Sharpie Printing

[ronin]

Hi all,

Just finishing an old supply of Maxell DVD-R 4x, yellow top. I don't do the inkjet printing thing, just use a sharpie which printed well on these Maxell's. Thinking of getting the TY at Rima or Shop4Tech. The cheapest are the Silver lacquer tops. Do Sharpies print ok on these??? I have some older TDK CD-R's with a silver shiny top and the Sharpie sucks on these. Or should I spend the extra pennies per disc and get the White inkjet printable ones, even though I'm not using an inkjet?

Thanks for any thoughts

Ronin

[redwudz]

I use glossy silver top Prodisc DVD media all the time with Sharpies, no problems. You can even (Mostly. ) wash it off with isopropyl alcohol. 99% works best.

[lordsmurf]

I don't like the way sharpies write on the shiny silver discs. Harder to read, lots of fingerprints, and some discs can smear or take longer to dry.

[redwudz]

I agree about the shiny tops and Sharpies. They do smear if you don't let them dry enough. My next order will at least be the 'frosty' silver tops.

[NiteLite]

Get the Sharpie"Ultra Fine Point" and use the shinny silver top. No problems.
Just remember you wouldn't sit on wet paint so give the disc some time to dry too. I've done bunches using the combo and never had one to smear. Of course I dont touch that part of the disc.
Also those TY's 8x -R are a really good price at Rima.
Good luck.
NL

[redwudz]

Now if I could just borrow a graphics plotter from work and put some Sharpies in place of the pens, I could really make nice Sharpie labels.

I have lousy penmanship. That's my real labeling problem.

[ronin]

Thanks for the replies everybody. I think I'll go ahead and get some of the TY silver tops at RIMA. My penmanship is pretty good!!!

Ronin

[Nelson37]

Red, I feel your pain. I have noticed that the fine point Sharpie seems to make my crappy writing somewhat more readable. The fat point is really bad.

[lordsmurf]

I've tried Extra and Ultra both on the shiny discs. If anything, I thought it was harder to write with the narrower tip pens, the tip wanted to slide away from you.

Part of that also may depend on how hard your impression is (I think that's what they call ti), how hard you press down while writing.

The drying time was the same.

[ROF]

Ultra-fine sharpies is what I use for DVDs. I use a fine point sharpie for CD-r. Both require some drying time. The perfect drying time is to use the disc. While it's in the drive or set top it will spin around in a warm environment. The perfect drying point. I would never use ultra fine on CDs because there is no protective layer between the label side and data side. When I used ultra-fine or I use them on CDs to prove a point(no pun intended) the CD is useless when reading data where the ultra fine marker shows through causing the a laser read error. This doesn't happen with DVD.

[lordsmurf]

You know, I wish they made "armor" CDs that had an extra plastic upper layer on them. I wonder if that's technically feasible.

I usually labeled my CDs, or wrote on them with "fat" Sharpies (fine point).

[Nelson37]

I never dry them in the player as the solvents and some ink might deposit onto the lens. I always dry them outside the player.

[strongbad]

what's to dry? just write on it and put it on the dvd case. i usually blow at it (if it even does anything) and put it in the cover, stored in my closet with a damprid bucket in there.