History
The Artisan 810 includes CD and DVD label printing in its long list of features. If you don't want to tie up your office printer, bring disc printing to your desktop with the DiscPainter ($280). Commonly, this program's installer has the following filenames: mcdl-mac-190-en.dmg and cdlposx181en.dmg etc. From the developer: CD-LabelPrint for Canon is the application software that enables users to easily perform direct printing on DVD/ CD-ROM with a combination of image files and characters.
Free Dvd Software For Mac
Optical discs have already taken their place in our life. There are music CDs, DVD or Blue-Ray discs with movies, data CDs or DVDs used for storing photos or data backups. The CD as we know it was developed by Philips in cooperation with Sony in 1982. Originally the CD was intended for music only, but later has grown to encompass other applications, such as the storage of general data. Factory-produced CDs already had a screen-printed label on them. In the end of the 1990s recordable CDs became increasingly popular, bringing along the need for identification of the recorded content. Discs bought in individual cases have a card insert which can be used to describe its content, which is okay as long as the disc is stored inside the box. But if you purchase bulk discs on a spindle, and then buy the cases separately, there will be no inserts. And still, the disc itself has to be labeled to be recognizable when stored outside the box.
The first way of labeling a disc is probably a felt marker pen. Such pens are cheap, always at hand and are fast to use. There are special pens on the market, which are not alcohol or solvent-based and are safe to use on a CD or DVD (thought there is some controversy on this matter). Self-adhesive paper labels are another popular labeling method. They were introduced by Avery in 1935 and soon became popular for various purposes. The first CD and DVD labels appeared about 20 years ago, followed by the software and templates (e.g. MS Word templates) for printing on them. Once printed with a inkjet or laser printer, a label is applied to a disc either manually or with the help of a special applicator.
In the beginning of this century consumer direct-on-cd printers were introduced, capable of printing directly on the label side of a CD or DVD with printable coating, using a special tray. This method delivers rather high quality, but requires a special printer and discs.
Thermal transfer printers can also be used to print directly on discs. They transfer solid pigment from a coated ribbon onto the disc's surface, using a combination of heat and pressure. Models are available from under $100 to $2000 and more, varying by performance and quality. The lower-end models are normally limited to monochrome text and very basic graphics, at low resolutions.
One more labeling technology is burning the label on the top of a supported disc by the optical drive itself. There are two rivaling technologies on the market — LightScribe from Hewlett-Packard and Labelflash from Yamaha Corporation. They share a similar principle, but the drives and media are not cross-compatible. Both can label discs without using printers or labels, but require compatible hardware and media, plus are considerably slower than the other labeling approaches.