CD Labels Front and Center!

September 14, 2006 1:10 AM

Which CD labeling applicator is the best? Or, which device will get the white sticker centered on top of the CDr without worry?

There are a few out there such as the CD Stomper. I have another kind but the quality of the placement is pretty lame... sometimes it looks great, other times its way off the mark. Any ideas?

Also (and I know this is bad) do barcodes have to be on a white background in order to scan?

posted by Satapher to technology (15 comments total)

Well, I was just researching this a little for a project a few weeks ago. I ended up using Lightscribe, which is... ok, nothing that special. And it's slow as hell, takes about a half hour to burn a label on. But it does work, it's always centered, it can't smudge, and it should last as long as the CD will.

The other major thing I considered was a specific Epson dot matrix printer that is designed to print CDs. It's in all the major chain stores. It has a specific tray slot you stick the CD into. You have to get special CDs/DVDs with a blank white top for inkjet printing, but they looked reasonably priced. I was worried about smudging, so I went with the Lightscribe. If you don't mind the cost of the printer and replacement ink, you'd probably get very nice labels out of them, miles nicer than the Lightscribe ones. I'd check on the smudging issue, though.

If you do a standard flat printed sticker sheet, and then self-apply them, the applicators I've seen have had a central pillar thing you plugged into the CD. It guided the sticker down properly. I used one like this many years ago, and I'm pretty sure it was the CD Stomper... it's been around for a long, long time. If it's still the same as it was, I think you'd have a hard time messing it up too badly.

As long as it has one of those central guidepost things, probably almost any system should work okay.

If you're going to be doing a LOT of this, post back... there are higher-volume CD labelers that do permanent-ink labels that look like 'real' CDs, but are much faster than Lightscribe. Expensive, but if you're going to be doing a large quantity, it might be worth it.
posted by Malor at 1:32 AM on September 14, 2006

thanks for the quick reply! I am planning on using the standard white stickers and the guided center pillar you mentioned sounds promising -- the one I have now is shaped like an arc and you have to press down and flatten the arc in order to get the sticker on -- very ghetto

i will defiantely look into the Lightscribe/direct to cd printing... tho a little outside the scope of this project
posted by Satapher at 1:41 AM on September 14, 2006

My experience for what it is worth: I spent a lot of time with various labels and software, all of which worked pretty well in the beginning. By that I mean, they were centered and looked good. However over time *some* labels lifted and started to impact the palying of these CDs. Did some investigation and found others had similar experiences, and the general consensus seemed to be that solutions similar to that proposed by Malor were the way to go. However for me this would have meant changing CD drives, etc, something I didn't want to do. And then there was the time factor. So I reverted to using a Sharpie. Not elegant or professional, but for my purposes, a low-cost, efficient, and effective solution. Your mileage is, and will, vary.
posted by vac2003 at 1:57 AM on September 14, 2006

I've heard that adhesive labels can seriously affect the longevity of the CD. I can't find the original reference, but here are some other pages recommending that you _not_ use adhesive labels:

scienceagogo.com

postgazette.com

techbuilder.org



Although this one says that if you're careful to use labels with milder adhesive, you may be OK:

buskerdoo.com


Of course, for short-term storage, it's not to worry.
posted by amtho at 3:58 AM on September 14, 2006

Many CD drives warn against using CDs with adhesive paper labels in the drives. This is especially true for slot-loading drives. The labels can start to peel and become caught in the mechanism. I've also read of problems with the labels and heat in the drives. My Sony DVD player specifically warns against using paper-labeled discs.
YMMV.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:11 AM on September 14, 2006

What about Sharpies?! [alarmed]
posted by Flashman at 5:18 AM on September 14, 2006

I'd advise to invest a couple of hundred bucks in one of the Epson R series Stylus Photo printers.

I do a reasonable ammount of CD printing and have 2 of these babies. Combine it with a bulk inking system and they're even better.

You get the ocasional smudged disc but only when the print heads get dirty/clogged, the minute you get a smudged disc, just clean them up and your sweet.

My only problem is that I haven't been able to get them working on my Mac, so I have to run them off of my PC, but considering I use the PC for my burning it's not really an issue for me.
posted by mule at 6:28 AM on September 14, 2006

I'll second the recommendation for Epson R-series printers. The R200 [link goes to Amazon.com] though discontinued is still widely available and is virtually identical to the R220 that replaced it. They do a beautiful job of printing on CDs.

Ink is relatively expensive but it does last a long time - and generic ink's now available for the printer. Only irritation I have with the printer is that when one inkwell goes empty, the whole printer stops printing until it's replaced (so no more printing black-only when you run out of colour).
posted by ChuckLeChuck at 6:54 AM on September 14, 2006

I have CD Stomper. As Malor said, it's hard to mess things up. It definitely gets my vote.
posted by jknecht at 6:55 AM on September 14, 2006

If you do go with stick on labels don't ever load those CDs into your car's player. It is an expensive repair when the label peels off a little bit and the disc becomes stuck in the player.
posted by caddis at 7:24 AM on September 14, 2006

I've had good luck with Fellowes NEATO CD labels. They're reasonably permanent, and I've never had them peel off in a slot-load player. Plus, the applicator makes it easier to get centered results than the CD Stomper system.
posted by fvox13 at 7:48 AM on September 14, 2006

You should only use water-based markers to write on media. Sharpies are chemically-based.

I just picked up a set of Fellowes markers at Staples specifically marketed as being safe for use on CD-Rs and DVD-Rs.
posted by atholbrose at 8:21 AM on September 14, 2006

Here's Sharpie's FAQ about writing on CDs. For the record, everything is chemically based. You meant to say Sharpies are organic solvent based. Apparently some manufacturers used to use a organic solvent soluble coating on their discs, but they're almost all UV-cured coatings now. Here's more information on writing on CDRs with markers.

More in topic, I've used the CD Stomper system, and although it takes some getting used to, it or some other sticker-based system is really the only way to go to label CDs in bulk. Here's a tip: Remove the sheet from the sticker, not the other way around. You naturally curl a sticker when you remove it, and this causes the sticker not not lay flat in the applicator spindle. If you pull the backing off the sticker, the sticker stays flat and you can put in on without trouble.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 11:32 AM on September 14, 2006

I have one of those Epson printers and the quality is amazing. There are no smudging problems if you use the correct discs and they are typically only about 10 to 20% more expensive than non-printable discs. I've also heard that labels are not good for the discs.
posted by reformedjerk at 11:43 AM on September 14, 2006

re: barcodes

There are a lot of different barcode scanners out there. Some are picky and some aren't. Your barcode will work with more of them if it's black on white.
posted by winston at 6:09 AM on September 15, 2006