I wasn't sure whether to post this here or not. I see lots of talk about printable media and the Epson R200 in this section so I chose here. If that was wrong, hopefully a moderator will move it to a more appropriate section of the forum.

I've been searching the web for a template for printable media for jasc Paint Shop Pro 7 but could only seem to find Photoshop stuff. It didn't quite work for me but looking at a couple that I found, gave me some ideas. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I think I have come up with something workable. I hope that some of you will try it and reply with your comments on whether it worked for you, or if there is a better way to do it.

First measure the inner and outer diameter of your printable media. Make a note of that measurement in either inches or centimeters.

Then, in PSP7, select File|New Image (Ctrl-N). You can then use the Height/Width and Resolution boxes to help you figure out the diameter in pixels, of the circle masks you need to draw.

For example, Prodisc printable media has an outer diameter of about 118 mm which is 11.8 cm or 4.64 inches, and an inner diameter of 22mm which is 2.2 cm or 0.866 inches. Now first set your desired resolution. I selected 600 pixels per inch. Then select either inches or centimeters as the unit of measure for the image height and width. For this exercise, I'll select centimeters and type in 11.8 for each. If you then click the unit drop down and change to pixels, you will see that at a resolution of 600ppi, 11.8cm = 2787 pixels. I then switch back to centimeters and type in 2.2 for the inner diameter. Change the units back to Pixels again and I see that 2.2cm = 520 pixels. Jot these numberss down.

Now, you'll need to create an image a little bit larger than the outer diameter of your printable area to give yourself some working room. I go with 3000 pixels by 3000 pixels at 600ppi resolution. Set background to transparent and image type to 24 bit.

Once in your new image, select the Preset Shapes tool and use the Ellipse shape. Uncheck Retain style and check Antialias and Create as a vector. Before you start to draw, use the color picker to make both stroke and fill color white. Then move the cursor to the upper left hand corner of the image window. Hold down the Shift key. This will make the Ellipse shape a circle. Then, while holding the Shift key, click and drag with the left mouse button to draw your outer diameter circle. Watch dimensions of the circle on the status bar and get as close as you can to the 2787 pixel outer diameter that we noted above. You won't be able to get it exact. PSP seems to increment the diameter in 6 pixel increments at this resolution. When you get as close as you can, let go of both the mouse button and Shift key. You will then have a white circle vector. Now click the Objects menu and select Align|Center in Canvas. The hit Ctrl-D to deselect the circle.

Now using the color picker, change the stroke and fill color to grey. Then draw your inner diameter. From our calculations above, that should be 520 pixels. Again, you probably won't be able to get it exact, but get as close as you can. Center the grey circle in the canvas and then deselect it the same way you did with the large white circle. From the Layer menu, select Convert to raster.

Now select the magic wand tool. Match mode RGB; Tolerance 0; Feather 0. Then click in the grey circle. Press the delete button. Press Ctrl-D to deselect the hole that now appears in the center of the white circle. Then with the magic wand, click in the white circle. Press Ctrl-C to copy the white circle to the clipboard, and then Ctrl-V to paste it into a new image.

Using the magic wand, click in the white circle and then from the Selection menu, choose Invert selection. The transparent portion of the image should now be selected. Select the Flood Fill tool. Use the color picker to make sure stroke and fill are both grey. Click in the transparent area to flood it grey. Switch back to the magic wand and then click in the white circle. Then press the delete button. You now should have a transparent circle with a grey area around it.

From the Layers menu select Duplicate to create a new layer. Use the magic wand to select the grey areas. Select the Flood Fill tool again. Use the color picker to set stroke and fill to white. Then fill the grey area so that it becomes white. Hit Ctrl-D to deselect the white area. You should now have a transparent circle surrounded by a white area.

Toggle the Layer palette on. The white area you just created will be called "Copy of Layer1." Right click on it select Rename and change the name to "Background mask layer." The grey area that you created earlier is on Layer1. Rename it to "Hide/Del this layer before Printing/Saving." Then move that layer so that it is at the top of the stack.

Create two new layers. Call one of them "Place text on this layer" and the other "Place image on this layer." Arrange the four layers as follows, from top to bottom:

Hide/Del this layer before Printing/Saving
Background mask layer
Place text on this layer
Place image on this layer

Save the image in a format that retains layers. PSP format is fine. Name the file something that will remind you of the media that it was created for, particularly if you have more than one type of printable media with different size print areas.

When you want to create a label, open your template file, select the Image layer and put your artwork or scanned image on the layer labeled "Place image on this layer." If you want to add text, put it on the appropriate layer. You could, of course, put the text on the same layer as the images. But putting it on its own layer allows you to more easily reposition it, add effects to it, or even remove it if you decide you don't like it.

The grey top layer isn't really necessary. It's only there to help set the boundaries of the print area. If you open the layer palette and hide that layer, you will then see the white print mask area.

After you've completed your label masterpiece, press F12 and save the file with some meaningful name in either JPG or PNG format. Be careful not to overlay your template file.

Now, go to Epson Print CD. Click the Inner/Outer Diameter Settings button and fill in the same dimensions that we got for our media when we started, in this case 22mm and 118mm. Then click the Picture button and navigate to where you stored your label. Select your label image. If you did everything right, it should line up perfectly with the label outline in Print CD.

Though we used 600ppi as the resolution for this exercise, it works with other resolutions as well. Many feel that one can't see the difference between 300ppi and 600ppi. Just be sure to use the New Image tab to determine the number of pixels in your selected resolution required to get the inner and outer dimensions your media calls for.

I tried printing directly from PSP but couldn't seem to adjust the print position enough to get it to line up on the disc.

Good luck!