Direct disc printing

Cocohoney

Cocohoney

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Alexandra
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I have been looking at Lightscribe drives, but am not sure if this is a better option than a printer which can print on to discs?
I have had such a nightmare with printers, hence looking at the Lightscribe, but having read some reviews am now wary of those too!

What do you all use for printing your discs?

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding printers or external drives, and also compatible dvd discs?
 
I've not been that impressed with lightscribe

I print using a Canon MG6150 which does a pretty decent job of printing onto discs. I've been using Verbatim printables, but next batch will be Aquashield glossy ones.
 
I have to agree with Andrew, Plus it takes ages to burn each lightscribe disc,:thumbsdown: They are available in different colours but not very impressive when finished.:thumbsdown:

Toonie
 
Oh bother, I was hoping to save on ink (is it made from unicorn tears?) and stress.

That Canon is one I was looking at- do you use it with a mac? What software do you need for printing the discs? I wouldn't be using it that often, do the inks seize if it isn't used a while do you know? (bitter experience...)

Would the Lightscribe be any good if you just wanted text on the disc rather than a picture? Does it take longer to burn the more complex it is? I am clutching at straws a bit here as I don't have a happy relationship with printers- ever seen that Eddie Izzard sketch? :bang:
 
I'm in the same situation - but I'm weighing up getting discs printed for me (i.e. just generic ones) vs buying a printer and doing my own.

Totally bewildered by the range of printers out there - a short list of ones suitable for printing onto disc (and doing reasonable photo prints) would be good.
 
I used Lightscribe for a while. ( a very short while). The idea is great, but the problems are three fold.

1/ They take a long time to print. About the same length of time to write the original DVD/CD OK if you only want one but for more than that it's a bit of a drag.

3/ You need a Lightscribe enabled writer. £20-£30

3/ the density of the printing is very low. You can get ,if you look hard enough , coloured Lightscribe disks, which help ( a bit), as does writing slower. But not a great improvement

I reverted back to good old white label disks and an ink jet printer.

Another option is, if you have very neat handwriting, is to write directly onto the disk itself. White label disks accept ink ( real ink from a pen, not a ballpoint) Done properly this can look very neat and unusual. But you do need neat handwriting.

Another option might be to electronically distribute what you would normally put to DVD/CD. OK sounds a bit daunting but isn't.

Most of my commercial output goes this way nowadays

Open a DropBox account. ( It's free for small volumes up to 2.5 Gb) . Go to Dropbox.com.

This is a cloud storage system. You have a couple of options here. You can add a folder to your Dropbox account and the share it with the person you want to have the contents. ( It's simple, you just select the folder, choose share, in the pop up add their email address and a short message. They get a link and they can access the folder and it's contents. For a one off item you can get the URL of the file. Copy that into an email. When the recipient clicks on it the file is downloaded. It really is easy.

Hope this helps
 
Canon iP4700 - or similar.

Canons work great with Macs. Epsons in general just about work with them. If you're running OS X you'll swear less with a Canon.

Comes with all the s/w you need. CD-Print app is a little clunky but works well. Buy some decent disks.
 
+1 for the Canon MG6150 printer, prints photo's on great and I use Verbatim disks.
 
Thanks everyone, I am more concerned than ever about the lightscribe now- perhaps a set of generic printed discs is the way to go.

Agreed Lynn, it's impossible to work out which printer- sometimes it's not even obvious in the description whether they do actually print on disc. Very useful to know that Canon and Mac are good together thanks for that Jonathon.

The biggest reason I am avoiding a disc printer is the fact that we will only be using it occasionally and many printers I have had (yes, many *sigh*) have been unhappy about this, so that I almost ended up replacing all the cartridges with each use.

I am not sure if there is a printer which copes with minimal use, I have tried googling but can only find vague references to it being something to do with the type of heads? I am however, only googling in vague terms as I have no idea what I am talking about!
 
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