JPF Home Page Forums Southeast US Chapter Message Boards Tampa Chapter Message Board BEST way to print own CD's

I'm SO freaking impressed with my new setup - had to share.

I bought an Epson Stylus Photo RX595 from Best Buy - $99. It can print directly on CD's. I had some plain white printable CD's hanging around - printed a CD on it. It looked... eh. Better than a sticker label, but not very nice.

Then I bought 100 ultra hydroshield blank CD's from discmakers. They're glossy and water resistant. WOW!!! It looks freaking AWESOME. Looks as good as any commercial CD I've ever bought. The cost is about 61 cents per disc.

If you're wanting to make your own CD's, I'd highly recommend the combo I got - Epson Stylus Photo RX595 and some ultra hydroshield discs from discmakers.

The other trick I've found is for printing the cover. You can buy double-sided gloss white brochure paper from Staples - This way you design and print a two-wide CD cover that you fold. Looks great, doesn't slip out easily. And gives you more real estate to put on pictures or lyrics or whatever you want.

If you're doing very small amounts, ie 5 CD's at a time, this is an awesome way to go. If you want to do 100 or more... I'd look into tunecore.

I still haven't tried printing CDs with my Epson R280 but reading your story has gotten me all eager to try. Do the ultra hydroshield discs from discmakers dry faster than regular printable CDs? My understanding is that one shouldn't touch the printed surface for 24 hours.

Hey Guys,
This is an AWESOME way to print your own CDs. We can tell you from experience, as our last release has been completely self-produced.

We have Epson Print CD and the possibilities are limitless to printing your own Cd designs and any accompanying jackets if you are handy with Adobe or some other graphics program. Now, I'm not saying it's easy! (LOL!) because, no it's not in some cases.

Front Row Ticket (our last release) was done this way, complete with full 12 page full color insert books and those were a real project to design and assemble as far as knowing which pages go on the back of what so when you assemble books they are in order, but once you get it down, it's not too bad. And the CDs themselves always look great.

Anyway, just our three cents!
:-)
Cindy

I've been doing my CDs like this for years.The only problem was
the Epson eats alot of ink, I solved that problem with a "continuous ink system" . Its about $100.00 up front but if you're replacing 6 to 8 cartriges regularly, it easily pays for itself.
you can find them for all the print cd printers (epson) by google ing it.
well worth the time and research.
I dont remember where exactly i found mine, but I think it was through http://meritline.com
good luck
here's a link for your printer

http://www.macroenter.com/CISS_for_Epson_Stylus_RX595_p/cis-ep-rx595-e45.htm

Well, I touched it after about 5 minutes and the ink didn't come off. However, before I put it into my Mac, I'm going to let it sit overnight. No point in taking chances. It looks freaking awesome, though. Night and day difference between the regular white CD and the hydroshield CD.

Fellas,
As far as inserts for thin cases, I may be not technically savvy enough, as to do it myself so I went to my local printer for double sided printing. My artwork covers on one side, with microsoft word text on the other. I lined everything up to get 2 inserts to a page when I trim them. The printer used 90lb glossy card stock and printed fifty for about fifty bucks. I cut them down myself and get two inserts to the sheet or 100 inserts for about fifty cents apiece. I don't know how my costs compare with what you guys are doing. I know Alex used to laminate his plain paper inserts to "thicken" them up.
Don

Don,
What about the back of the jewel box? Did you leave it blank, or do one of the inserts for the back? Just curious.

The way I'm doing it right now, it's about 30 cents per CD (roughly.) I'm buying brochure paper (double-sided glossy) for about 20 cents per page and doing the same thing you are (two per page, but instead of cutting them I'm folding them so that I get a little "booklet" for the cover. Then on another page I'll print two copies of the back of the CD. So it's roughly 30 cents. But since I'm printing them at home, that doesn't include the cost of the ink, which I have a hard time calculating.

If I ever need to make 100, I'm going to go with tunecore. They charge about $2.60 per CD for 100, and that includes EVERYTHING... even shrink wrapping. Probably the best deal around. For now, though, I'm making my own, about 5 at a time.

Believe me, I'm all for doing it yourself, have done so myself (and will continue), but are we really saving that much? You've got to buy the CDs, cases or sleeves, printer, ink, paper for the cover/liner notes (etc.) and the one thing you haven't factored in, your time. How much time do you spend on putting each CD together? It quickly adds up and that's not counting things like shrink wrap and a barcode if you want one....

Steve V

Yes - We're saving $195... which is the cheapest deal I can find out there that's "reasonable," and it's $195 for 50 CD's. But you might was well go $260 for 100 CD's, at that point.

OK, actually, it totally depends on how many CD's you need. The way I play (once per month,) I probably need somewhere around 5 CD's a month and that's being optimistic. I don't see buying 100 of them. However, if I can ever get to the point where I'm playing where there's more people, and I'm playing once a week, THEN I'll probably go ahead and drop the money on 100 copies. Cause I'm sure as hell not going to sit in front of my computer and make 100. Like you said, you have to factor in your time. If I'm making five of them, it really doesn't take that long. If I had to make 100, I'd end up eating my mouse.

On the other hand, it's been said that sitting on 100 CD's will motivate you to sell them in ways you haven't imagined. I personally have not found this to be true - I ordered a bunch of CD's for my second CD. They're still here. In a box. Then again, I suck at marketing.

You can get a barcode from Cd Baby.
In the long run I figure I am saving a few bucks by not having to do a minimum of fifty or what ever.
I can also print them as I need them.
I don't have a bunch of cd's sitting around collecting dust.
Been there,done that.
I am not saving a ton of money but my sanity remains in tact.
From my point of view,shrink wrap is only necessary if you can get them into store's etc.
Most people won't refuse to buy your cd because the pain in the butt wrapping is not included.
Places like Taxi,most song contests,& the JPf awards want that plastic removed anyway.

Thanks, Richard (and all) for your valuable insights. I can think of one reason in favor of getting the equipment and doing it yourself. It's that when you do get to the point of needing higher quantities, you know exactly how much trouble the duplication plant is saving you. Even then I plan to keep my home CD printing plant as a backup.

I think the big thing that has changed is that CD's made at home can now look just as good as the ones you pay to have done. That's the big deal. But only if you go for the hydroshield discs.