How do you label your disks ?

Raphy

So I still use the old school method, print on a cd label and stick the label on the disk.... but i'm looking for another method..something fresher...

Just curious how you guys label your disks for your clients.

ADMIT Photography

Light scribe? I'm wondering the same thing!

Sam

I think the two best methods are Lightscribe, which is what I use, or use an ink jet and print directly onto printable CD DVD.

Sam

Glort

I wouldn't dream of using those stick on labels! they can throw the disks out of balance, peel off and be a real pain.

I was in the office store not an hour ago and noticed packs of those and thought to myself " who would use those things now???
Guess I got my answer! :uhoh

I print my DVD's ( which was my reason for going to the office store!) on my inkjet printer. With the right disks the images is very good and adds a real professional touch.
I generaly use 3 disk holders at a time so I can let a few go whicl working on somethng else before reloading but it's not hard to churn out 100 disks an hour.

I also use the proper Movie DVD blank cases which I get stupidly cheap from a wholesaler ( .17c for a twin disk cover) which I print slicks for with my info on the back and a shot generic to teh event I'm covering with titleing on the front.
I put the preprinted disk in the pre-finished cover and we just pull the disk out and burn it and put it back in the cover and had it to the always impressed customer.

I'm not sure this has increased DVD sales outright but i suspect it has added to the average spend on image disks ( we offer 5, 10 or 10+ disks).

It has certainly made our product look more valuable just through the presentation and adds a real quality/ Professional feel to this method of image delivery.

jarboedoggart

I just used USB flash drives. They are getting crazy cheap, I just bought a bunch of 8gb cards for something like $8 each on Amazon. For good customers, I put them in a little gift box. Haven't burnt a CD in a long time.

For other customers, I simply use the smugmug's bulk file download. I don't think this is available to clients, but I click the download gallery button on smugmug, they email me the link to the ZIP file, and I forward the link to the customer.

Just a couple of ideas.

mercphoto

Sticky labels are BAD. I use either a CD-proof Sharpie if its just for me, or I have an old Epson R220 printer that I keep only for printing labels directly onto the CD/DVD itself. Lightscribe is a third option.

AceCo55

Use a Canon ip4700 to print directly to printable CD's or DVD's. Any printer with this facility will come with software to prepare a disk. At the moment I use a program called Acoustica CD Label Maker - found it very easy to produce professional, and personalised looking disks. I supply the disk in a clear case so I don't bother printing slicks. I have cases that hold one, two or three disks depending on what has been ordered.

bobcath

AceCo55 wrote: »

Use a Canon ip4700 to print directly to printable CD's or DVD's. Any printer with this facility will come with software to prepare a disk. At the moment I use a program called Acoustica CD Label Maker - found it very easy to produce professional, and personalised looking disks. I supply the disk in a clear case so I don't bother printing slicks. I have cases that hold one, two or three disks depending on what has been ordered.

I've been using Lightscribe too, works fine. However that said I really like the idea mentioned above re using a usb stick / pen drive. This would make it so much easier for our customers.

Thanks for the tip!

Regards
Bob

angevin1

Glort wrote: »

I print my DVD's ( which was my reason for going to the office store!) on my inkjet printer. With the right disks the images is very good and adds a real professional touch.
I generaly use 3 disk holders at a time so I can let a few go whicl working on somethng else before reloading but it's not hard to churn out 100 disks an hour.

ON a standard Inkjet? Please tell me more. I haven't had the need until now. Just uploaded my artwork and ordered 10 discs silkscreen printed. Not very pricey, though Shipping is the larger component. Still, would like to be able to do it in-house at reasonable (<$2500) cost.

mrcoons

Does anyone recommend a decent vendor to get custom flash drives?

Raphy

Thanks for the info guys ! Lots to think about...

Glort

angevin1 wrote: »

ON a standard Inkjet? Please tell me more. I haven't had the need until now. Just uploaded my artwork and ordered 10 discs silkscreen printed. Not very pricey, though Shipping is the larger component. Still, would like to be able to do it in-house at reasonable (<$2500) cost.

What cave you been hiding in Tom?? <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
As far as I'm aware, any $100 canon ( and most others) will do it.
Like the poster a couple above, I have Canon 4700's ( 6 of them) as well as some 630s and even an old 6700 and they all do it and all use the same printing tray.

You open a slot in the front of the machine, place the disk on a holder, insert it, the machine prints it and you put in another one. I use the software that comes with the printer and it works fine for what I want but i normally create the image/ titles themselves in PS and just import it as an image for the thing to print.
Only thing is you need to buy inkjet printable disks which most are now and I have found no more exy than the non printable ones. I pay $11 for a tub of 50 and have used over 1000 of this brand now with no probs at all and the printing looks great.

I can do personalised disks for 1 to however many copies I like and do different things for different divisions of events etc.
I think sending disks out if you need large qty's is the way to go but if you have kids, you can set up a couple of printers and pay them piece rates to sit there for an hour or 2 and get a lot done as well!

