Inkjet or thermal for printing commercial discs?

[sync]

I'll be printing about 5 - 10 discs a day. I'm considering an Epson R200/300 or a Primera Z1. I'm concerned about quality and also workflow. Having to lay out a bunch of discs to dry and then coat them doesn't seem very practical in a commercial setting.

[mats.hogberg]

Screen print. You said "commercial" Inkjet/thermal might at best be considered "prosumer".

[Mats

[sync]

I meant commercial in the sense that the discs are being sold. These need to be printed as required and screen printing wouldn't be feasible.

[lordsmurf]

They both look nice.

I see printing on media as senseless, would rather spend effort on cases, but whatever you prefer.

It's also a pain to mess with smears, drying, the ink, etc.

[offline]

Neither of your choices offer good "workflow".
You may need to look at a commercial printer.
Both the Z1 and Epson r200/300 are great, but low end
products, not designed for commercial use.

[sync]

I see printing on media as senseless, would rather spend effort on cases, but whatever you prefer.

That's a surprising response. What would you do, leave the discs blank or write on them?

[sync]

Neither of your choices offer good "workflow".
You may need to look at a commercial printer.
Both the Z1 and Epson r200/300 are great, but low end
products, not designed for commercial use.

Commercial printers seem to start at $1,000. That's a considerable investment for just 5 - 10 discs a day.

[offline]

Sync,

Epson R300/200: Great prints, tray loading issues after a while, banding problems reported, excessive ink use.

Primera Primera Z1: Jagged text. Mono prints. Poor graphics.

You said commercial right? You said "workflow" ?
That means 10 perfect disks a day?
That = spending some money. At the very very least
you would be looking at an Epson 800 with durachrome inks and perhaps an auto refiller kit
to save money.

By all means, buy a R200 or even save more
money and buy a $40 Leximark and do a
custom cd printing job on it. Its your business

[sync]

offline,

I agree that neither R200/300 or Z1 seem well suited to the task.

I know the R800 is a fine photo printer. Won't it still require long drying time and coating?

[offline]

I have sold commercial DVD's printed with an Epson R210 (same as the R200) on grade A Princo and Ritek
media. They came out dry and I shipped the
next day uncoated. I even ran one under tap water after a
week and no ink came off unless I ran my thumb over it several times roughly.

Others here have reported wet disks, smearing and
smudging. I can't comment on their results or what
you can expect. It seems that different disk brands are
able to absorb different amounts of ink and that
some people need higher photo settings (= more ink)
than I do to get the result they like.

As a test I printed a jet black DVD with the highest
settings and the disk did indeed come out damp
and needed 24hr air drying to cure. I could still smear
the image with medium to light pressure from my wet thumb. I sprayed a section with plain hairspray and
let it dry. After that it could not be smudged.

My view is that people treat DVD's poorly. By the
time a few sweaty hands damage the printed top,
the reading bottom will be scratched and half
wrecked anyway. Safe to say as mine were sold
at $45 USD each, the owners would tend to look after them.

[lordsmurf]

I see printing on media as senseless, would rather spend effort on cases, but whatever you prefer.

That's a surprising response. What would you do, leave the discs blank or write on them?

Absolutely. Leave them as clean white (inkjet, thermal) or clean matte silver media. Customers can do WHATEVER THEY WANT with them. Sharpie, printer, labels, etc. The disc comes in a nice artwork DVD case, so if they mix things up, that's their problem, not mine. I just assume not mess with any of that crap. Ink and thermal printing is just too high maintenance, both in creation and as a final product.

[NightWing]

How much would the disk art change? 100%, 50% 25% of it?

You can get silk screen DVD blanks. If you are pushing 5 to 10 a day thats about 150 to 300 a month. That fits about one small order form most companies.

If you want then would recomend go for a stack/burn/print machine.

[FulciLives]

I see printing on media as senseless, would rather spend effort on cases, but whatever you prefer.

That's a surprising response. What would you do, leave the discs blank or write on them?

Casio makes 2 really inexpensive CD/DVD printers that will print on any blank CD/DVD disc. They do not need to be special "inkjet" printable discs.

For instance the plain silver top Taiyo Yuden DVD-R discs from RIMA.COM work well and are dirt cheap ... as well as being one of (if not the) best medias around.

Anyway the Casio printers just print simple text (I think they can do simple logos as well) right on the DVD or CD. It looks professional and is simple and easy to do and pretty much smudge proof.

One model only works when connected to a computer whereas the other model can be hooked up to a computer or used as a stand alone unit (it has a tiny keyboard on it).

Last I checked these were in the $100 to $130 range. I don't have one myself but a friend has one and like I said it looks nice, is easy to do, etc.

Otherwise I would go for a thermal color printer over an inkjet printer if you need full color at high quality. Thermal color won't have the smudge factor that inkjet has.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
They have both of the Casio printers at RIMA.COM
The CW-50 and the CW-75

[sync]

I see printing on media as senseless, would rather spend effort on cases, but whatever you prefer.

That's a surprising response. What would you do, leave the discs blank or write on them?

Absolutely. Leave them as clean white (inkjet, thermal) or clean matte silver media. Customers can do WHATEVER THEY WANT with them. Sharpie, printer, labels, etc. The disc comes in a nice artwork DVD case, so if they mix things up, that's their problem, not mine. I just assume not mess with any of that crap. Ink and thermal printing is just too high maintenance, both in creation and as a final product.

Do your customers know that they are getting unlabeled discs when they purchase?

[lordsmurf]

Do your customers know that they are getting unlabeled discs when they purchase?

I do not advertise "with labels" anywhere. Just discs and cases.
And even then, cases are a premium offering.
I provide conversion and restoration services.
Making things pretty is not in the work description.

[NightWing]

Well you could go with "silver" non silkscreen disk and put hub lables on them. Not the best but.

[sync]

Well you could go with "silver" non silkscreen disk and put hub lables on them. Not the best but.

Do you mean the labels that people are always saying are so bad to put on discs?

[Bodyslide]

I have used an Epson 900 for almost two years and have had no complaints with the printed DVD-R's. I now have an Epson 200 and have printed 50 DVD-R's, and so far my customers have no issues. I burn the dvd, print and then place in jewel case and ship to the customer. I also have a CIS system.

[NightWing]

Well you could go with "silver" non silkscreen disk and put hub lables on them. Not the best but.

Do you mean the labels that people are always saying are so bad to put on discs?

Not quite. Those full disk lables makes a mess. These are much smaller and fit the clear hub area only. And are clamped on by the drive so no tendency to shred or fly off. A silver top disk and a decent bleed print on the hub ring lookd decent. Cant rember but you get 26 per sheet and I think 500 for 9 or ten dollars. Been a while since I order them.

[iooi]

Having to lay out a bunch of discs to dry and then coat them doesn't seem very practical in a commercial setting.

Well mine printed on a epson 900 go straight into disk slips after printing and i dont have problems with the ink rubbing off. If the inks not dry when it comes out of the printer hten its laying down to much ink and requires settings changed.

[sync]

I just ordered an R200 that was cheap enough for me to test it out and see for myself.

Is there any place to get inkjet printables in small quantities for testing purposes?

[Bodyslide]

Sample Packs Below.

http://www.supermediastore.com/4x-dvd-r-printable-sampler-pack.html

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=PT-RS&...tegory_Code=DM