Printing onto the surface of a CD or DVD is commonly referred to as the ‘disc label printing’ or ‘onbody printing’. There are a variety of techniques and processes available depending on your specific requirements as outlined below. In all instances it is important to remember that, although excellent results can be achieved with all of our print processes, when printing to the plastic surface of a CD or DVD the results will always differ more or less from printing to the paper parts. With this in mind it is often advisable to design your onbody disc artwork with a different, simpler design from any accompanying paper print to avoid disappointment. At Disc Factory we always analyse your artwork for you to ensure you get the best results possible. We can even design your artwork for you, have a look at our Services section for more information. This process uses colour-separated films. A different screen is produced for each film and each colour is printed onto the CD / DVD surface using a robotic squeegee which pushes the ink through the mesh of the print screen. This process is repeated for all of the films and the inks are instantly cured (dried) under a UV lamp. As with litho printing the first print head normally applies a solid white base as colour printing generally looks better when printed on a white background rather than the natural silver colour of a native CD. Sikscreen printing not only provides a 4-colour CMYK process but also allows you to select up to 6 individual PMS spot colours making it an ideal choice when colour matching is an important factor – such as maintaining a corporate identity. A silkscreen print is usually 85-100 lpi (lines per inch) and when used correctly the resulting prints can be excellent. Silkscreen prints are most commonly used for greyscale images, very bright or metallic images or pantone spot colour jobs. Silkscreen printing is generally not suitable if your on-disc graphics contain pictures, photographic images or a lot of tinting or shading as these can cause a grainy finish due to the mesh of the screens. In these cases litho printing is generally preferable. Litho printing is generally considered to produce the best quality prints. However along with this quality comes a more expensive, time-consuming setup process. At Disc Factory however we do not add any additional setup costs for this print process. We simply recommend whichever option will provide our clients with the bests possible results for the job in question. Using a 4-colour CMYK process, normally on a solid white base (optional), lithographic printing (also called offset printing) onto CD and DVD disc surfaces uses the same technology as traditional litho printing on paper. Plates are made by exposing them to films, and minute dot patterns are then etched onto the plates. A plate is made for each of the CMYK colour separations and ink is transferred to the plates and onto the CD or DVD one colour at a time by rollers. As with silkscreen printing the inks used are UV curable, so the ink is dried immediately after it is applied. With 150-175 lpi (lines per inch) and a smoother print surface than screen printed discs offset printing provides an excellent graduation in colour and tone making litho printing the method of choice for photographic images and designs that incorporates lots of gradients, tints or shading. Need your discs ASAP? Disc Factory also offers a superb digital inkjet print process for duplicated discs. Using premium A-grade printable media we print directly to the surface of the disc. Inkjet printing offers superb results that can often look far superior to a screen print, especially when dealing with photographic images – and without any of the problems synonymous with laser labels (see below). The process is entirely digital and working directly from an artwork file means minimal setup costs. So with no need for the production of films, screens or plates Disc Factory can turn your CDs and DVDs around quickly and cost effectively. This makes inkjet printing the most suitable option for duplication runs where litho and screen printing simply not viable. We strongly recommend you avoid ever using these for your discs! These are printed sticky labels that are stuck down onto the surface of a CD-R or DVD-R. This is a very poor solution that not only provides a poor finish but is also a major cause of disc read errors. Labels are prone to delaminating and this minor lifting of the label can unbalance the disc causing it to fail to operate correctly. This also causes unnecessary wear on disc drives and worse still could cause the disc to jam inside the drive. A cost effective labelling solution which prints permanent black text directly onto the CD / DVD surface. Generally used for overprinting specific information onto generic pre-printed discs, thermal printing is mainly used for simple logos, serial numbers and barcodes.