Designing for Print
Use the Right Program for the Right Job.
Templates
Millimeters are more exact than inches
Long Run Disc Production
Disc Printing Specifications
Disc Printing Examples
Digital Disc Printing
Digital Paper Printing
Resolution and Page Size
Templates - Paper Printing
Safety Zones
CMYK vs RGB
Spot Colors
Design, then print (often)
Black vs Rich Black

Designing for DVD and CD Duplication
There is a learning curve and a lot of subtleties in designing for print for DVD or CD duplication.  There are bleeds, safety zones, RGB vs CMYK, image size and resolution, etc.

We are going to attempt to cover as many of these things on this page to help you design your artwork.

There is a really good reason why people who do design charge a lot of money -- they have invested in all of the right equipment and have spent years learning how to do what they do. We recommend that, if you do not know what you are doing, hire someone to do it for you.
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Use the Right Program for the Right Job.
Photoshop is good for working with images. Illustrator, Quark, Freehand, and InDesign are good for layout.

We support Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. If you are working with other programs, we can accept your files, however, call us, we'll tell you what we need.

We are going to discuss both Illustrator and Photoshop in this tutorial since they are the two most common programs and, we support files created by these programs. If you are using another program and you can create an eps, jpg or pdf file, we, more than likely, can use the file that you've created.
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Templates
We have templates available for the design of your DVD or CD Duplication including  the disc face and printed materials that go along with it. All templates can be found on the same page where you found pricing.

Provide us with one artwork file for each of the pieces of artwork. If you are doing a project that consists of a disc, 4 panel insert and tray liner, we need artwork for the outside panels of the insert (pages 4 and 1), the inside of the insert (pages 2 and 3), the tray liner and the disc face.
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Millimeters are more exact than inches
It's too easy to get confused with fractions of an inch, millimeters are far more exact. For example, the outside of a CD is 120mm, the print area starts at 118mm and the inner hub is 20mm. We'll talk more about the disc face later.
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Long Run DVD or CD Production requires that you order 500 pieces or more. A glass master and a stamper is created for the manufacturing of the disc.

Four color print work is done using CMYK technology. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. This is also known as 4-color process printing. With these 4 colors, you can get almost every color in the rainbow. We create film and then print everything using offset printing presses. We also have offset printing presses for printing the face of your disc as well. Since the disc printing and paper printing (Inserts and Trayliners) are both done using the same technologies, we can easily color match the disc and the paper printing. The other way that you can print discs is by using silkscreen presses. We have robotic 5 color presses that allow us to print specific colors using the Pantone Matching System. (Also known as PMS colors). Pantone Colors are specified by numbers, the ink is then mixed to a particular formula that gives you the exact color that you want. This is very exact and there is never a color shift. Photographs and complex artwork should be printed using offset printing - artwork and text can be printed using silkscreen printing (on the disc). We do all of our offset paper printing on gloss paper, disc printing can be done either directly on the silver surface or we can print a white background on the disc.
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DVD and CD Disc Duplication  Printing Specifications - Offset and Silkscreen Printing:

• Hard copy composite color proof recommended with every order.
• Sans Serif type face recommended for all minimum font sizes.
• Minimum line width is 0.5 pt. and font size is 6 pt. bold.
• For knock out/reversed out form, minimum line width is 0.75 pt. and font size is 7 pt. bold.
• Specify only CV ink color from the Pantone Matching System Formula Guide.
• If printing inside mirror band and clear inner hub, color may vary.
• Separations for screen printing use only ELLIPTICAL dots.
• Separation tonal ranges should be no less than 15% and no greater than 85%.
• Printing a halftone without a white solid base will alter the ink color.
• Minimum font size reversed out of halftone print without a base is 7 pt. bold.
• Choke/Spread of 0.5 pt. to be applied whenever conditions permit.
• A solid white base is recommended below 4-color process print.
• Inner diameter minimum Knockout area is 23.5mm, outer diameter maximum printable area is 116mm.
• Line screen is 85 LPI or 100LPI with 300PPI bit-mapped resolution.
• "Print to Center" printable area size: 116mm-23.5mm.
• "Print to Stacking Ring" printable area size: 116mm-37mm
• "Print to Mirror Band" printable area size: 116mm-46mm
• "Print to Center with Knock out for Stacking Ring" printable area size: 32mm-20mm, 116mm-37mm
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Disc Printing Examples - Silkscreen and Offset Printing Methods

Top Left: Print to Center - This gives you the largest printable surface area and is the easiest to design for. Your printable area is 116mm to 23.5mm Top Right: Print to Mirror Band This can be really cool with some graphics because the silver of the mirror band shows.

