To label or to print?

[turdburglar]

I recently purchased a cd stomper to make labels for my cd's and dvd's, someone told me after I had bought it that they were more trouble than they were worth, problems like dvds skipping near the end etc, and labels coming off in cd players etc, then I thought I would buy a printer that prints directly on to printable discs, so I bought an Epsom r210 got it home to find out the direct printing to disc isnt supported for mac?
Does any one have a printer that prints direct to disc for mac os x, and would you recomend it? (it really is a pc world out there)

[galactica]

I have a label stomper also, and never really had problems as long as you put the labels onproperly.

since i read a lot of people having problems with them i did get Hub labels, like these. They are small little guys and fit on that inside clear part of the disk, the small inner circle. Just print the name on that and since its small its not going to throw off ballance etc.

just a thought.

I dont have a cd printer so i cant help ya there, sorry.

[jamerican]

I have an Epson 960 CD/DVD printer and some time ago I came across some method of using a Photoshop template to print directly to discs from my Mac. I am unable to find the instructions at this time nut I will keep looking for them. I am pretty sure that it will work for your printer. I tested it out with Photoshop Elements and it worked fine - even though it was written for an Epson 900. Anyone out there remember this

[GregN]

Well, that blows (about not working with the R200, R300). Hopefully Jamerican will find that solution. I was planning on getting one of those Epson printers too, and assumed that they would work.

galactica - thanks for the link. I was considering something like that as well, as soon as I heard about the potential problems with the bigger labels.

Do you apply them the same way, with your Stomper?

[TonyHall]

so I bought an Epsom r210 got it home to find out the direct printing to disc isnt supported for mac?

I was thinking of buying one of these printers and was shocked by your statement, so I trawled thro' Epson's website and found no hint of CD/DVD printing not working on a Mac.

The closest I got to an answer was that you need to use an application called "EPSON Print CD" which should be located in your 'Applications' folder, to print to CDs etc. Do you have this app? If not, it may be worth reinstalling the software.

Hope that helps, please let us know if it does or doesn't.

Many thanks.

Cheers,
Tony

[Bodyslide]

Try this template for the MAC. I don't have or use a MAC so can't help any further than the info in the file. It is for the 960 and 900 only. I'll keep it up for a few days. If this violates any rules please let me know.

Using the Adobe Photoshop CD
Template With Macintosh OS X

http://www.mindspring.com/~bodyslide/Video/

[jamerican]

Turdburglar, the link provided by bodyslide is the exact thing I was talking about. It works very well with my Epson 960. Try it with your printer and see if it works. Thanks for the link, bodyslide.

[Manny C]

direct printing to disc isnt supported for mac?

NOT TRUE

I have the Epson R300 and I can tell you that printing onto the disc definitely works on the Mac. As a matter of fact, it works pretty damn well. The printer's installer will install an application called "Epson Print CD" in your Applications folder. This little utility is simple yet effective, and very easy to use.

The Epson R200 actually came out AFTER the R300 (the R200 is basically an R300 without the added bells and whistles), so it should have the same Mac compatibility as the R300.

[turdburglar]

NOT TRUE

I have the Epson R300 and I can tell you that printing onto the disc definitely works on the Mac. As a matter of fact, it works pretty damn well. The printer's installer will install an application called "Epson Print CD" in your Applications folder. This little utility is simple yet effective, and very easy to use.

The Epson R200 actually came out AFTER the R300 (the R200 is basically an R300 without the added bells and whistles), so it should have the same Mac compatibility as the R300.[/quote]

I had done a lot of research on this printer and had seen no mention of this on any web site, when I got it home I noticed on the box "prints directly to cd/dvd*" the asterix said "some applications/functions may not be supported by mac os x" when I checked the cd, there was no "Epsom Print CD" in the osx folder? The box also had a disclaimer about only being for the Asia and Ociania region only? also the instructions said the printer wont install on the mac osx unix file system, how did you install yours??

[GregN]

Thanks Manny C for clearing that up.. shame on turdburglar for creating a panic like that!

just kidding tburglar.

Manny C, do you find that you use the extra feature of the R300? I've been wrestling with that decision as to which one to pickup. Not sure if I'll have a big need for the direct memory inputs, but maybe it would be nice to have just in case. Do you find it makes life easier? I would think that for a person who has a digital camera and doesn't need to do any corrections, the direct imput would save some time and be a nice convenience.

[turdburglar]

Thanks to jamerican and bodyslide

[fab98]

You can also use my favorite piece of software for direct to disc printing, Discus 3.... either the small re version included with newest toast 6 or the full version, to get some awesome looking disc prints with all the epson print to disc printers r200, r300. etc.....

