When you receive pdf proofs via email, what are you really looking for? Our artwork approval checklist has it all, but what about proofing for color? Can we trust the colors from the monitor screen and say that’s how it is going to print? It’s an obvious and big NO-NO.

PDF proofs are meant for checking font types, images placement etc, while it gives you some indication of color, it is not at all accurate in telling how colors will turn out. Each monitor is calibrated differently and therefore the same pdf will look different on yours and the person sitting next to you.

Whether you are printing just a few or thousands CDs / DVDs, you can always request a hard copy printing proof. This is how you can accurately tell the artwork will print on the production machines, and it is the only way to correctly proof color. Artwork can be adjusted if the proof reflects color differences.

Many clients ask how to insert special characters such as © (copyright), ™ (trademark) symbols in Photoshop or Illustrator. Here’s how to do it on a Mac and PC respectively:

Mac:

Step 1: First we are going to enable the special characters palette. Bring up the System Preferences menu, via Finder, then click on ‘International’

Step 2: Click on ‘Input Menu’ tab and check the ‘Character Palette’ box

Step 3: Now a symbol like an American flag should show up in the upper right corner, click on it and then click ‘Show Character Palette’

Step 4: Now the Characters window will appear, the © (copyright), ™ (trademark) and other popular symbols can be found under ‘Miscellaneous’. Browse through the other sets for foreign language characters. Once the symbol is selected, put your cursor where the character going to be pasted in the program (Photoshop, Word or others), then click on ‘Insert’ in the ‘Characters window’, whoa-la!

Windows:

Step 1: Go to ‘Start’, ‘Run’, enter ‘charmap’ in the text box and hit ‘OK’

Step 2: Select the font from the drop down menu, browse for the copyright symbol. Once you locate it then double click on click ‘Select’. Click ‘Copy’ to copy to clipboard. Now you can paste it into any program you desire (Photoshop, Word, Email, anything). Also note each font might have a slightly different set of special characters.

Thermal printing is a method we use for short run CD duplication and DVD duplication. The process does not require much set up and allows capacity of up to 1000 discs per day. However as in all printing methods there are certain limitations, if they can be avoided you can make sure to get the best possible print quality.

Tips for thermal on-disc printing:

1. Gradient effect: although it may look good on offset printing, gradient on thermal sometimes results color changes that are not smooth. Try using solids, pattern or photographic image instead.
2. Thin lines: avoid lines that are thinner than 0.3 pt, the result is pixelated lines with uneven colors
3. Small fonts: keep all fonts, even the small copyright copy to at least 5 pt. Text that is too small will be hard to read and look pixelated.
4. Grays and Blacks: avoid designs containing only grays and blacks. Distinctive and contrasting colors can achieve vibrant and pleasing results.
5. No Pantone allowed: thermal printing is essentially a 4-color process, so if your design contains any Pantone spot colors it will be converted to CMYK. If there is a color you need to match, bring a sample print or let our staff know the PMS number the piece needs to match. However the colors will never be the same as the Pantone.
6. Full color images: high-resolution photographic images is the best way to showcase the photo-listic feature of thermal printing, a combination of images, solids and text achieve great results

As always if you are unsure how your design will look on thermal printer, we provide production proofs, or ask to speak with one of our printing specialist.

Silver knockout is the silver part that shows through the artwork of the disc, as the example here. When designing CD artwork for the silver knockout, simply use white and indicate on your artwork the white areas will actually be silver.

When the discs are printed we will then skip the normal white base and print the art directly on the silver disc. Take note that any CMYK printing on silver will have a slight metallic look. It can be avoided if a special white mask is created just for the areas that do require a white base. To do so create a separate white layer and indicate it as a special white mask. Extra film charges might apply.

A graphic / artwork template shows the size and folds of a printed piece. It is usually in the form of pdf, eps or psd. If you are just starting out with the design, download the template and use it as a guide. If you have already completed the design with another company’s template, no worries, sizes between companies are usually very similar. Our prepress department will notify you if there is any significant discrepencies. Make sure there is enough bleed beyond the trim line.

When you receive pdf proofs via email, what are you really looking for? Our artwork approval checklist has it all, but what about proofing colors? Can we trust the colors from the monitor screen and say that’s how it is going to print? It’s an obvious and big NO-NO.

PDF proofs are meant for checking font types, images placement etc, while it gives you some indication of color, it is not at all accurate in telling how colors will turn out. Each monitor is calibrated differently and therefore the same pdf will look different on yours and the person sitting next to you.

Whether you are printing just a few or thousands CDs / DVDs, you can always request a hard copy printing proof. This is how you can accurately tell the artwork will print on the production machines, and it is the only way to correctly proof color. Artwork can be adjusted if the proof reflects color differences.

One of the biggest challenge in a replication/duplication project is making sure the artwork looks as good as it can be. It sounds straight forward but color proofing is not simple.

A few reasons to complicate matters: our monitors, most monitors are non-calibrated so colors will vary from one to the other. Therefore our pdf proof is meant for type, position and image proofing only, not for color proofing. We should not fully trust our office machine to reflect how our piece is going to look. Each printer is calibrated differently, the same piece will look different from one printer to the other.

One might ask, how do we ever get the right color? First off, if colors are important, always request a hard copy proof. It lets you look at your piece on paper, rather than the monitor, so you make the right judgement. It’ll also show how the press is going to interpret the colors in the piece. Furthermore, consider Pantone colors if there are strict color rules you have to follow. Pantone color printing usually increases the cost of printing in booklets, trays and digipaks.

Lastly – have the right expectations, in reality, each time the press prints there will be a small variation, even with the same piece.

Thermal print is the technology we used on short-run CDs duplication or DVD duplication (< 500 discs). It utilizes dye-sublimation method to print directly onto the disc face, thus no labels, to achieve highest photolistic print quality for short run discs today. The print is UV stable, and the printable area goes all the way into the center of the disc.

For large run CD replication or DVD replication, offset or silkscreen printing will be used instead.

There are 2 types of replicated DVDs:

DVD-9 is a double layer DVD with 8.5GB of storage. It is also very common for a feature length video.

DVD-5 is a single layer DVD with 4.7GB of storage. It is the most common type of DVD format.

Now, what about DVD-R and dual layer DVD-R (DL DVD-R)? These are blank media formats for duplication only, which is burning with DVD recorders. DVD-5 and DVD-9 are created by molding from glass masters, which does not involve any blank media. This is also known as dvd replication.

Tomorrow we’ll tackle the issues that everyone asks: Are replicated discs better than duplicated discs?