Disc Labels, My One Weakness!!

I love making movies.  I love writing them, filming them, and editing them.  Then I love designing a cool DVD for them so I can send them off to clients and friends.  I’ll make a cool menu with animations.  I’ll even put previews of my similar projects that play when you first put the disc in, a lot like the previews that would play on old VHS tapes when you hit play on your VCR.  I especially love designing a cool cover to go on the case of the DVD and a label to go on the disc itself.  But you know what I hate?  Printing DVD labels.

I remember one time back in high school I found a way to print DVD labels easily.  My dad’s old computer was able to burn a black and white image right onto a disc in the drive.  I wish I could remember whatever secret I used for printing color DVDs though, because now it’s just a big pain and really bad for my wallet.  Here’s my rant: I’m printing DVD labels for a batch of discs I’m sending them.  This is the fourth time I’m doing this project, so I should have fixed all the bugs in this process, right?  Wrong.  In years past I would have between 100 to 300 discs to manufacture.  This year, for reasons that belong in another rant completely, I only have 14.  So I go to my printing shop of choice like I normally do and tell them I’m placing an order of DVD labels to be printed and applied.  In one hand I’ve got the burnt, label-less discs and in the other I’ve got a flashdrive with the image I want to print on the discs.  I just have to hand them off to the employee, he types away in his computer, and in a day or two I look at a proof.  If I like it, he prints up the rest, handling all the precision and alignment with printing DVD labels in that exact circular size with professional ease.  But not this time.

“We only print DVDs in batches of at least 25 since we ship them offsite.” Well there goes that.  The employee then tells me if I buy the do-it-yourself DVD labels from an office supply store and make a document that’ll line up the images with the sticker paper, they can print on the sticker paper for me.  That was the exact process I was trying to avoid!  It’s near impossible to line up something on your computer screen with something that’ll print onto a DVD shaped sticker on a sheet of paper.  Not to mention that the label paper is expensive!  So I go to an office supply store, throw down 30 something dollars on the DVD label paper and some more cash on a fresh set of ink cartridges, which ended up being a REALLY good idea in the long run. 

Back home.  I find a Photoshop template, since I’m very proficient and comfortable in that program, and align my images with where the stickers should be.  I remember last time I did this at TSTV for 24seven (I ended up making a template from scratch by measuring the sticker paper with a ruler) I had to print a couple test sheets and experiment with the printer size settings to get it just right, but since I’m taking this to a printing shop they probably know exactly which settings to use!  Wrong again.  Sort of.

I stride back into the print shop after my internship one day, DVD label paper in hand, discs and cases in the car.  I’m gonna get these labels printed, apply them myself, and immediately ship them off so I can be done with this project!  But wait.  My labels are for inkjet printers and this employee tells me their laser printers won’t handle that paper.  I’m going to have to print them at home, on my own printer.  Great.

This brings me to last night.  After a fun couple of card games with my roommates I decide to get to work.  I print a test sheet on regular paper to see which way I should feed my labels in and figure that all out.  Should be easy now.  Put my label paper facedown in the printer, open up my Photoshop template, and hit print.  Wrong again!  The scaling is off on my labels, so it doesn’t line up.  Well that’s one sheet in the trash.  I keep trying this, adjusting the printer size.  Eventually I get a copy where the images are the right size, but still not aligned!  I look closely at the professional template that I downloaded from a very reputable site and see the template itself is off center!  I wish I thought to keep the template I made back at TSTV.  I don’t even think it’s on my old computer anymore!  So I now have to use the grid and ruler in Photoshop and nudge my images pixel by pixel until they’re dead center.  I print it out and see once again, it’s misaligned.  Gah!  OK, I try the company website.  They have an online feature that lets you print labels from your browser.  I line up my images in the easy to use disc shapes, hit print, and same result!  My labels are off center.  How!?  I followed their instructions perfectly!

By now I’ve burnt through 7 or so sheets of that label paper and who knows how much ink.  I shuffle through my remaining blank sheets of label paper and find a CD in there with printing software.  Not really sure how it’ll help me since their own website couldn’t, but I grudgingly install it.  I find my template in there and, wait a second, this is really easy to use.  I can line up my images really easy, and so far I don’t have to worry too much about measurements.  I put a test sheet in the printer and hit the print button.  Lo and behold, it worked!  15 minutes later everything’s printed and I’m putting my covers and labeled discs into their DVD cases.  I remember what my secret in high school was now!

Back then, I used an easy to use program to do exactly what I’m doing now.  I never printed more then one test sheet, and it never caused me headache.  It’s back when I used Photoshop for very few things, so I never thought to use it for DVD labeling.  But nowadays I use Photoshop for so much more that I avoid installing other design software on my computer.  After all, with all Photoshop can do, why even bother with other software?  Which is why it never occurred to me to install the disc in my label packet.  Yes, I knew in the back of my head that the CD should be in there, but my resistance to using other design software shunned the idea of using it before I could even fully form the thought in my head.

So lesson learned.  If you’re buying labels to print out, USE THE SOFTWARE THAT COMES WITH IT. Turns out they do a good job of removing all the headache for you.  Or just need more then 25 discs so someone else can print the job for you.  I think I’m writing this down more for me to remember later then for the people reading this.