I figured all up with my disk, ink, printing the slick and the DVD cover my cost is under .50C per unit. The WOW factor of someone seeing thier name or the disk personalised to the event is as they say, priceless. I do them for client portraits, glam sessions, weddings.. you name it. Cheap, quick and easy.

I'm doing a charity event tomorrow and I have printed up 20 disks and covers to take. If we need more we'll do some onsite and if we have too many I just put them aside and use them for sending images to the lab or giving to friends when they want copies of stuff and other non important things. generally I can guess pretty good what we need and my only surprises are needing more rather than less.

Just go down to your local office/ printer retailer and have a look. As far as i'm aware all but the real low end cheapies do disk printing now.

WillCAD

Just out of curiosity...

If you deliver digital products on a flash drive, is there any way to make the drive permanently read-only to prevent the client from accidentally deleting or modifying the original files?

angevin1

Glort wrote: »

What cave you been hiding in Tom??
As far as I'm aware, any $100 canon ( and most others) will do it.
Like the poster a couple above, I have Canon 4700's ( 6 of them) as well as some 630s and even an old 6700 and they all do it and all use the same printing tray.

You open a slot in the front of the machine, place the disk on a holder, insert it, the machine prints it and you put in another one. I use the software that comes with the printer and it works fine for what I want but i normally create the image/ titles themselves in PS and just import it as an image for the thing to print.
Only thing is you need to buy inkjet printable disks which most are now and I have found no more exy than the non printable ones. I pay $11 for a tub of 50 and have used over 1000 of this brand now with no probs at all and the printing looks great.

I can do personalised disks for 1 to however many copies I like and do different things for different divisions of events etc.
I think sending disks out if you need large qty's is the way to go but if you have kids, you can set up a couple of printers and pay them piece rates to sit there for an hour or 2 and get a lot done as well!

I figured all up with my disk, ink, printing the slick and the DVD cover my cost is under .50C per unit. The WOW factor of someone seeing thier name or the disk personalised to the event is as they say, priceless. I do them for client portraits, glam sessions, weddings.. you name it. Cheap, quick and easy.

I'm doing a charity event tomorrow and I have printed up 20 disks and covers to take. If we need more we'll do some onsite and if we have too many I just put them aside and use them for sending images to the lab or giving to friends when they want copies of stuff and other non important things. generally I can guess pretty good what we need and my only surprises are needing more rather than less.

Just go down to your local office/ printer retailer and have a look. As far as i'm aware all but the real low end cheapies do disk printing now.

I'll look into it for certain. Hopefully I can find a review of the differences between Silkscreening and Inkjet printing.

As far as the cave thing. I get that around here every so often when I chime in about not knowing about some technology. Sorta funny, Sorta not, and definitely Shallow.

Glort

angevin1 wrote: »

I get that around here every so often when I chime in about not knowing about some technology. Sorta funny, Sorta not, and definitely Shallow.

Tom,

I apologise if I caused any offence, that was not my intention. My Fault in making an unfunny joke.
Again I apologise if the remark was out of line.

angevin1

Glort wrote: »

Tom,

I apologise if I caused any offence, that was not my intention. My Fault in making an unfunny joke.
Again I apologise if the remark was out of line.

No worries! Thing is, we all have self-constructed caves of sorts from all sorts of data; historical, modern, emerging. And it can be difficult to navigate mere typed words versus being in person. Thanks for the apology!

nipprdog

Raphy wrote: »

So I still use the old school method, print on a cd label and stick the label on the disk

Put the label on the disk case.

If you have a SM account, why even mess with a disk.

I recently shot a soccer game that I was paid to shoot. I set up 2 galleries for the parents to download from. One had the full size reolutions for prints. The other had small, 650 pixel images with my WM for them to use on FB, email, etc.

Granted, different situation. Fwiw.

angevin1

nipprdog wrote: »

Put the label on the disk case.

If you have a SM account, why even mess with a disk.

I recently shot a soccer game that I was paid to shoot. I set up 2 galleries for the parents to download from. One had the full size reolutions for prints. The other had small, 650 pixel images with my WM for them to use on FB, email, etc.

Granted, different situation. Fwiw.

One very good reason to "mess" with a Disc is, The client asks for it, expects it and will get it.

kd2

Funny you should bring this topic up. I was just featured in a Customer Service blog about a CD I presented to a client. I had no idea the little details had made such a big impression. It was just what I normally do.

http://whosyourgladys.com/blog/?p=4242

I have an Epson 835 all-in-one printer for office use and it allows me to print a color image (plus text) directly onto a printable CD. I then put the disk in a round CD tin. Makes for a very polished presentation.

http://www.ricestudiosupplies.com/CDDVD-Tin-Round-Case-of-10

r3t1awr3yd

I just did the flash drive idea with my most recent wedding. One pink, one blue. (His and hers, irrespectively).

