A good printer that handles printable CDs?

February 17, 2006 7:44 AM

Recommendations for a decent consumer grade (cheap) printer that handles printable CDs and DVDs? How is the print quality on a typical silver-top CD? Does printing on them ever risk data corruption?
posted by p3t3 to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I've got an Epson R200 that prints to printable CD/DVD, and those are dirt cheap.

Inkjet printers do not print at all to "a typical silver-top CD". You need to use printable media, which is slightly more expensive.

Any handling of a CD or DVD exposes it to the possibility of being scratched, but the act of printing isn't inherently risky.
posted by majick at 7:49 AM on February 17, 2006

I recently bought a Canon Pixma 500 and I am delighted. Great photo print quality and it also prints on printable cds and dvds. Their top side is coated with a printer friendly surface, you cannot print on normal discs.
This printer is 155$ on amazon.com
posted by ollsen at 8:11 AM on February 17, 2006

Response by poster: Okay, I schooled myself on printable vs/ non printable. It seems to be about 0.65 ea. for printable DVD+/-R versus 0.40 ea. with the non printable ones. Still cheaper than labels though.

Thanks for recommendations, more welcome of course.
posted by p3t3 at 8:24 AM on February 17, 2006

I have an Epson R300. It is easy to print on the DVD, it looks good. I've printed photos of weddings and such on the surface of DVDs I've made for people. They are photo quality -- not quite as good as decent photo paper, and not as lively as store bought CDs, but still very good.

My Epson print settings provide for a difference between regular print CDs and premium surface print CDs, so maybe they'd look the very best with the latter (which I've never seen).

As an aside: avoid TDK 100 pack printable DVD+Rs (got 'em at Costco). Really bad discs -- 20%-80% failure rate, depending on the burner.
posted by teece at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2006