Hi, Keith.

I can think of 4 ways to label CDs/DVDs. Each way has pluses and minuses.
All of them, of course, put the label on the top side of the disk, NOT the
shiny side which has the actual recorded data.

1. Good old Magic Marker, grease pencil, fountain pen - or a modern
replacement, not a ball-point pen. The advantages of this are obvious, and
others in this thread have pointed out some drawbacks.

2. Print on paper labels and stick them onto the disk. In addition to
other problems mentioned already, such as unbalancing at the CD/DVD player's
high RPM, the label can come unglued, leaving a sticky mess INSIDE the
player that can be hard or impossible to clean, perhaps destroying the
drive.

3. You mentioned "printable CD". Print directly onto the surface of the
disk? I think I've heard of such, but I've never seen a printer that can do
it. They would need a straight-through paper path because the disks don't
bend very well, with rollers set for very thick media - and probably special
inks.

4. LightScribe, which does not use a printer at all, but uses the CD/DVD
burner's laser to burn the image directly into the upper surface of the
disk. I bought a couple of packages of these when I first heard of the
technique and actually burned a few of them. (Several coasters, plus a
couple that I was kind of proud of.) But I haven't done another one in
about 5 years and the blank disks are still in the boxes. It was a great
idea that just didn't fit me, I guess. Maybe it has speeded up by now, but
the ones I did took a long time to burn the label into the disk.

For a while, I burned a lot of CDs/DVDs. But now, most of my music is
already done, and I no longer beta-test new operating systems, with a new
build every month to download and burn. I seldom use optical media for
backups, so I don't burn more than a half-dozen disks a year. And i long
ago began to use RW disks, so each new beta build overwrote the previous
version; I just X'ed out my first Magic Marker label and updated it - which
I could not have done with LightScribe.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3528.0331) in Win8.1 Pro with Media
Center


"Keith Nuttle" wrote in message ...

I have been using Lightscribe to Identify my CD. Then HP stopped
support of that technique. Then some one developed printable CD.
However in my search for a new printer, none seems to handle printable
CD. Has that technology been thrown on to the scrap heap also?

If so are there any other professional ways to ID CD? (magic marker is
not acceptable.)