If you want to move beyond magic markers and labels for labeling your inkjet printable CDs then it may be time to consider a printer that is designed for printing on recordable CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs. There are some inkjet document printers that provide a means of printing on a disc or two but they are not up to the task of printing on any quantity of discs. They typically use a plastic template that holds a disc and it slides through like a piece of paper...until the rollers give out. We used to carry such document and CD printers but customers complained about the lack of durability (in fairness the document printers were not designed for production CD printing). Printing 10-15 discs a day, or even more then one really falls into a production grade CD printer.
CD Printers come in 3 flavors.
Inkjet CD Printers: Inkjet printable cd-r printers use existing ink jet technology in a specially designed printer housing that usually has a automated tray (not to be confused with robotics that moves the disc out of the tray) to move the disc in-line with the print head (s). Inkjet printers are excellent for full color printing and can print to the hub of printable recordable CDs and printable DVD. Inkjet CD printers have between one and 6 ink cartridges. The more the better. Something to be aware of is some printers use off the shelf ink and some use proprietary ink even though they all use the same print engine as the off the shelf cartridges. Two reasons is product branding and to provide a feature like showing the operator how much ink is remaining. Of course the units with off the shelf ink can do the same thing ;)
Depending on how much ink you use on your printable CDs it would be highly advisable to consider the cost of the cartridges when looking at any unit. Same advice goes for any inkjet printer. In the consumer world the printers are given away so you have to buy the ink. Similar to the free razor holder to get you to buy the razor blades. A consumer actually has to pay more for a unit that uses more cost effective ink cartridges. Unfortunately we don't control the manufacturers decision to have open cartridges or not. A unit I really like for a great price is the Recordex StudioJet50 Pro. It uses a singleator to drop the disc into printer and then when the tray comes out there is a spring-loaded bumper that pushes the disc onto the output spindle. This unit uses off-the-shelf HP cartridges so it's cheap to print. Really cheap. :) Discus CD printing software.
Most inkjet CD printers print at 4800 dpi (dots per inch) although there are several with lower resolution. The ink medium provides excellent color reproduction with little effort from the operator. Inkjet printing is Dependent on special ink jet printable CDs and DVD blank discs. The surfaces come in white, silver and gold. I have seen some strange pastel colors but they did not last very long in the U.S. market. Like paper the surfaces have certain characteristics like the shade of white (there is a trade off in pure white color and drying: the more pure the white the slower it drys). Silver is also problematic in shades of gray and silver white to a pearl white. Really the key thing with silver inkjet printable CD and DVDs is the iridescence and almost three dimensions of the print. It can be very striking if used correctly (that is not trying to print a white background over the silver...better off using white ink jet printable CDs then).
The primary objection to inkjet printable media is that it is not water proof nor glossy. Currently there are some new products in the market that address this drawback: Taiyo Yuden's WaterShield, Imation's Aquaguard and Verbatim's glossy white inkjet printable surface. There are other substrates (what I call an applied label, like AquaGuard) but most are actually applied to the disc as a coating. Taiyo Yuden WaterShield CD and WaterShield DVD is by far the most popular surface. It is more expensive to produce and so it costs more per disc to the consumer.
CD inkjet printers come in manual versions that require being connected to a PC. Automated versions come in PC connect (and Mac in this case), Standalone and PC embedded CD printers. Automation let's you to print a large number of discs unattended. PC connect and embedded PC systems allow you to design your label, specify how many discs you want to print (or even set different print jobs).
Thermal CD Printers: Thermal CD printer technology uses a special ribbon that is a wax-based resin material that when heated transfers the resin to the disc's surface. It uses a single ribbon which the print-head directly imprints the image onto the printable DVD or printable CD. It's fast and cheap. Up until recently the hardware was very expensive as there were no cheap models. Rimage makes several excellent printers including the Rimage Prism Plus thermal printer. The Prism Plus is costly and when you combine the Rimage robotics it's around $8413 The Rimage Prism Plus AutoprinterII is a very durable print station. Combining Rimage engineering and reliability. There are other auto-loaders that use the Rimage Prism Plus, although it is a more expensive "OEM" version.
There are several consumer thermal printers, one "made" by Teac, Casio has a line and there are several other brands. They have limited print area and a higher per print cost (compared to a commercial unit like the Rimage Prism Plus) but do provide a good print quality. For the cost they can be an excellent solution for small labeling jobs. The Teac P-11 CD printer is a good choice.
Thermal printing has several drawbacks. It has limited resolution, 600 dpi (dots per inch) and no capacity for mixing colors. Thermal printing can print in multiple colors with the correct media but it does not mix. The thermal CD printers work best for graphics and text. It's not something you would want to print your digital images with.
Thermal Retransfer CD Printers: Thermal Re-transfer uses ...
2 Comments »
