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  1. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    The "checkerboard" is Photoshop showing you a transparent background (mine's usually purple & white, but it varies). If you go into its preferences (Transparency & Gamut section), it'll even give you ways to adjust this check look.

    Of course it prints white!: <Blank> on white paper looks white (because it didn't print anything there).

    To add a photo you can do one of 2 things:
    1. Use the [File | Place...] menu function, which will open up & place either photos or vector graphics (like pdf, eps, ai, wmf) while also allowing to the adjust their size prior to it's first rasterization render (this will give you the best resolution possible, but doesn't often give you a preview until you've completed sizing).
    2. Do a standard open of another image [File | Open], but then DRAGGING the image (with the black MOVE arrow) from it's box to lay on top of the template. If you'd rather not change the tool, you can also just drag the layer from the layer stack, via its thumbnail, onto the template. Then position, and if necessary resize (using the [Edit | Transform | Scale] menuitem). And if that turns out to be ABOVE the other guide layers in the layer stack, just grab it's thumbnail and drag it down stack until it gets to a border between 2 lower layers (where the border will temporarily highlight bold).
    Do this as many times as you want for as many layers as you want.

    This is an example of the insert I did recently. It has ~>80 layers (including adjustement layers).

    You can do cardstock or do glossy, photo-quality paper, but for DVD case inserts, regular paper works quite well. I use that on my last job and heard nothing but praise about it. I did of course use a Color Laser copier at Kinkos/FedEx ($0.53/color sheet, IIRC), so yes, an inkjet isn't going to look quite as good. And, unless you've got the color profiles perfectly worked out, you'll probably need to waste a few sheets (and ink) while you experiment getting the colors & registration just right. In that case, I'd use plain paper on all but the penultimate test and then use photo-glossy paper.

    Hope that helps,

    Scott
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    Last edited by Cornucopia; 7th Sep 2014 at 02:21.
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    omg that is SO awesome!!

    you used photoshop for all of that?
    did you self-teach photoshop starting as a beginner? can you come to ny and give me a class or something?? lol

    when I go out to look at printers... are there any other functions I should look for, other than for it to have the capability to print onto discs? I have an hp now, it's a 3 in one... and prints photos as well... no problems with it, but, if I'm going to look into a new one to print onto discs, well, I definitely don't want to have to upgrade again, so, I may as well look into whatever I will need. I prefer to do all my printing at home if possible. starting this business out to be able to do something while my daughter is in bed, sleeping. so I need to be at home too!!
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    i will play around with the photoshop template again tonight when she's in bed
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  4. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by arosemontages View Post
    omg that is SO awesome!!

    you used photoshop for all of that?
    did you self-teach photoshop starting as a beginner? can you come to ny and give me a class or something?? lol

    when I go out to look at printers... are there any other functions I should look for, other than for it to have the capability to print onto discs? I have an hp now, it's a 3 in one... and prints photos as well... no problems with it, but, if I'm going to look into a new one to print onto discs, well, I definitely don't want to have to upgrade again, so, I may as well look into whatever I will need. I prefer to do all my printing at home if possible. starting this business out to be able to do something while my daughter is in bed, sleeping. so I need to be at home too!!
    Yes, for ALL of it, except certain logos which were supplied to me by the client, or some stock icons which I modified separately anyway (you kind of have to do that often to make it all look consistent).

    On-disc printing requires printable discs and a printer which has been designed to allow running discs through it. Don't get any that aren't either dedicated for discs or designed to do discs with an (add-on?) attachment (which you would have to also get). Epson makes good ones. I used to work with Primera ones, which did the job but were SLOW!

    For inserts, you'll get a better look if you go with color laser or dye-sublimation vs. inkjet. Usually MUCH better. And it isn't that expensive if you just run down to the local shop and do the self-service copier route. Worth the trip, IMO.

    Once you get to a certain level, and particularly when you have jobs that are >~250, you will be much happier and feel much more professional letting the replicator do both the replication, the silk-screening on disc, and the inserts, and shrink-wrap in packaging. But, it takes a while to get to that level. I'm not at that level for MOST of my jobs (I wish).

    re: teaching, yes I learned 95% of pshop self-taught. Read a number of books, did a few tutes from the web, but mainly by trial-and-error day-in, day-out stuff.
    I could teach a class if it paid enough. Seriously though, you can do the same as I, and there are plenty of classes or tutorials that are well-done, accurate and thorough enough to get you up to speed on a LOT of Photoshop's abilities (it probably takes months if not years to learn all it has available).

