Several commonly used disc disk surface printing method inventory

From the software CD that we bought from the software store, we can see that its printing surface, that is, the surface of the disk is printed very beautifully. If ordinary users want to print their own discs, what should they do? In fact, the printing of optical discs does not necessarily require the use of professional machines. Here I will introduce several common methods for printing optical discs.

1, thermal transfer method

It is relatively simple to use thermal transfer method to print the disc surface. The most important point is that it does not require plate making. Everyone may know about thermal transfer from printing a personalized T-shirt. Using thermal transfer printing, there are now two methods, the first one is more familiar, is the use of thermal transfer paper.

Thermal transfer paper, also called T-shirt transfer paper, is a special kind of paper. The surface of the paper has a layer of thermal sol. Its chemical properties are as follows: Changes have occurred, with a rubbery nature. Put a thermal transfer paper into the printer, print out the image that you have already designed, then stick it on the surface of the object you want to print, then iron it back and forth on the paper with an electric iron. In this way, the heat transfer paper When it is heated and becomes gel, it will stick on the objects below it.

Nowadays, the market price of thermal transfer paper is generally more expensive, and the price of one of the cheapest A4 format thermal transfer paper is also more than 4 yuan. The use of thermal transfer paper for printing is not complicated for the equipment, as long as there is ink jet Printers and electric irons are OK, but it has great shortcomings. Friends who have printed T-shirts on thermal transfer paper will find that after transferring an A4 thermal transfer paper to clothes, the paper can be clearly seen. It is like a plastic film. Sticking to clothes, it can also reflect light, and there is a big difference between the areas where there is no paper, and some thermal transfer papers will also turn yellow. How to solve this problem? Now let me introduce the second method of thermal transfer printing.

The first method of thermal transfer is: "thermal transfer paper + ordinary ink"; and the second method is "plain paper + thermal transfer ink." Nowadays there is a kind of “thermal transfer ink” on the market. The chemical property of this ink is that once it is heated, it has gel properties. In this way, the paper printed with the thermal transfer ink is pressed onto the surface of the substrate. After the high temperature treatment, the thermal transfer ink on the paper will be printed on the substrate surface. Obviously, this method is better than the use of thermal transfer paper, because the use of thermal transfer paper printing, paper blank areas will be printed, this is a layer of white film, after printing will be obvious, and the use of heat This will not happen with the transfer ink.

Of course, if thermal transfer ink is used for thermal transfer, the requirements for the equipment are also higher. The thermal transfer ink is an oily ink. Now only Epson printers can use thermal transfer ink because the printers on the market are now available. Only the print head of the Epson printer is piezoelectric. Piezoelectric print heads print ink by applying a voltage across the piezoelectric crystal to change the size of the piezoelectric crystal; and printers other than Epson, such as Canon, Lexmark, etc., their print head is foamed, foaming print head principle is: to heat an ink tube, and then make bubbles in the ink tube, and then make the ink in the ink tube to escape, spray On paper. As already mentioned, the thermal transfer ink chemistry is gely once it is heated, and the print head of the foam printer has to raise the ink temperature to produce air, so that the thermal transfer ink is foamed. Chemical changes have occurred in the print head and it is no longer possible to eject ink.

However, the use of thermal transfer inks for thermal transfer costs is higher than the use of thermal transfer papers. In addition to the use of Epson printers, it is also necessary to use a continuous ink supply system that is compatible with the printer. Now the Epson printer's continuous ink supply The system price is around 100 yuan. The highest cost is the thermal transfer ink. Take the Epson four-color printer as an example. The capacity of a bottle of transfer ink is 100ml, and the price is 80 yuan. The four colors are 320 yuan.

In the above, two methods of thermal transfer printing were introduced. In terms of printing cost, the second method is actually relatively low. Although its first investment is relatively large, the cost is allocated to each A4 thermal transfer paper. , Or "thermal transfer ink + plain paper" is relatively cheap, and the printing effect is good.

Use the already printed thermal transfer paper to print the disc surface. Pay attention to the flatness of the surface of the disc. The surface of the disc should be as smooth and flat as possible. This will improve the printing quality. The printed surface of the thermal transfer paper will be close to the disc printing surface. If using an electric iron, first fix the paper and the disc, then adjust the temperature of the iron to the highest (about 200 degrees Celsius), and then evenly iron it. After about 30 seconds, remove the heat transfer paper and complete the printing. . If you use a heat transfer machine (also known as a flat iron machine) for thermal transfer, the effect will be better, because unlike the electric iron, the heat plate of the heat transfer machine emits even heat, and there will be sound after the heat transfer is completed. Automatically remind users.

Thermal transfer materials suitable for: plastics, wood, metal, glass, textiles and so on.

2, adhesive stickers

In the computer city, we will find that there are a lot of circular adhesive stickers that are sold exclusively for sticking onto the disc surface. The sticker is placed in the printer for printing. After printing, it can be pasted on the disc surface, but this method Compared to the thermal transfer method, it is relatively backward, because the adhesive stickers on the disc are relatively thick, and sticking to the disc will be very obvious. Also, there may be a problem that the center of gravity of the optical disc changes after the sticking up.

3, the use of printable CD disk printer

There are some printers in the market that can directly print on CDs. For example, Epson R210/R310 and Canon's ip4000/i865 can print CDs directly. However, not all CDs can be printed using this printer. It can only print. Specified disc, which has a coating on the surface that absorbs normal ink.

When using, put the CD into the tray provided with the printer and put it into the printer to print.

4, using a CD-ROM printer

Optical disc printers are not very common in the market. They are used exclusively for printing optical discs, such as Casio's CW-100.

In the above, four common methods for printing CDs by ordinary users are introduced. Of course, the vast majority of commercially available CDs are printed using screen printers or offset printers. However, as printer technology for printable discs continues to mature, the cost of consumables will continue to decrease.

The quality of disc printing removes print elements, and the level of graphic design is also important. Now many of my friends are familiar with Photoshop and other graphic design software. There are also many softwares on the Internet designed specifically for CD covers, such as Nero Cover Designer. Using these softwares, beautiful CD covers can be produced.

Although the quality of discs printed by inkjet printers is not as good as that of offset presses, because it does not require plate making and has a high resolution, it should become the mainstream method for disc surface printing. I hope everyone can print a beautiful CD cover.

Reprinted from: Computer House