Preparing and Publishing applications

There are many different ways to label CDs and DVDs nowadays from the most basic at home to silk screening (aka spot printing) as used by professional outfits to give far superior results as seen on mass produced music CDs or DVDs. The most basic would be writing on the cd itself with a permanent marker or using a home labelling pack, some of which are of decent enough quality. The result depends a lot on the user’s printer capabilities.

An industrial Silk Screen Printer

Other methods of labelling can be done by printing or etching directly onto the cd/dvd. Some CD/DVD drives can etch or burn basic graphics onto the disc, these are called Lightscribe drives. The other method is done by simply placing a white coated disc into a specially shaped tray in the printer and it prints directly onto this coating.
Printing the covers and books for CDs and DVDs can also be done at home, usually pre-set templates with the cover sizes are included in the installed cover designer software. These can also contain a disc template aswell as front, back (which also includes the sides) and rear cover. Again this would be done with much more advanced machines in the media industry giving immaculate results. If you want something different from normal jewel cases then custom packaging is also available but can be expensive.

Example of Lightscribe printing

If you are producing software CDs or DVDs then you need to include instructions, guidelines, trouble shooters, system requirements and specifications so the user knows if they can operate and easily install it.