply importing it as background. I built the thing with Microsoft Image Composer (ha! - you get 2 points if you remember that one) and then futzed with the size until it was pretty close to the size of the image so very little resizing occurred in the software.

It amazes me just how bad this software is. First it looks like a 10 year old designed it. Operation of it isn't much better with everything being horribly unintuitive.

Anway, I'm looking for better software to get CDs to print. Anybody have suggestions for generic software? I thought I could use my own template in Word for example - so I wasted about a half an hour setting up a template and trying to print it, but I couldn't get the printer to actually work with CD tray. The printer has a feed option for CD/DVD but for some reason when I printed from Word it wouldn't feed the tray. Apparently the printing software must do something special to drive the CD through the printer.

Ideally I would like to print from Word or my image software directly. Conveniently the manual doesn't mention anything about how to do this. It only mentions the crappy Epson Print CD software.

Even with all the hassles of getting things set up I was impressed with the output generated from the printer on the CD. Colors are excellent and the process is pretty quick (about 45 seconds).

West Wind Product CD

If I can get a better way to layout the CD I'll be printing CDs for backups soon <g>. Maybe not, but maybe those CDs...

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re: Printing on CDs
by Gareth February 14, 2005 @ 11:44 am

I am sure we have a 960 at work and to be honest it prints a brilliant CD. We use photoshop to design it, as yes the epson software is crap. Once designed we then import it, we have spent a fews hours lining the image up so now every CD is perfect.

I can see from your photo, your alignment needs to be looked at.

We used the printer to do a 1000 CD run, only lost 12, I think...

re: Printing on CDs
by Rick Strahl February 14, 2005 @ 2:20 pm

Hi Gareth, yeah the alignment is off - I did adjust it and got it right. The CDs look awesome I agree.

Do you know what the exact dimensions of the image are so there's no distortion at all? I think mine is off just a hair, but it's really hard to tell.

1000 CDs - somebody was busy passing CDs in, huh <g>..

re: Printing on CDs
by bhumvee August 12, 2005 @ 6:00 am

Go to www.surething.com and you can download a trial for Surething Cd Labeler. I haven't tried it yet but it supports the 960 as well as other epsons. I read on another post somewhere that it is really nice.

re: Printing on CDs
by sadaf malik March 05, 2006 @ 6:16 pm

My office has given me the task trying to find a printer which prints on cds efficiently and is cost effective too. any ideas/suggestions about printers which are efeicient and cost effective?

re: Printing on CDs
by rb August 06, 2006 @ 8:32 pm

Did the surething program solve the problem? Im going through the same thing? Did you find a program that did work?

re: Printing on CDs
by Abed El Qader Abu Shammala October 05, 2006 @ 6:38 pm

i want print on CD's ... i want to tell me how i can do that..
thanks alot

re: Printing on CDs
by Jerry in NH November 15, 2006 @ 5:24 am

I just bought an hp photosmart D5160--very affordable.
The hp software is fine with graphics, but it puts text in a rectangle that allows no manipulation.
I found that Roxio MyDVD essentials 8 gives more flexibility.
Good luck!

re: Printing on CDs
by ICC December 30, 2006 @ 10:50 pm

I chose the HP over the Epson due to the reviews I read about the Epson printers that printed directly to CDs. I quickly discovered that Roxio EMC does not have a template listed for this printer. Well, after two hours of trial & error, I have the EMC labeler program printing directly to CD/DVD using the HP Photosmart D5160 printer. The following settings will allow you to use this printer with EMC label creater as well:

1. Install your printer using the software provided by Hewlett Packard

2. In Roxio EMC label creater:

Select File: Printer Adjustments
Select Printer: HP Photosmart 5100 series
Select Paper Alignment Horizontal: 0.00
Select Paper Alignment Vertical: 0.00
Select Scaling Height: 100
Select Scaling Width: 100
Keep Aspect Ratio should have a checkmark
Select OK

3. In Roxio EMC label Creater:

Select File: Page Setup
Select Disc (in the various tabs)
Select Current Paper Type: Generic (plain paper)
Select Start Position Horizontal: 0.25 (positive number)
Select Start Position Vertical: 0.29 (positive number)
Select OK

4. In Roxio EMC Label Creater

Design your label

Note: The printer will print in the center all the way to the spindle hole (not shown on the roxio template) If you have printable disc's that do not have a full center to print on, add a white circle filled to the center outline in the roxio design and make sure it is the top layer of your project. This will keep ink out of the non-printable center area and keep your project clean.

Remember to Save your Work.

5. IN Roxio EMC Label Creater

Select File: Print
Ensure HP Photosmar 5100 series is selected in the Printer Name window.
Select the Properities Button next to the Printer Name window (a new window will open).
In the Properties Window for this printer under features ensure the following settings:
Print Quality: Best
Paper Type: (HP or Other) Inkjet-printable CD/DVD
Paper Source: CD/DVD Tray
Landscape should be selected
Resizing Options, Size: CD/DVD, 120 mm
Print at actual size should be selected
Select OK (you will return to the Label Creater Print Window)
In The Label Creater Print Window select OK

You may or may not see a preview. If you do select start printing
Ensure your disc tray with printable disc is loaded in the printer
ON YOUR PRINTER press the print button

This works for me. I am using EMC 7.1.1.189 build. However I expect it will work for your version as well.
This is only set for the normal size, 120mm, CD/DVDs. If you use the smaller, 80mm, size you will have to adjust these settings to make it work for you (at least until Roxio actually makes a template for it).

The print is fantastic and I no longer have to play with peel and stick labels.
ROXIO - Feel free to verify these settings for an update to your program.

I hope this will help some of you.