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By admin, January 14, 2010 10:29 am

When people print your own discs at home, they usually use a sticker label that can feed through an ink-jet printer. So when people call in about a CD or DVD project they think that we might be doing the same.

Since we are doing much more then a few discs at a time we use more professional means of printing directly on the discs. We use four different types of printing - Prism, Everest, Silkscreen and Offset printing.

Prism (Black Text Imprint) -
The Prism printer is used for short run projects with a black text based imprint. Images or detailed graphics don’t print on the Prism, so your best bet is using text and if you have a simple all solid black logo that will work as well. This also prints the best on the silver surface of the disc.

Everest (Full Color Thermal) –
This is another one of our short run printers, but the Everest prints full color onto the disc. This works best for printing full color images onto the disc face. The Everest is great for photos and detailed logos and graphics. It doesn’t work great for large areas of solid black however, so when designing for the Everest think of full color images and colors on the lighter end of the spectrum.

Silk Screen (1-3 color)
Silk Screen printing on disc, is used for medium to large runs, 500 and up. Silk Screen works great for solid colors and uses the Pantone Color Matching system (see below for more info) for inks when printing. Silk Screen designs are better when they are simple and straightforward and you want to stay away from items like gradients and detailed graphics or photos.

Offset Printing (Full Color CMYK printing)
Offset printing is our full color option for medium to large runs. Great for photos and complex graphics, Offset printing is similar in detail and clarity as full color paper printing. This printing method is however not great for large areas of solid colors.

Some things to think about when designing your imprint -

Matching paper print to your disc imprint -
If you are using a similar color from your paper print on your disc imprint, due to the different nature of imprint surfaces and paper it is difficult to get a spot on match. We do our best to match them, but expect some variance in the colors.

Designing imprints in Photoshop –
While Photoshop is  a great photo editing tool, it isn’t the best program for text. Illustrator and Indesign are much better at handling text and your text will be much cleaner. If you have to design your imprint in Photoshop, you might want to stay away from any real small text or text with thin lines. It’s not such a big deal when doing Offset or Everest Printing, but when doing Silk Screen printing it can effect the print quality.

Pantone Color Matching System -
When Silk Screen Printing we use inks from the Pantone Matching System. If your not familiar with Pantone Colors and you design your Silk Screen imprint with CMYK colors we can pick a Pantone Color that closely represents your color. However some CMYK colors don’t translate as well, so starting with Pantone colors does work the best.

If you have any questions about your imprint or setting up your artwork, feel free to call the Copycats art department with questions or concerns we would be glad to help you out. Just call 612-371-8008 or 888-698-8008 and ask for the Art Department. Or you can ask your salesperson and they will you in touch with us.

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By copycatsmedia, April 23, 2009 10:59 am

We’re looking to give back to our loyal customers who spread the good word of COPYCATS Media.  That’s why we’ve decided to have a free prize drawing each Friday at noon.  Anybody with a Twitter account can enter (don’t have a Twitter account? Sign up now and start following COPYCATS Media), and here’s how you do it:

Reply to @COPYCATSMedia on Twitter or use the hashtag #copycatsmedia in one of your tweets before noon on Friday.  That’s all you have to do.  We’ll have a drawing and announce the winner Friday afternoon.  It’s that easy!

So what’s the prize this week?  25 Full Color 11″x17″ posters!

We’ll print up 25 posters with your custom design.  The posters are printed on one side with full color CMYK.  All you have to provide is an art file of your poster design, and we’ll print them up and ship them to you for free!

You can use these posters to sell to fans, promote an upcoming event, or advertise your CD/DVD release.