    Scott
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    okay, well with your instructions, I figured out how to add the picture. so I did a picture & a text and printed out an insert... and it will definitely get me started, so thank you!!!!!!!!!
    I am completely lost on how to resize or layer or anything like that. when I have some time, I will definitely have to pull up some youtube videos to guide me.
    off to staples tomorrow to take a gander
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  6. jman98 to CobraPilot: But I think the burden of proof is squarely on you if you want to argue against conventional wisdom in this matter, even if it is only for the sake of being argumentative rather than actually trying to be helpful.
    jman98, it's absolutely hilarious that you, of all people, accuse someone of "being argumentative rather than actually trying to be helpful." You have been the Grand Master of Insults and Belittlement for as long as I've watched you post (longer than you on this board, BTW), and this is yet another example. You're trying to pick a fight where there is no grounds to do so, except in your mind.

    There's no "burden of proof" whatsoever, and certainly not imposed by you. If you'll take your head out of where the sun doesn't shine, you'll note that all I was asking was if anyone had any current bad experience with the stick-on labels. Nowhere will a sane person find me trying to be a proponent of using such old technology vs. the better ones mentioned. Didn't happen, didn't recommend it, wouldn't recommend it. However, I *do* have in my hand a 10-year-old CD with stick-on label made in the days "when I didn't know I had an option for something better," and it looks and plays just fine. Maybe I just got very lucky . . . . Maybe if I just needed a onesie, might risk it again, but that would just be me and my Luddite ways.

    Noting there are those who castigate software merely because it hasn't been updated since yesterday (e.g., DVDShrink, old, but still useful), I merely asked this board if this anti-stick-on "fact" was something other than an Urban Legend based on repeats of a very small set of experiences. It was intended to be a VideoHELP question that didn't require -- or justify -- one of your typical VideoRIDICULE responses.

    Given the many times that you've demonstrated you can provide good non-insulting, non-flamewar-starting advice, your Jekyl and Hyde persona is an amazing phenomenon which would probably be of concern to the medical profession.
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  7. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    @CobraPilot - my thoughts (on the topic, not the discourse):
    1. YMMV, and if you take your chances and own the result, who cares. I'm guessing you got lucky.
    2. While everything internet might be considered anecdotal, I can give 1st-hand multiple accounts of (supposedly good quality) labels screwing things up on discs (of supposedly great quality). Happened/happens much more on CDs than DVDs, mainly because on CDs the backing abuts the data layer (not so on DVDs). No urban legend here. I still have a few of the discs to show as examples to my "rapt audience".
    3. Things may change in manufacturing, but rarely does a "poor-man's version" of anything (including disc printing) improve with age. And no, the label technology hasn't changed in the slightest in at least a decade.
    4. DVDShrink & other old softwares still have their place in my arsenal. It was good then, and if the platform still supports it and the objective is still applicable and technology hasn't bypassed all of its purpose, those apps can still be quite useful. Of course, BAD apps of yesteryear would likely have NO place in today's workings (and sticky disc labels was a borderline bad app, even at the best of times).
    5. "Conventional wisdom" often needs to take a back seat to "the scientific method", but in this scenario at least, they are in perfect alignment.

    Scott
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  8. Scott, many thanks for your information in the spirit of VideoHELP! (I had no idea my meant-to-be-innocent "urban legend" question would produce such a tirade from anyone, but given the "discourse-y" track record of some, I probably should have.)

    Good analysis and explanation, but as to your comment "on CDs the backing abuts the data layer (not so on DVDs)," I take it the "sticky" on the labels invades the data layer, corrupting it? What separates the data layer from a sticky label on a DVD?

    As to your (5), I guess you've boiled my original question down to its essence: Is "conventional wisdom" firmly grounded in "the scientific method"? Your comments and experiences certainly suggest "yes."

    Thanks again.
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  9. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Re: sticky - yes, in a way.
    All optical discs are like sandwiches. Doesn't matter whether they're ROMs, Rs or RWs/REs...

    On CDs, the (single) data layer is the penultimate layer (just below the thin top border layer).
    On DVDs, the data layer(s) are in the center, with multiple thick layers on either side.
    On BDs, the data layer(s) are next to the bottom border layer, but it is both thicker & tougher than the CD version, plus it's on the reading/writing side (which never has a label put on it).

    Scott
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