Epson Print CD, Trying To Design My DVD's Better

[Tom Saurus]

I am sure alot of people have this program. It is quite nice, and I am trying to get as much out of it as I can. It is kind of nice to add some fancy text or a graphic. Sometimes I use my photo editing program to design some text that has a 3D look, I put this text on a white background and save as a .bmp. I then crop it to a better size, and still leave some of a white background to picture. With the background of the DVD being white, it blends in pretty good. Then one sizes it to what they think looks good. I also find pictures and sometimes a person just want a part of the picture, so I use the paint tools, and use a white paint brush and kind of get as close as I can to part of the picture I want.

Now here is my question, now when one is importing the picture in, and sizing it for the cover of one's DVD, does one have to make sure no part of the picture even the white background, that is around it goes beyond the outerrim of the surface of the disc one the screen. I would like to think I could stretch text or picture which is within the white background to a size that look really neat on the DVD Surface. But doing so would mean that part of the white background would be beyond the outer rim of the DVD. Would the printer, think should I try to print this white background that is beyond the outer rim, and make a mess, or would it just ignore it and print the text or graphic I am concentrating on. I use the white background, because the majority of the DVD surface must remain white, to save on ink.

I noticed that when I click on an imported picture that when I select properties, there is a part where I can select what colours to make transparent. It allows one to select up to four. If I selected white to be transparent, would that solve this potential problem from happening. A printer doesn't try to print a transparent colour, does it? I could before importing the picture, make a .gif and select that the white background be transparent, but I am pretty sure that Epson doesn't accept .gif's.

I hope I explained this correctly, it isn't always easy to convey what one means. I probably should be happy with the text tool that is within Epson Print CD, but sometimes I like to manipulate the text and get a 3D look to it. The Epson Text tool does a pretty good job, but sometimes I just want a little more pizzaz. Thank you in advance for information you can give me on this topic.

[adam]

The printer will only print in the area actually shown in the CD template portion. Any part of your photo that extends beyond this will be ignored.

Feel free to do whatever you want in your Epson Print CD software. What you see is what you'll get. You may still have to adjust your internal and external margins though if your image is getting cut off or its not extending all the way to the edges.

Regarding transparency, printers do not print white. Setting a color to be transparent essentially treats it like its white.

[Tom Saurus]

adam: Thank you very much. This definetly adds a whole new dimension to designing my DVD's. It was kind of you to take the time to answer my questions. Perhaps other people will read this and get some ideas on how to add some more viv to their DVD's. Once again, thank you very much.