Printable CD & DVD media
Artwork settings for inkjet CD printing
Printer settings for inkjet CD printing

Printable CD & DVD media

In general, you have first to make sure that you are working with a CD or a DVD suitable for your purpose. Not all the CD and DVD have the same printable surface and some discs make give strange reactions if they are not adapted for inkjet CD printing. As a specialist of CD/DVD Duplicators and Printers since 1992, at CD-writer.com Ltd we would highly recommend Taiyo Yuden CD and DVD, which always guarantee a very good result. Cheaper branded discs like Ritek, Infiniti or Maxell offer good value for money. But, be aware that in function of the brand, the colour saturation or the drying time of the ink on the disc surface for example can vary.

Artwork settings for inkjet CD printing

The artwork quality is important to have a good printing finish. Make sure your artwork is suitable for printing, check the size of your document and the resolution. If you are not sure of your artwork, feel free to download the artwork templates you can find on this website. Therefore, never print a document with less than 150dpi, the result will be pixellised or blurred. The higher the resolution of your artwork, the better the printing result will be.

We are also advising to avoid flat colour background, especially in black. Stripy lines can appear if you are using an almost empty or dry ink cartridge. These lines would be more easily noticed with a flat colour surfaces than if you use photographs as a background. Nice flat colours are difficult to obtain with some printers, such as the PrintFactory 2 : it generally makes a slightly wavy effect. This problem is more frequent with middle tone colours. Swap for darker or very pale colours in your design for a very good result.

Black or very dark backgrounds are not a very good alternative too : they are first using a lot more of ink and, secondly, any mark or default being amplified on black, the CD or DVD are more easily scratched. However, you may be require to print flat colours, so for a fine and sharp result, the MFDigital print station is according to us the best printer to use.

Also, some problems can appear when you are printing pale texts on a dark background. The ink can spread on the text and the fonts appear to be very thin, almost invisible. In that case, reduce the ink amount in the settings, but this technique is not guaranty to work every time for the PicoJet printer. If you still are not satisfied with the result, try to bold your text or add an outline. Regarding the printing quality of texts, the PrintFactory 2 is the best choice.

Finally, it often happens to print black-only artwork. But, some printer like the MFDigital print station will use a combination of colour ink to create black instead of using directly black ink even if you tick the greyscale option in the settings. More than being a waste of ink, the main problem is that the superposition of the different colours will render a blurred printing quality and so a bad result. To avoid this, you have to remove all the colours information from your image by saving it as a greyscale picture in Photoshop for example.

Printer settings for inkjet CD printing

To get the best inkjet CD printing quality, you don’t necessary need to increase the saturation setting of your printer. If you follow all the above instructions when you created your artwork, you should have a very good result with low ink amount. Ink being the more expensive stuff for someone duplicating CD or DVD everyday, it worth to save it each time you can and make the cartridges last longer. Printing in fast or normal make you save ink and work faster. So this is a low cost solution for a good quality result, which allows you to make profits.
In general the printer settings don’t have to be changed, expect when you have to print on the hub. Primera printers and MFDigital print station guaranty margins always perfectly adjusted.

Aditional points for professional inkjet CD printing

For an even better result with inkjet CD printing, the more is to use WaterShield or silver disc. With a glossy finish, the Taiyo Yuden CD and DVD are our last revolutionary media. The WaterShield surface protects discs from snow, rain and spills with its highly-water resistant printing surface. More, it produces a shiny-professional finish with basic inkjet CD printing conditions.

Either used with colour or black-only, silver CD add to the design a sleek touch which is very appreciated by customers. CD-writer.com Ltd recommends the Ritek Silver CD/DVD .