Disc printer worth a spin

Making your own CDs and DVDs with a computer is old news. But making them look as good as the ones you buy is another story.

In lieu of the ugly marker, which we used to scrawl upon the disc its contents, came the CD label.

These are first inserted into a printer and afterward are stuck directly onto the disc.

This rather inelegant solution is rife with problems. If you don't stick them centered exactly in place, what you wind up with is a lopsided mess that can actually cause the disc to malfunction as it spins. Plus, it just looks bad.

To help solve this problem, some printer models have appeared that let you print directly onto the disc, using CDs and DVDs that have a printable surface.

And while these do a decent job and can produce discs that rival the appearances of professionally mastered media, they can be difficult to use.

Most require a special insert, into which you mount the disc, and require some extra setting up before you can start printing.

This can be tedious, especially when you want to print more than one.

Admirable afterthought

The attempt to make a paper printer that's capable of printing CDs is admirable, but it's an afterthought at best.

Why not invent a CD printer that's specifically designed to print CDs and DVDs from the start? Dymo has.

Dymo is introducing a brand-new type of printer made to print onto printable optical media.

The Dymo DiscPainter (www.dymo.com) is a little desktop USB 2.0 CD/DVD printer that will produce a full-color, 600-DPI image in about one minute; 1200-DPI images can be completed in around three.

These faster printing speeds are realized in how the DiscPainter prints.

Instead of the typical back-and-forth movement used by a conventional paper printer, the DiscPainter uses Dymo's new RadialPrint that literally spins the disc as it prints onto it.

The DiscPainter is capable of printing to matte or glossy printable discs, and it can print images on the entire printable face of the disc, from the outer edge to the inner hub. Users also can select from nine ink-density settings.

To print a disc, simply insert it, and as you see it spin, through the clear cover, you actually see the image appear as the printer's head moves across the face of the disc.

Disposables are easy to handle, as the DiscPainter uses a single-cartridge ink system that is capable of printing up to 100 discs before needing replacement.

Plenty of stuff

Included with the DiscPainter is the Discus for DYMO software, which includes dozens of ready-made templates to help you get on the road to disc design.

An included photo-collage tool lets you create designs using up to 16 photos.

The DiscPainter can also print images from popular design applications such as Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, QuarkXpress and SureThing.

It also can print to the smaller, mini-disc form factor and works with both Windows and Macintosh OS X.

The DiscPainter is being released this month and will sell for $279.

Anyone who has watched someone making pottery on a wheel knows how much more efficiently the spinning process works on objects that are round.

Sure, you could come up with a way to make pots using a loom or something that moves back and forth, but why would you want to?

Spin printing onto a disc is a better idea, and I'm surprised it took this long for someone to come up with a way to do it.

Better late than never, Dymo.