| Sometimes a prospect will say to me: "I don't | | | | spending that time doing something far more important |
| understand why I should use a CD duplication | | | | on your business (preparing a sales letter for example) |
| company. CD media and duplication towers are so | | | | instead of mundane, manual work. If you do produce |
| cheap now that I can do it all myself." And I say: "I can | | | | fairly large numbers of printed discs and decide to |
| buy flour and eggs and bake myself a cake for less | | | | choose an automated system, think carefully about it. |
| than a pound. But I still buy it at the supermarket." Here | | | | Many companies advertise that you can load their |
| are few points to consider before you decide to | | | | printers and just walk away. This is not the case. CDs |
| produce everything in house or use the services of a | | | | get jammed, printers stop or misalign for no reason |
| CD/DVD duplication company. | | | | and robotics can fail. You might think that you don't |
| Print quality | | | | need to monitor the process but you do. A |
| The cheapest method of full colour printing is inkjet. | | | | professional duplication company can really remove |
| You can buy inkjet printable media online and produce | | | | this headache. |
| a very good print result. In fact, the print engines on | | | | Cost |
| many desktop printers are similar, if not the same, as | | | | The costs of the CD/DVD printers vary depending on |
| the automated inkjet printers used by many | | | | functionality (example including automated dropping of |
| professional duplication companies. However, this might | | | | the media or duplication). At the time of this article, a |
| be great for one or two hundred discs but not much | | | | manual desktop colour printer with CD printing |
| more. When you need larger quantities of discs, you | | | | functionality could cost as little as £80 (approx |
| need to strongly consider having a screen printed or | | | | $160USD). Those printers have the wonderfully "stable" |
| offset (litho) printed disc. The print quality of these two | | | | trays that you place the CD in and push back into the |
| processes completely blows inkjet away for most | | | | printer. A more robust printer such as the Microboards |
| designs. Also, you don't have to be concerned about | | | | GX Publisher would set you back £500 |
| waterproof or ink fading issues that still arise with inkjet | | | | ($1000USD). Add another few hundred pounds if you |
| media. Yes, you can buy more expensive waterproof | | | | need a DVD duplicator. There is a point where the |
| surface treated media now but if ink is not covered | | | | equipment becomes too expensive and you have to |
| with a UV treated lacquer, fading can still be a problem. | | | | decide if the number of discs you produce actually |
| Time | | | | justifies the purchase of these machines. |
| One full colour, full coverage inkjet CD can take up to | | | | My advice: if you produce less than 500 discs per |
| 3 minutes to print. If you're using one of the cheap | | | | month across a number of projects, have the time and |
| desktop printers with a long tray, add another minute | | | | patience to oversee the process yourself and are not |
| messing about with the tray. If you are only producing | | | | too concerned about print quality, then produce in |
| one or two discs at a time, this time scale may not be | | | | house. Otherwise, spend some time selecting a |
| a problem for you. However, if you need fifty or | | | | professional CD/DVD duplication company that you |
| hundred, you might not be happy loading and unloading | | | | can trust with your work. |
| a desktop printer for two or three hours. You could be | | | | |