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Subject:Re: CD Production Advice From:Stephen Riley <SRILEY -at- BCT-SYSTEMS -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Wed, 10 Sep 1997 10:08:31 +0100
>One of my co-workers (our QA person) is assessing the feasibility
of
>shipping our cross-platform software product and doc on CD. The
first
>release is likely to be very low volume, perhaps even on-demand
type
>of production.
Hi Carol
A timely question for me, hope this is useful ...
Sticking to the original question of graphics and ignoring the data.
I've just gone through the same process and evaluated
2 possible solutions for our low volume releases (50ish):
Full colour inkjet printer (Fargo Signature) £900 Sterling
www.fargo.com
Pros: Cheap, desktop solution, 600 x 300 dpi
Cons: Needs custom, white CDs
Slow (1 min?). Not as good as the resolution would suggest.
Poor colour matching
Single colour thermal ribbon (Rimage CD Printer) £2900 Sterling
Pros: Fast (5-10 s). Uses standard silver media. Sharp image. Used by
lots of the big names for their single colour jobs
Cons: Single colour (extra colours by multi pass with other ribbons)
Cost
We're going with the Rimage: quality is more important than colour
(and you too if you've rejected labels?) and returning the Fargo.
Image quality, print speed and the use of standard media swung it for
us.
If and when we need full colour we'll get a batch screen printed with
a generic design externally, and then add product info ourselves at
release time.
Image and data are independent -- data goes on the "bottom" and the
graphic on the top. Doesn't matter what order you do it in.
[We're using an HP Surestor 2x speed to write the data: speed is
not critical for us, with only 50 MBish]
Steve Riley
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