Everyone that burns a lot of discs must face a problem: How to label discs. There are various solutions, some fancy, others merely practical, but different people have different tastes, so a single solution is not sufficient.
The most practical solution is to use a pen to write some simple text on the disc. If you are an artist it's also possible to draw a fancy label, but this is a very time consuming method.
What about sticky labels? Many people think that labels are really fancy, and this is true because they are can be customized with any graphic software; on a sticky label you can draw anything you like, but other than being fancy are they also safe?
Too bad the answer is no! Sticky labels can warp the disc and make it unreadable. Moreover, if you are not careful and erroneously stick the label in a not so perfectly centered way, the disc will be unbalanced, and then more difficult to read.
The only way to create fancy disc labels without problems on disc readability is the use of printable media. Here at CD Freaks is already available a test Verbatim printable media.
Basically, there are two types of printable media: Thermal and inkjet. What is better? These techniques use different technologies to print on a disc. What is the better one?
For years now, proponents of thermal transfer CD/DVD printing systems have been conducting a sort of smear campaign against direct-to-disc inkjet printers, accusing them of ... well, smear. Specifically, the knock on inkjet printers was that inkjet-printed disc surfaces were insufficiently water-resistant to qualify for professional applications. The criticism was not entirely without merit (especially when inkjet CD printing first emerged in the mid-'90s), but it's always been a bit overstated. |
Thermal printers are much more expensive than inkjet printers, because thermal is a more complicated technology in hardware; Inkjet, on the other hand, is a simpler (and cheaper) technology. But the real thing that make difference between thermal and inkjet, are pigments.
Is it really true that thermal is better than inkjet? If you are interested, there is an interesting discussion at EMediaLive in which you can find a comparison between these two technologies. You can read part one here and part two here.
Source: EMediaLive