[turdburglar]

Sorry everyone! I read the box and had a panic attack when I couldnt find the "print cd" folder, thanks to manny c, I re-opened the box and installed the cd and it seems most of the features I want are there and all thats left to do is try it out.
Sorry again, I feel like such an idiot

ps, thanks fab 98

[Manny C]

Greg:

I have had the printer for 6 months and not once have I ever used the memory card slots to print directly from a memory card. Maybe it's just me, but I never print a picture without doing some sort of photo editing first. Whether it's cropping or just an adjustment to the brightness/contrast, I never am satisfied just printing it exactly as it came out, so I run it through PhotoShop first.

When I got the R300, the slimmed-down R200 was not available. If I had to do it now, I'd save the hundred dollars and just get the R200 (but that's just me)

[GregN]

Thanks for the feedback manny c.

Neither printer is that expensive, with an $80 difference between them. Still, if I never use the slots, it would be $80 too much, I guess. Hard for me to predict though.

[buttsy00]

Hi guys,

This might be a really dumb question but can any printer, print onto DVD's or do you need a special printer?

My printer is the Epson Stylus Photo 830U... Does anyone know if this printer has the capabilities to print on to DVD printable disks?

[offline]

Asia and Ociania region only

This is just blurb behind Canon's attempt
to protect their patent copyright on the cd tray
technology for North Amercia. Epson can't
sell their technology direct to the US without
the real risk of being sued.

[Manny C]

What the hell are you talking about? Epson can and does sell plenty of printers that print directly onto CDs and DVDs right here in the USA.

[jamerican]

You can also use my favorite piece of software for direct to disc printing, Discus 3.... either the small re version included with newest toast 6 or the full version, to get some awesome looking disc prints with all the epson print to disc printers r200, r300. etc.....

Just tried my version of Discus 3.07 with my Epson 960. It works even better than Epson PrintCD. Adjustments were a breeze, and the printing was so much faster than when I use my PC. Thanks, fab98, I never realized that templates were available for the Epson printers.

[offline]

What the hell are you talking about? Epson can and does sell plenty of printers that print directly onto CDs and DVDs right here in the USA.

Calm down. No need for you to get upset.
I was responding to a post about the R200/R300 and so was talking about the R200/R300 tray technology, not the 800 or 1500. Perhaps I should
have made this clearer in my post.

[Manny C]

(in a soothing tone...)

Well here I am in sunny Southwest Florida (that's in the USA, by the way) sitting next to my Epson R300 that I got from Best Buy (also in the USA).

Right now, on my kitchen counter, which is in my house here in the United States, is a MacMall catalog showing the Epson R200 on sale for $99.

So exactly where are you getting your (mis)information from, mate?

[fugu]

I've had an r200 for a few weeks now and it does indeed include mac support for disc printing, though I am using 10.3.4 with it. The EPSON Print CD application is installed into your /Applications folder. It works ok, but I think discus provides an easier to use interface and more options.

The prints are great, save for somewhat under saturated colors.

[offline]

So exactly where are you getting your (mis)information from, mate?

I'm not your mate, pal or buddy because I don't know you. You still
sound upset. Info was supplied from Epson Australia. Could your printers perhaps be imported by a third party? Any indication on the boxes that the product was designed to be shipped to the USA? Grey market
and parallel imports would not count as they would not be directly
supported by Epson America.

Meanwhile I'll double check on my information. Maybe this
should be moved to PM as it is slightly OT.

[Manny C]

(in an even more soothing tone, plus this time with a relaxing sounds of nature cd playing in the background...)

No need to beat a dead horse. Let's just drop the subject, and chalk it up to you being wrong.

[offline]

I'm never wrong even when I'm wrong. I'm holding onto this
dead horse and I intend to whip it. I've emailed my "mate" at
Epson.

-edit- It appears that Epson hold the patient and Canon is
restricted.

[turdburglar]

The Epson R210 printer works fantastic, I am not complaining but it would be better if you could print the entire disc and have a command for when you import an image you could "fit to size"like Quark XPress. This printer has put an end to all those poxy hand written CD's and DVD's and the photo Quality has to be seen to believed, I printed a photo from iphoto taken on a Fuji S7000 at 6meg and printed it on a A4 gloss photo paper and it looks lab quality, I would highly recommend it.
If anyone knows of a web site to download templates and images I would be grateful if you could post it here, thanks again to Mannyc for removing my blinkers! much appreciated.