As for locking the files from deletion? I didn't even think about that

Mark Dickinson

Lightscribe, dual burn on max contrast works great if yours are too light:). We are moving to solid state drives with our high end packages and working with a way to get the drive to look nice. This way it can be presented. Disc, are so slow, and problematic. I do like the flash drive though thats fun!

idiotabroad

sharpie, works everytime. i like the drive idea. but all hail the forever sharpie

lifeinfocus

Go this link Photodex Blog just posted on Oct. 18th to see some other very nice options. Content is about packaging and delivery slideshows (hate that name). There is a list of vendors and many other choices to dress up packaging of a CD, DVD or Blu-ray.

Phil

lifeinfocus

WillCAD wrote: »

Just out of curiosity...

If you deliver digital products on a flash drive, is there any way to make the drive permanently read-only to prevent the client from accidentally deleting or modifying the original files?

Can change properties on a file to "read only" but not sure how to a whole set of files at one time. Anybody?

Art Scott

kd2 wrote: »

Funny you should bring this topic up. I was just featured in a Customer Service blog about a CD I presented to a client. I had no idea the little details had made such a big impression. It was just what I normally do.

http://whosyourgladys.com/blog/?p=4242

I have an Epson 835 all-in-one printer for office use and it allows me to print a color image (plus text) directly onto a printable CD. I then put the disk in a round CD tin. Makes for a very polished presentation.

http://www.ricestudiosupplies.com/CDDVD-Tin-Round-Case-of-10

Those are cool......

WillCAD

lifeinfocus wrote: »

Can change properties on a file to "read only" but not sure how to a whole set of files at one time. Anybody?

Select entire group, right-click, select Properties, enable "Read Only" and click OK.

But that doesn't protect from deletion, only from direct modification.

Art Scott

lifeinfocus wrote: »

Can change properties on a file to "read only" but not sure how to a whole set of files at one time. Anybody?

I have a silly question......

Why would one ever want to deliver images to a client on a flash drive, as opposed to a CD or DVD??

Mark Dickinson

Why would anyone ever want to use a cd/dvd when tapes work just fine. That was said probably 25 years ago. Well Safety Security, and just an advancement in technology with these rectilinear drive, I thought of it as a way to dress it up and present it as a new feature. Flash drive I dont know that I would want that. It might be easy to lose, but the solid state say 32 gb, and with the new cameras coming out if those who deliver files to clients want to do it in full res, some disc/dvds are exceeding 2 and 3, where lightscribe takes 30 minutes x2 per image side, and 20 minutes for data, so it is taking 2-2.5 hours to make lightscribe. My full unlimited package its around 10k has it in it for all the shoots it includes. THats my reason for trying out solid state drive.

SamirD

WillCAD wrote: »

If you deliver digital products on a flash drive, is there any way to make the drive permanently read-only to prevent the client from accidentally deleting or modifying the original files?

r3t1awr3yd wrote: »

I just did the flash drive idea with my most recent wedding. One pink, one blue. (His and hers, irrespectively).

As for locking the files from deletion? I didn't even think about that

lifeinfocus wrote: »

Can change properties on a file to "read only" but not sure how to a whole set of files at one time. Anybody?

WillCAD wrote: »

Select entire group, right-click, select Properties, enable "Read Only" and click OK.

But that doesn't protect from deletion, only from direct modification.

Another way to read-only protect the files is with the DOS (command line) command ATTRIB +R. When run from the directory with all the files, it marks all of them read-only in one quick command. I use it all the time on my originals no matter where they are.

I did some quick searches and the only way to truly write protect a particular usb drive is to modify the registry on a windows machine--not a good method.

So here's what I'd do. If there's extra space, I'd copy the images again into a second directory. Users may make a mistake and delete one file, but odds are they won't delete the same file twice.

Art Scott wrote: »

I have a silly question......

Why would one ever want to deliver images to a client on a flash drive, as opposed to a CD or DVD??

Flash drives can write quicker. Plus, you can get customized ones that will act as marketing material like a custom pen, letter opener, etc.

PRW_Photo

SamirD wrote: »

I did some quick searches and the only way to truly write protect a particular usb drive is to modify the registry on a windows machine--not a good method.

Some (Most? All?) USB keys have a MECHANICAL write-protect switch on them. You usually need a pen tip or something similar to set it. I've not used this myself, but the 3 or 4 USB keys I've used all had them.

For CDs/DVDs, I currently use Lightscribe. I've also used my old Epson R200 to print directly on inkjet-printable disks.

SamirD

PRW_Photo wrote: »

Some (Most? All?) USB keys have a MECHANICAL write-protect switch on them. You usually need a pen tip or something similar to set it. I've not used this myself, but the 3 or 4 USB keys I've used all had them.

Only some have these. Most unfortunately don't. If not, it's a perfect solution!