CD Printing Types - 4 Different Ways Printers that Print on Cds

Printers that Print on cds – CD Printing Types

There are 4 ways printers that print on cds types directly onto CDs and DVDs, each has their own benefits:

Thermal Transfer Printing | Inkjet Printing | Screen Printing | Offset Litho Printing

Thermal Transfer Printing

Transfer printing in its basic is a wax ribbon. Which moves in tandem with the CD, past a stationary print head. The print head transfers those dots to the CD face to form the image.

There are 2 types of thermal transfer print on a CD – single colour and full colour.

a) Single Colour (usually black): This is the simplest form of CD printing and is ideal for black text only, such as CD title and version number, onto a designated area of the disk. A disadvantage of this process is that the print resolution is quite low (about 200dpi) so small text is no good.

b) Full Colour: Produces a “hard and scratch-resistant” finish, however, small text can be fuzzy (10pt and under) could become unreadable.

Inkjet Printing Cds

This is a digital printing process with resolution up to (1440dpi). If your artwork has a lot of fine detail, or you are using graduated tints, then the definition provided by inkjet printing provides a very effective result.

All inkjet printing use four colour process (CMYK – Cyan / Magenta / Yellow / Black) which means that Pantone (or ‘spot’) colours cannot be accurately printed. As the ink is water based we apply a gloss UV lacquer to every disk.

Screen Printing Cds

Screen printing uses fabric stretched tightly over a frame (the Screen). Images are created by blocking parts of the screen using photographic techniques (the films). Ink is then forced through the open areas of the screen onto the CD face. Each colour printed requires its own film and screen, so a four colour process job will need at least four films and four screens.

The advantages of screen printing are that the CDs can be printed very quickly (about 2000 per hour). The resulting CDs are more scratch-resistant, and the silver/mirror surface of the CD can be used as part of the design.

The disadvantages are that whilst Pantone (or ‘spot’) colours can be matched accurately, colour matching four colour process printed CDs to other printed material is difficult because of the different substrates used. Also the resolution on four colour process screen printing is not as high as with inkjet or Offset Litho.

This is the conventional method for printing on CD-ROM – the music CDs you buy are printed this way.

Offset Litho Printing Cds

Offset is the process whereby a printing plate first transfers its inked image areas onto a rubber blanket mounted on a cylinder in the printing press and then the rubber blanket transfers (or offsets) the inked image onto the CD as it passes through the press.

The advantage of using the Offset Litho process is the very high quality of the print. Although more expensive than screen printing, many clients are willing to pay the extra to get the better results. However Offset Litho printing is best suited to larger quantities where the additional higher costs become less significant.

This is the conventional method for printing DVD-ROM – your movie DVDs will normally be printed this way.