Fast Turnaround CD & DVD Duplication-Replication Specialists

DVD / CD Printing questions answered

1. What is thermal printing?
2. What is thermal transfer?
3. What is inkjet printing?
4. What is silk screen printing?
5. What is litho or offset printing?

1. What is thermal printing?

   Used for single colour (mono) direct to surface printing, usually black. The media used is normally silver or white surfaced. This is a fast (30 sec. per disk) process and is ideal for fast turnaround durable results. Often used by the music industry and bands for promo’s and gig sales. Back to questions

2. What is thermal transfer?

   A process similar to thermal printing. Using a transfer sheet, to place full colour images onto the disk surface. The results are similar to Litho printing. Used for short runs where very high quality is required. It carries a production cost premium, as the consumables are very expensive, and needs specially coated disks. Back to questions

3. What is inkjet printing?

   Used for low volume runs (up to 500). It is the same process as a standard desktop printer. The ink prints directly to the face of the disc and is great for full colour designs, though it is recommended that only limited areas of block colours are used. Glossy and water-resistant discs can be used which give a glossy finish and allow colours to show more vibrantly. This is a relatively slow process (3 min. per disk in full coverage) Back to questions

4. What is silk screen printing?

   A stencil printing process, where ink passes through unblocked areas of a mesh to produce an image. Originally Silk was used as the mesh, hence the process was known as Silk Screen Printing. The ink is pushed through the mesh by squeegee onto the discs top. The UV light then applied on top of the disc to cure the ink. A silk screen print is usually 85 - 100 lpi (lines per inch). The quality of the print is high and used as standard for greyscale images, very bright images, metallic images or spot colour jobs. Very cost effective for runs of 250+ Back to questions

5. What is litho or offset printing?

   The best CD print quality available at 150-175 lpi. There are 5 separate colours (CMYK) plus a white base. The inks are applied onto the disc top by rollers. Litho/Offset print is able to show smaller text and details of an image smoothly and clearly. Photographic images, skin tones, full colour graphics and text are all improved with this print option. This is the best choice for high quality disc printing. Cost effective in runs of 500+ Back to questions