dazza14 Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 Morning all, my band have recorded an EP, decided on the artwork and have gotten quotes to get the darn thing duplicated BUT the stumbling block is the actual disk and how to get our design onto it so the printers can just print and print and print... So what I need is a template of some kind that I can just add the design to (it's currently an image), ideally something I can overlay the image to. The duplicators send short emails like "that's too big, we can't print that" without offering any sort of assistance so it's left down to me to try and sort it. Any help?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
project_c Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 They should supply you with a template and specs, if they can’t do that (ie they’re crap) just google ‘cd jewel case templates’. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 Do you mean the artwork for the sleeve or the on-body? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza14 Posted May 24, 2019 Author Share Posted May 24, 2019 The actual disk. I phoned them yesterday and explained my predicament and they directed me to a template to use, it was a bit of a faff but I got it done - and, in the process, have learnt a new skill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 59 minutes ago, dazza14 said: The actual disk. I phoned them yesterday and explained my predicament and they directed me to a template to use, it was a bit of a faff but I got it done - and, in the process, have learnt a new skill. It's called the "On-body print". Who are the CD manufacturers? They should have had all the templates you needed available for download from their site. Unfortunately although many of the templates for covers/labels/on-body are the same from one manufacturer to the next, some like to do things their own way, so they are not always interchangeable and you really need to use the templates provided by your chosen manufacturer. And good to hear that you finally got what you needed. I trust you converted your image to CMYK before sending it off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza14 Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 On 24/05/2019 at 08:55, BigRedX said: It's called the "On-body print". Who are the CD manufacturers? They should have had all the templates you needed available for download from their site. Unfortunately although many of the templates for covers/labels/on-body are the same from one manufacturer to the next, some like to do things their own way, so they are not always interchangeable and you really need to use the templates provided by your chosen manufacturer. And good to hear that you finally got what you needed. I trust you converted your image to CMYK before sending it off? CMYK? I saved it as a jpeg and sent it via email to them, they replied pretty quick with a message saying it was fine. It's not a crucial design but one I struggled to describe so I think as long as they saw a 'sketch' it was enough to go on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (Key) and these are the colours that will be used to print your on-body. Most budget and free graphics programs use to RGB (Red Green Blue) which are colours used to drive the display of your computing device. While RGB will convert automatically to CMYK at the printing stage, the range of colours available in RGB is far greater than that in CMYK so if you have used very bright and vivid colours for your design you may be somewhat disappointed when the CDs come back with much more muted colours than you were expecting. This is why it is always best that you do the conversion yourself (or work in CMYK from the start) as you will be able to make your own adjustments to the design to get as close as possible to the effect you want to achieve. However, as it appears from your post that the "design" is just a layout for the printers to use to create the actual artwork for print then you should be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishman Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 If you don't me asking out of curiosity, who are you using for the manufacturing? I've designed many CDs over the years in my job as a graphic designer and have just started using this outfit with great results: https://www.bandcds.co.uk For once the text on the spine was perfectly centred – many big budget projects I've worked on haven't achieved that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza14 Posted June 10, 2019 Author Share Posted June 10, 2019 On 08/06/2019 at 12:31, Fishman said: If you don't me asking out of curiosity, who are you using for the manufacturing? I've designed many CDs over the years in my job as a graphic designer and have just started using this outfit with great results: https://www.bandcds.co.uk For once the text on the spine was perfectly centred – many big budget projects I've worked on haven't achieved that! It's a company called 'Short-Run'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza14 Posted June 14, 2019 Author Share Posted June 14, 2019 The cd's arrived on Wednesday and the cover was the only bit printed in the correct place!!!! To their credit the company have offered to reprint the cases for nowt and sent me a template to ensure it didn't happen again but I sent them the artwork clearly marked at 'cover', 'page2', 'page3' and 'rearcover'. It seems my request - which they declined - for a proof prior to printing should have been heeded. I won't be using them again, a comedy of errors I think but I could do without the added annoyance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 I am an old fogie and still buy CDs, but I'm just about the only person I know who does. Gotta say, it's much easier just uploading your songs to Bandcamp and your FB page. No bastard pays for music anymore, just give it away. We made more money with one T shirt run of 36 than any music sales hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted June 14, 2019 Share Posted June 14, 2019 (edited) Always amazes me that people are quite happy to pay £10+ for a T-Shirt that's probably taken an hour to design and has a unit cost of less than £3 to produce, but won't pay the same for 40 minutes worth of music on a CD that has cost more to produce in terms of recording, mastering, printing etc. then the band will ever get back even if they sell every single copy they have made. Edited June 14, 2019 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza14 Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 UPDATE The cd's are sat in a post office somewhere awaiting re-delivery (apparently it's due out today). I was told they would be delivered Tuesday just gone, but no, we've missed four gigs where we could have sold some cd's, we had three or four people asking at every gig if they could buy one, so we've missed out on sales (the original date we agreed on was 21st June). The cd's are duplicated in Scotland and the printing is done in Poland, how that works, I don't know. Needless to say I won't be recommending them to anybody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evert Albers Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 (edited) I happen to be a designer, and feel at home in the world of templates, CMYK etc. Lately I needed >6 hours to make a design for a friend's CD (not overly complicated, but in this example with a photo grid on the inside that required a touch-up of plm. 10 images coming from different sources), put everything in place etc. So if you don't have the layout skills in the band it's good to reserve some budget. Edited July 17, 2019 by Evert Albers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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