Bottom Left: Print to Hub (also known as Print to Stacking Ring)

Bottom Right: Print on Hub This one is also pretty cool...the artwork stops at the hub ring (37mm) and then picks back up again at 32mm

Remember to tell us what you want.
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Disc Design -- making it easy for yourself...

The image on the left shows a disc design overlaying the template. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TRIMMING THE ARTWORK TO FIT to the circle.. Doing that is a pain and is not necessary.

In fact, we would prefer that you don't. Simply upload the artwork to us with all of the layers intact.
DO NOT FLATTEN THE LAYERS.
If you prefer to send a high resolution jpg or tiff file, the image at the right is what it should look like.
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Digital Disc Printing
Short Run Disc Production allows you to get 25 to 500 discs and/or inserts in a hurry. If you need less than 500 retail ready discs and packaging in just a few days, this is the way to do it. The price is low since there is no need for film, glass master or stampers. We start by duplicating your disc on high grade recordable media. We print on the face of the disc with our digital disc printing presses. This is a direct-to-disc process using a heat transfer ribbon that contains Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. The company that developed this equipment came up with a way to simulate CMYK printing with just three colors. This equipment produces beautiful results that is very close to what you see on your computer screen.

There are a couple of challenges with this process since black is created using Cyan (blue), Magenta (red) and Yellow. Greys and Solid blacks tend to be a little cooler and on the brown side of the color scale. Do not design using a screen or a gradation below 30%. The result is either banding or a loss of color.

PLEASE GIVE THE ARTWORK as a square or as an unflattened image.
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Digital Paper Printing
We do all of our short run paper printing using Cannon ImageRunners. This is a high quality color digital printing unit. We print DVD inserts, CD trayliners and 4 panel inserts on 32 lb hi-bright paper. We print 2 panel (single sheet one or two side inserts on 65# bright white index stock). Some background colors work better than others. Since the Cannon ImageRunner is a toner based machine, the toner may crack when we fold 4 panel inserts. The more problematic colors are solid black, red and dark blue. It is best to design the background leaving the natural bright white of the paper or using a lighter color, yellow or light blue.

Important note - since we are printing the disc using CMY colors and the inserts using CMYK, color matching between the face of the disc and the insert will be close but not exact. We can provide a one-off proof of both the paper printing and the disc for $45.00 (includes next day UPS shipping) if your color match is critical, please let us know.
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Resolution and Page Size (or Image Size)

There are two variable - Image Size and Resolution.

Artwork must be designed at 300dpi at the right size. In the case of the disc face, we are looking at 120mm x 300 dpi.

There are more potential problems with Photoshop than Illustrator because Photoshop is typically used for web design, photographs, images, etc., not page layout. CHECK YOUR DOCUMENT SIZE AND RESOLUTION. Everything for print must be 300dpi and at the correct size.

If you design something that is supposed to be 120mm x 120 mm at 300 dpi, everything will be fine. If you design your artwork at 120mm x 120mm at a resolution of 72 dpi, when it prints, it will be roughly 25% of the correct size.

Before you send us the files, check out the Image Size...If it's bigger than what we need, we can work with it. If it's smaller, it's not going to work. KEEP IN MIND, our turnaround times begin the minute that you have approved the proofs back from us and tell us everything is okay to print. If you are doing a short run project with is and you expect your project back in 4 or 5 days, the clock doesn't start ticking until we have resolved any artwork issues.
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The Templates - Paper Printing

When you are working with Illustrator or Photoshop, there are several things to keep in mind.
1. Save often -- be sure you save all of your changes
2. Work in layers - Don't design on the same layer as the template.
3. The Bleed. The graphic to the left is the template for a 4-panel insert. Once the insert is printed, cut and folded, the final size will be 121mm x 121mm. We will print this on a larger sheet of paper and will cut this down to get the correct final printed piece size. The dotted line represents where your artwork extends. There should be a 3mm difference between the desired cut area and where your artwork extends. In the case of the 4 panel template, your actual image size becomes 127mm x 248 mm. Height: Top Bleed 3mm + Finished Print Size 121mm + Bottom Bleed 3mm (3+121+3=127)
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Safety Zones

Keep your text and important images 3mm away from the edge of the paper. During the printing process paper shifts slightly and this will insure that nothing important gets cut off that is important.

The red dotted line in the image to the right indicates where your type should stop. Although we don't indicate a red line where the fold is, you should keep your type away from that area as well.
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CMYK vs RGB vs Spot Colors (Pantone Matching System)

RGB should never be used for design. RGB stands for Red - Green - Blue and is the way that our eyes, computer monitors, Television and Video work. It is additive color. If you add 100% Red, 100% Green and 100% Blue, you get white light....when you close your eyes, you see black. You take away all of the colors...you add all of them together, you get white.

