A DVD Printer Suitable To Impress Wedding Customers

[Harry Settle]

Epson 1800 R. Print my DVD's and also prints for my photo customers.

[Steve Shovlar]

Originally Posted by Phil Burton

Peter,

I've found these
Taiyo Yuden Watershield Full-Face Printable 16x DVD-R (Pack of 50) - SVP
to give the best DVD printing surafce I've come across and I only use the Epson R220, I also use the same printer to print the inlays with.

PM me and I'll send you a sample of the cover.

Eactly what I use, and from the same company. High recommended and they look totally professional. Currently I wouldn't use anything else.

[Bryan Daugherty]

Originally Posted by Jason Robinson

...went back to OfficeDepot's print center. But their colors were VASTLY different than my monitor or printer. I have yet to find a way to solve that issue.

Jason
I used to work in print. Many print houses use "color profiles" to calibrate their copiers/printers. Before you finalize your graphics, ask your local print house if they use a "color profile" and if they do design your project in that profile (I know photoshop cs and up let you specify color profiles.) The other question you should ask them, and i cannot stress this enough, is if they print in RGB color space or CMYK. RGB is what most consumer printers use which is why jpgs look good on home printers, but most professional printers design and output in CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black) which is where saving as a tiff can help. JPGs are automatically RGB, bitmap can be either, and tiffs aren't subject to as much artifacting and are typically CMYK. Another thing you can try is outputting to high resolution print ready PDF, most shops can print from these readily and reproduce your color gamut correctly. Your best friend in any print shop is the in house graphics designer, he or she can tell you the best way to prep you files for accurate reproduction. If you design in CMYK and are using stills grabbed from your NLE or camera, convert them to CMYK before pasting them into your project. This will allow you to tweak the colors if you need to before adding them to the mix. Also, most color laser copiers print at a resolution of 300dpi so 400ppi is a good setting for design but we usually would design at 600dpi (ppi) so that the copiers had twice the resolution needed for output. Again, check your local supplier and see what they recommend and if you get a blank stare when you ask these questions, then find another clerk. Hope this helps!

[Aaron Graham]

Hi peter I,m just up the road from you I use an epson rx685 for printing my DVD'S
the results are very good I had a ciss installed but removed it didn't want to ruin machine
I buy original and compatable for around a £2 each.

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Bryan Daugherty

Hope this helps!

Very helpful. Unfortunately, the folks at Office Depot's print center aren't graphics people. The print using windows Picture / Fax viewer. So.... yeah. Not the sharpest tools in the bag when it comes to higher end graphics design. I'll look into CMYK formatted images from now on.

[Bryan Daugherty]

I think I might be derailing the thread from the main topic since the OP was asking about DVD printing. I use an Epson R220 for short runs. Runs over a 100, I outsource for thermal printing to a local company (American Recordable Media or Video lab) and runs over 500 i send to DiscMakers for glass mastering, printing, stuffing and UPC coding-if necessary.

Originally Posted by Jason Robinson

Very helpful. Unfortunately, the folks at Office Depot's print center aren't graphics people. The print using windows Picture / Fax viewer. So.... yeah. Not the sharpest tools in the bag when it comes to higher end graphics design. I'll look into CMYK formatted images from now on.

You might be better off trying a FedExKinko's (my experience is at least one Employee at Kinko's knows their stuff) or try the yellow pages under "Printers" to find a local print shop that does high end color copying at competitive rates. With a Quick Google search in your area I found many results, you might try http://www.modernprinters.net/ for starters, they advertise competitive rates. You will pay more to have a small printer do the work but you will be able to get increased quality and a higher knowledge base. I wouldn't recommend it for every DVD jacket you need-but for larger runs or high end clients I would strongly recommend it. As in all things you get what you pay for. I would not let them talk you into scoring or folding services though as noted in earlier threads, the case will do the work for you when you insert and close it. Also take your Case with you and check the product carefully before you leave most shops will redo anything done incorrectly but after you leave it can be a fight.