The CD-ROM Professionals
CD Surface Printing
There are two methods for printing text and graphics on the surface of a CD: silk- screening and thermal/ink-jet printing. The choice of method depends on a combination of factors such as: number of discs to be printed, turn-around time for the print job, use of color floods, the amount of fine detail in images, and cost.
Silk-screening
Silk-screen printing allows the specification of up to 5 PMS colors with background floods of any of the spot colors. The resolution of the screen is fine enough to provide very sharp detail and readable text as fine as 6 point font size.
Screen printing requires production of a film for each color to be printed. Film production (and proof print production) is best done by a service bureau working with the original computer art files from Quark, PhotoShop, Corel Draw, Canvas, or other graphics layout programs. Turn-around time to produce film and a proof print is typically 3 business days.
The cost of film production is $30 per film plus $75 for a proof print. Once the films are produced and the proof approved, printing can start. Silk-screen printing is a mass production process that is subject to a minimum order of 100 discs. Turn-around time is typically 12 business days.
Thermal and Ink-Jet Printing
This printing methodology is recommended for low volume jobs or jobs that have a short lead time.
The One-Off CD Shop uses a Rimage Everest Color Thermal printer when high color quality, image durability and complex graphics are required. The Everest will produce photo-realistic print with very good tonal gradation. Although the Everest printer uses the RGB color mode, with consequent lack of fine control in color matching, we can come very close to silk-screen print quality
We also use a modified Canon Bubble-Jet printer for jobs having text only or containing simple graphics such as color logos.. This method uses a CMYK color mode to produce the color pallette. Maximum resolution is 720 dpi. Logos, text, and simple graphics turn out very well. The art work for ink-jet printing should be supplied as a 300 dpi TIFF file to avoid font matching problems. See the specification sheet for layout guidance.
Since film is not required, print production can start upon receipt of the art work.
7421 Portland Avenue Richfield, MN 55423 * 612-374-4643
(c) 2003 The One-Off CD Shop Minneapolis, Inc.