With printing, it's the opposite. If you add all colors together, you get black, and if you take away all of the colors, you have nothing, or white. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

What you see on your screen is going to be different than what the printing will look. Monitors have different settings that allow you to change how you view the image on your screen that have nothing to do with the way something will really look. A laptop screen is different than a standard monitor. You can take the same file and view it on several different monitors and it will look different

Before we talk about Spot Color, let's briefly go over the different printing processes and how they work
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Item to Be Printed	Thermal	Digital - Black	Digital - Color	Silkscreen	Offset
CD-R w/silver surface Printing will have color shifts when printed on silver	Black only - Good for simple text and line art. Text should be 10 pt. or larger. Only available in projects 100 pcs or smaller	Black and Greyscale. Excellent for black and white images and type over 8pt	Excellent for photographic quality images and type over 8pt.	Excellent for spot colors or CMYK. Type can be as small as 6 point (Expensive for very short run projects)	not available
CD-R w/ white surface	Black only - Good for simple text and line art. Text should be 10 pt. or larger. Only available in projects 100 pcs or smaller	Black and Greyscale. Excellent for black and white images and type over 7pt	Excellent for photographic quality images and type over 8pt	Excellent for spot colors or CMYK. Type can be as small as 6 point (Expensive for very short run projects)	not available
DVD-R w/silver surface All printing have color shifts when printed on silver	Black only - Good for simple text and line art. Text should be 10 pt. or larger. Only available in projects 100 pcs or smaller	Black and Greyscale. Excellent for black and white images and type over 8pt	Excellent for photographic quality images and type over 8pt.	Excellent for spot colors or CMYK. Type can be as small as 6 point (Expensive for very short run projects)	not available
DVD-R w/ white surface	Black only - Good for simple text and line art. Text should be 10 pt. or larger. Only available in projects 100 pcs or smaller	Black and Greyscale. Excellent for black and white images and type over 7pt	Excellent for photographic quality images and type over 8pt	Excellent for spot colors or CMYK. Type can be as small as 6 point (Expensive for very short run projects)	not available
CD (Replicated) With optional White Flood	not available	not available	not available	Excellent for spot colors or CMYK. Type can be as small as 6 point	Excellent for photographic images. One Spot Color may be added Type should not be smaller than 7 point
DVD (Replicated) With optional White Flood	not available	not available	not available	Excellent for spot colors or CMYK. Type can be as small as 6 point	Excellent for photographic images. One Spot Color may be added Type should not be smaller than 7 point
Item to Be Printed	Thermal	Digital - Black	Digital - Color	Silkscreen	Offset
Board Sleeves (5" Sleeve, Mailing Items, Digipacks)	not available	not available	not available	not available	We print on a 4-color off-set  press (CMYK). Custom projects may be printed using PMS (pantone) colors
Jewel Case Inserts and Tray Liners	not available	We print short run projects on our Canon Imagerunner Printer (with Fiery Front End) High quality Digital Printing.	We print short run projects on our Canon Imagerunner Printer (with Fiery Front End) High quality Digital Printing	not available	We print on a 4-color off-set  press (CMYK). Custom projects may be printed using PMS (pantone) colors
DVD Coverwraps and Inserts	not available	We print short run projects on our Canon Imagerunner Printer (with Fiery Front End) High quality Digital Printing.	We print short run projects on our Canon Imagerunner Printer (with Fiery Front End) High quality Digital Printing	not available	We print on a 4-color off-set  press (CMYK). Custom projects may be printed using PMS (pantone) colors

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Spot Colors (The Pantone Matching System) Disc Printing

The most effective way to design a disc is by using Spot Colors. Spot Colors are the most accurate way to design something and have the color be exactly and precisely what you want it to be.

There are several different types of Pantone Libraries -- the one that we use is PANTONE SOLID COATED. In order to print with spot colors, you need to design using spot colors and using the Pantone Solid Coated Library of colors.

Take a look at the discs in your CD or DVD collection. Usually the ones that look the best are the ones with one or two colors.

All prices for Paper and Board Printing are based on CMYK printing, We can print spot colors if needed, however this will require a custom quote.
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Design, then print (often).

Our eyes play tricks on us, especially when viewing a computer screen. When it comes to color. Our eyes compensate for things that are not really there, especially when transparency modes are used. Look at the two color swatches below.

The first swatch was designed using Adobe Illustrator. We created gray using Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and then changing the transparency levels to get this color gray.

On the screen, it looks great, however, when printing it, it comes out more on the Magenta side. Magenta is a very strong color and will dominate print.

After creating this swatch, we printed it using our Canon Imagerunner with a Fiery RIP (Raster Image Processor), the result was a swatch that was light purple.

It is very important to print often when designing your artwork, there are many combinations that will come out different in print than what you see on the computer screen