What is a Lightscribe direct disc print and label drive

What is lightscribe? Lightscribe is a new technology that prints a label directly to your CD or DVD disc. You can design and print text and graphics onto the surface of a disc making them look neat an professional.

what is lightscribe

What is Lightscribe and how does it work?

Using laser technology, Lightscribe’s specially coated discs chemically change when a laser strikes the label side, producing titles and graphics created using Lightscribe software. In other words the label is etched into the surface of the disc. The same laser that burns the data, prints the Lightscribe label also.

What you need

Lightscribe-enabled disc drive It should have a Lightscribe logo on the drive. I have an ASUS DRW-1814BLT and it has never let me down.
Lightscribe-enabled discs Look for the Lightscribe logo when buying discs. CDs and DVDs with a printable surface are not compatible.
Disc labeling software This Lightscribe Disc labeling drive should come with your Lightscribe drive. Mine came with Nero burning rom 7 which does the job. If you did not get software withyou drive then see our freeware section for Discscribe.

How to print a Lightscribe disc

Create and design a label for your disc. Save it to use later.
Burn your data to your disc as you normally would.
When finished burning, open the disc drive and flip the disc over. Close the drive.
Choose to print a Lightscribe label. You can open the one you saved earlier and use this.

Benefits of having a Lightscribe disc labelling drive

The label is laser etched and needs no ink to print to disc. Therefore there are no smudges or labels to peel off.
Makes your discs look professional.
The label in permanent and final. If you wanted to remove it you would probably have to scratch the rest of the surface away..
Organises your cd collection.

Tips for printing and designing Lightscribe labels

Use your own images and logos to avoid breaking copyright laws.
To reduce your printing time, instead of choosing best, choose Normal or Draft. They will produce a lighter label but will do the job. Choosing best takes longer as it is better quality.
You can choose the re-do or re-print your disc as long as you use an identical design. Therefore if you use a draft mode to print your Lightscribe label, you can return later to do the same again. It will automatically burn the label in the same position.
Save your label designs to re-use.

What is lightscribe? Please leave your comments below.