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  1. Member
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    Nov 2009
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    United Kingdom
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    Hi there, glad I found this forum, I hope someone can help me.

    I purchased some black vinyl style inkjet printable CDR a while back, I love the look & would like to use them a lot, however, I have 2 disc-printers that use inkject technology & I can't seem to get either of them to work with the vinyl-look discs. One, an Epson Stylus R285 just repeatedly spits the disc tray back out of the printer saying the tray is incorrectly aligned...it is not. It is, in fact, perfectly aligned the same way I do with other printable discs, both full-face & those with a larger non-printable ring in the centre.

    The other printer is a Microboards GX-1 disc publisher system capable of burn&print runs of up to 50 discs at a time. With this one, it accepts the vinyl-look discs but prints the image a good two thirds of the way down the printable area & thus carries on printing over the non-printable area.

    In both cases I have used the software correctly, both printers work fine with other discs, & of course I've taken care to make sure the image actually fits on to the printable area. The only explanation I can think of is that the printers use some method of detecting the print area & assumes the edge of the print area to be the edge of the disc (maybe it looks for a white surface?), therefore, because most printing software I've used seems to trace disc measurements from the outer edge, the GX-1 thinks my image is further down the disc while the Epson thinks there's no disc at all.

    I hope I'm making sense!?

    I'm pretty sure the solution must be software related so I'm hoping someone might be able to shed some light on how I go about configuring the software/printer to make it work? Is there some kind of offset I can apply to trick the machine? Are my printers even compatible with these style discs?

    I seem to get no useful solutions from the printer/software manufacturers so this really is a plea for any advice...it's beginning to drive me mad!

    If anyone doesn't know about these vinyl-look discs, check them out at

    http://www.webs4cd.co.uk/docs/38/vinyl_cd/

    Thanks in advance

    Ben
    In the power of the Mystery Calculator
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  2. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    [edited for being wrong, sorry]

    if you have surething cd/dvd label software you can adjust the size and starting position of the label.

    Click image for larger version

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    after changing to the reduced printing area you will have to experiment with the starting position to get it centered.

    Click image for larger version

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    Last edited by aedipuss; 20th Apr 2010 at 14:49.
    --
    "a lot of people are better dead" - prisoner KSC2-303
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  3. "they are not inkjet printable. cmyk printing is a press process. "

    this comment is wrong! It makes no odds whatsoever whether it's an RGB printer or CMYK printer, both can print these vinyl discs no problem at all. The discs are inkjet printable and allow on-body print using an inkjet printer, whatever the colour process used.

    In the first case, the spitting out of discs is generally to do with the way in which the printer acknowledges a disc is present. A decent printer will use a clamping method, which grips the disc which identifies it indeed is on the tray and then proceeds to print it. The alternative printers use a laser to gain a reflection from a printable surface. These printers look for a white or silver reflection and once it reads back in, it accepts the disc. If the printer spits the disc out, it's because it can not gain a reflection back from the disc surface and thinks no disc is on the tray.

    In regard to the 2nd printer, this is printing off center as it's not configured properly. In the software or print driver, you will probably be able to specify an offset. Look at the settings and see if you can define the printable area. Most of these printers are hacked paper printers and assume it's a set size e.g A4 paper and the software informs it to print only in a specific area of the paper e.g 120mm top right of the A4 sheet if you imagine. The driver settings allow you to inform the printer where it prints and in what area. The fact it is printing off center, means it's probably adjusted by X or Y tools so for example adjust it by 40mm in one of the directions to test it out until you get it right, although i would advise printing on some cheap full face white ones first so you dont get ink everywhere as it will get messy printing on the vinyl grooves.

    Happy to help more if you send in screen shot of the driver config or adjustment tools.
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  4. Member
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    webgeez is probably right about the registration, and it's probably more-or-less the same problem with both printers. I've never used the GX-1 (I have been using an Epson R200 for years, but never tried CDs like those), but I wonder if the GX-1 printer is seeing the top edge of the white "label" area and thinking that's the top edge of the CD, and so moves the printing down too far? Does that make sense? Measure from the top of the white area to the top of the printing, and see if it would be in the right place if moved up by the width of the black "vinyl" area? If so, then just move your printing up by that amount in your software, and you should hit the right spot. At least for that printer.

    And yes, aedipuss is wrong. Inkjet printers (every one I've ever seen) are CMYK printers. That's why the ink cartridges say "cyan" "magenta" "yellow" and "black".

    Steve
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  5. Banned
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    I had no idea that such discs existed, but I found some on the internet after reading this. Offhand I would say that because the printable area is actually quite a bit smaller than the size of the disc itself that it probably requires some specialized settings in your printing software. I'm not sure what your printing software is, but I'm using Acoustica when I print labels. I would think that your printing software would allow you to manually configure a setting for these discs. I know Acoustica will let you do that. Yes, your speculation about what is happening with the printer is probably correct. Remember, these vinyl type discs are new and original disc labels were designed to take up the whole disc - that's the default for your printer.
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  6. Greetings Supreme2k's Avatar
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    If by "new" you mean "over ten years old", then that's true.

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    But, yes, you basically need to experiment with sizing. What I do with specialized printing of this sort is to cut out discs from cardboard (cereal boxes are about the proper thickness), then test to see if my positioning is correct.
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  7. Member
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    My Canon PIXMA MG5350 also refused to print (Mediarange) vinyl CD-recordables. It did not recognize the cd because of its black surface I guess. Probably Canon uses a laser to check if a cd is in the tray?
    So I thought why not fool the laser?
    I made a mold from a thin piece of paper, cutting it in shape of a CD. Then I cut out a little circle in the mold that should be left open in order to print the label of the vinyl disc. I used a very thin an tiny piece of cellotape to stick it on top of tray so I can slide the the vinyl disc that is to be printed underneath it. And this fooling succeeded!
    I now can print the little label of these vinyl discs. (Make absolutely sure the paper does not rise above the tray!).

    I might add I made a template in Photoshop of a 12 cm Cd and drew a circle in the middle of it (in accordance with the labelsize) so I can exactly place the label in Canon Easy Photoprint EX.
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  8. *Vinyl Style Discs printed on Epson R285 *SOLUTION*

    Hi there,

    I joined here with the same problem and a solution. Until recently I've been using the vinyl type discs from Riviera Multimedia and had no issue. These are black discs with a slight silver edge. These work straight off using a Epson R285 printer. I then bought some other vinyl look discs and had the problem of the printer just spitting the discs back out.

    Thanks to other posts I worked out a solution that is working now for me. It's a bit messy but works.

    You may lose a disc or 2 setting this up, but this is how I did it and what worked.

    Get a self adhesive CD label and lightly stick on the vinyl look disc. Then get an art knife and cut a hole in the label about a millimetre around where the printable area is, then remove the cut out section to reveal the printable area leaving the rest of the label on the disc temporarily.

    This seams to solve the issue with the printer trying to calibrate where the printable area is, but still spat the wholly black disc out as it can't find a reflective edge.

    I took some shiny silver paper and put it either edge of the disc and tucked it under the disc (cigarette packet or chocolate wrapper paper worked, so long as its reflective). I then taped the silver paper down to the label so it didn't catch on the print head. If you're careful removing the silver paper and label you can re-use it a few times.

    Disc goes in on the tray, the head goes back and forth over the white label, sees the reflective edges and off it prints

    This will take a while if you're going to print 10 - 20 discs this way, but it works, so no wasted discs.

    Better still if you want to do a lot quickly. Go to Riviera Multimedia and buy theirs as I never had a problem with those ones as they have a silver edge.

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