Michael Satterwhite writes:

I was going to burn some Gimp CD's to distribute at our IBM (Brotherhood of Magicians - not Business Machines) Ring. Does anyone know of any CD labels that someone has made? Would look better than me just writing "Gimp" on the front with a sharpie.

I have a script-fu to make the template: http://shallowsky.com/software/cdplugins/

I haven't used it in years, since I found out what sticky labels do to CD longevity (I lost a bunch of vacation photos I'd burned only a couple of years earlier), but for handing out festive CDs to a group, labels do make sense and they're fun to make.

what do sticky labels do to cds? they chemically alter them or something? It seems like the topside could get damaged but that the bottomside would remain fine but i guess not eh?

On 1/10/07, Akkana Peck wrote:

Michael Satterwhite writes:

I was going to burn some Gimp CD's to distribute at our IBM (Brotherhood of Magicians - not Business Machines) Ring. Does anyone know of any CD labels that someone has made? Would look better than me just writing "Gimp" on the front with a sharpie.

I have a script-fu to make the template: http://shallowsky.com/software/cdplugins/

I haven't used it in years, since I found out what sticky labels do to CD longevity (I lost a bunch of vacation photos I'd burned only a couple of years earlier), but for handing out festive CDs to a group, labels do make sense and they're fun to make.

-- ...Akkana
"Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional": http://gimpbook.com

Alan Wolfe wrote:

what do sticky labels do to cds? they chemically alter them or something? It seems like the topside could get damaged but that the bottomside would remain fine but i guess not eh?

On 1/10/07, Akkana Peck wrote:

Michael Satterwhite writes:

I was going to burn some Gimp CD's to distribute at our IBM (Brotherhood of Magicians - not Business Machines) Ring. Does anyone know of any CD labels that someone has made? Would look better than me just writing "Gimp" on the front with a sharpie.

I have a script-fu to make the template: http://shallowsky.com/software/cdplugins/

I haven't used it in years, since I found out what sticky labels do to CD longevity (I lost a bunch of vacation photos I'd burned only a couple of years earlier), but for handing out festive CDs to a group, labels do make sense and they're fun to make.

-- ...Akkana
"Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional": http://gimpbook.com

The data layer on a CD is, to be technical, just a hair below the top of the CD. I've even heard that CDs/DVDs written on w/markers (Sharpie, etc.) will be compromised quicker that w/o. I know they (Sharpie) now makes markers specifically for writing on CDs/DVDs. I have some right here and the package says, "Specially formulated ink for digital media". Whatever the hell that means. But that's definitely a vote for never using a normal Sharpie on a disc!

If you really want to mark your discs and not worry about screwing up the data layer, it's probably a safe bet to write in the inner (transparent) ring area. That's the only place I'll write on a CD/DVD anymore.

E

Eric P writes:

The data layer on a CD is, to be technical, just a hair below the top of the CD. I've even heard that CDs/DVDs written on w/markers (Sharpie, etc.) will be compromised quicker that w/o. I know they (Sharpie) now makes markers specifically for writing on CDs/DVDs. I have some right here and the package says, "Specially formulated ink for digital media". Whatever the hell that means. But that's definitely a vote for never using a normal Sharpie on a disc!

Is it more expensive that a normal Sharpie?

Labels have a different temperature expansion than CDs (polycarbonate) and they might absorb moisture. Therefore they have a potential to distort the CD.

Matthias

Matthias Julius wrote:

Eric P writes:

The data layer on a CD is, to be technical, just a hair below the top of the CD. I've even heard that CDs/DVDs written on w/markers (Sharpie, etc.) will be compromised quicker that w/o. I know they (Sharpie) now makes markers specifically for writing on CDs/DVDs. I have some right here and the package says, "Specially formulated ink for digital media". Whatever the hell that means. But that's definitely a vote for never using a normal Sharpie on a disc!

Is it more expensive that a normal Sharpie?

Um... I don't recall the price. But I think may have been just a tad more expensive than regular Sharpies.

E

Just whacking away at this injured horse again.

I have been burning music CDs since 1996, putting sticky labels on since about 98. I have burned and stickied hundreds of CDs. While the life span of home-burned CDs (and I use the expensive ones designed for studio use) is not as good as pre-packaged ones, I have many CDs with labels from 1998 that still play perfectly. And a few that don't play, but that trouble is confined to one track, which leads me to believe it is not the label causing the difficulty.

Thanks-

Jim Clark

Jim Clark writes:

I have been burning music CDs since 1996, putting sticky labels on since about 98. I have burned and stickied hundreds of CDs. While the life span of home-burned CDs (and I use the expensive ones designed for studio use) is not as good as pre-packaged ones, I have many CDs with labels from 1998 that still play perfectly. And a few that don't play, but that trouble is confined to one track, which leads me to believe it is not the label causing the difficulty.

For CDs it is actually not as bad as for DVDs. There the requirements for flatness are tighter. And they are again a lot tighter for BR and HD-DVD. There sticky labels are vorbidden.

Matthias