Printing onto CDs

[DaveB]

Does anyone here print directly onto CDs with a non-Epson printer?
I've put some info together using Epson printers to print directly onto CDs from Photoshop, and would like to compare this with the way the Canon printers/software work.

Ta.

[DJXtreme]

i print onto cds using the canon pixma ip4000, pretty simple process really, but i don't normally print from photoshop, normally just use the software that came with the printer - CD-Label Print. its easy to use, and the results are pretty good, i guess the only weakness, as with epson is colour management.

i played around with printing onto cds in other software, cant remember which program but forever had trouble getting the positioning of the image right relative to the cd feed tray, so ended up printing ink on the cd tray, and missing parts of the cd etc. in the end it was all too hard.

[Greg B]

Dave, I print directly using a Canon i965, always utilising Canon's supplied software - CD Label Print. Very simple to use and I reckon the results are fantastic. What do you need to know?

[DaveB]

I guess I have two questions:

• Has anyone worked out how to print directly from other applications (e.g. Photoshop)?
  So far the answer is no.
• Does Canon's CD-printing software allow you to disable any colour manipulation (as illustrated in the above link, Epson's does not)?
  If it does then it will be possible to generate an ICC profile for it (i.e. convert to this profile within Photoshop prior to saving images for opening by the CD-printing software).

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[DaveB]

Adam, you're free to regard this as just an intellectual exercise. As I have the equipment to do profiles I'm able to experiment, and the results have been good. No, you're not likely to put out CD/DVDs as photographic art, but having accurate and reliable colour goes beyond just producing wall art.
It's one less thing to worry about: when I print CDs I know the colours are going to be as expected.

Not everyone is going to bother profiling their CD printing. I'm just curious at the moment as to what's possible.

Being able to print directly from "normal" software (e.g. Photoshop) does enable profiling, but it also provides a lot more flexibility as well.

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[gstark]

Dave,

This is an interesting concept.

My first thoughts were that you would just simply go into PS (or whatever) and set up a page size as a square, with the appropriate size, potter around with margins and the like, mutter a few expletives until it all worked, and then I realised that I completely misunderstood your point.

On the Epson, I think that, from Epson Print CD, I can, when selecting the printer, still go into printer properties, and do some playing around in there, but I've never actually tried that.

Might be an exercise I need to do, but you know what I'm like when it comes to exercising.

[Greg B]

Dave

The print options involving colour are basically C,M,Y and B +/- 50, Intensity +/- 50 and........

you can choose to enable ICM.

How about that! The ICM option looks interesting

cheers

[DaveB]

I would be interested in knowing how repeatable the results are when printing onto any given brand/model CD.

I have no expectation of the results being the same across different makes of media, but expect the results to be repeatable across different batches of the same media. So far I have two types on-hand, and am still working my way through my first spindles.

However, if the whites of each media are comparable and the inks were absorbed (or not absorbed) into the printable surface similarly, I would expect that many people would be happy with using a single profile across several brands.

I'm not sure how many discs would have to be "sacrificed" to measure the results... maybe ten, as a minimum? I would expect you would have to print the same image on a number od discs, measure, and tabulate the results.

So far I've profiled each media in two modes (Epson's "Premium" and standard/draft). On the white disks I have I've done the profiles twice (although as I hinted above: both disks were from the same spindle). The DeltaE between the disks has been small enough to be regarded as negligible for this application. I'm still refining the "silver" disks, but so far they're similar.

What do you use for profiling, and can it be used on your screen as well?

I use an Eye-One spectrophotometer (a couple of thousand $ worth) and yes there are a few choices of software that will profile monitors with it.

[DaveB]

Greg, if you've got some free time maybe I could come around to your place and experiment. If we can profile prints done with the Canon CD-printing software you'll get a free profile out of it.