Wednesday 21 December 2011

Christmas Quiz - The Answers

The CD Team Christmas Quiz 2011 is now closed and the winner and two runners-up have been informed.


1. How many pipers piping did my true love give to me?

     9
     10
>> 11 <<

2. What animal is Snowball in George Orwell's book 'Animal Farm'?

     Horse
>> Pig <<
     Dog

3. John Callcott Horsley first designed what commercial Christmas item in 1843?

     Pudding
>> Card <<
     Cracker

4. London's Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is traditionally given by which country?

>> Norway <<
     Sweden
     Germany

5. In what year was Band-Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas' the UK Christmas chart-topping record?

     1982
>> 1984 <<
     1986

6. Who sang the 2005 Xmas number 1 'That’s My Goal'?

     Gareth Gates
>> Shayne Ward <<
     Westlife

7. From which country does the Poinsettia originate?

>> Mexico <<
     Australia
     Italy

8. Who wrote 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas'?

     Dr. Who
     Dr. Zhivago
>> Dr. Seuss <<

9. How many "la's" in one line of the song 'Deck the Halls'?

     7
>> 8 <<
     9

10. How do you say 'Merry Christmas' in Spanish?

     Oye Coma Va
     Adeste Fideles
>> Feliz Navidad <<

11. Who wrote the book that inspired the 1983 animated film 'The Snowman'?

>> Raymond Briggs <<
     Rudyard Kipling
     A A Milne

12. Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the movie 'Jingle All The Way'. What year was it released?

     1994
     1995
>> 1996 <<

13. In which city was Kevin lost during Christmas in ‘Home Alone 2’?

     Los Angeles
     Miami
>> New York <<

14. If you were born on Christmas Day what star sign would you be?

     Sagittarius
>> Capricorn <<
     Aquarius

15. Christmas Ridge is located in which underwater mountain range?

     Indian Ocean
     Atlantic Ocean
>> Pacific Ocean <<

16. Which ruler of England once abolished Christmas?

>> Oliver Cromwell <<
     Henry the VIII
     Winston Churchill

17. What is the city of Bethlehem also known as?

     The Holy City
>> The City of David <<
     The Forbidden City

18. What is the name of the character played by Will Ferrell in the movie 'Elf'?

     Santa
>> Buddy <<
     Rudolph

19. What Christmas food is made from Marsh-whorts?

     Brandy Sauce
     Bread Sauce
>> Cranberry Sauce <<

20. In Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol' who was Scrooge’s dead business partner?

>> Jacob Marley <<
     Casper McFadden
     Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

-----
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous 2012!

Author: Richard Dearing, Managing Director

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Christmas Quiz and Opening Times

Pre- and post-Christmas is an extremely busy time of year for us. If you have any requirements for our products or services in the next few weeks, or the first week of the New Year, please get in touch so that we can allocate a time slot in production and ensure we have your product in stock when you need it.

The CD Team Festive Quiz 2011!

To say thank you to our 2011 customers our sales team has put together a festive trivia quiz.

Answer all of the questions correctly and you will be entered into a prize draw for a chance to win one of the following prizes:

 - 1st Prize: One lucky customer will receive an Amazon Kindle eBook reader*
 - 2nd Prize: Two runners up will receive a £15 Amazon Voucher

The closing date for entries is mid-day on Wednesday the 21st of December at which point the correct answers will be posted here. Hint: call your Account Manager on 01491 63 63 73 if you get stuck.

Christmas and New Year Opening Times

CD Team office will close at 5:30pm on Friday the 23rd of December 2011 and re-open at 9:00am on Tuesday the 3rd of January 2012.

Our technical team will provide email and call-back support on Wednesday the 28th and Thursday the 29th of December for our support agreement customers. Please email any requests for technical assistance to technical@cdteam.co.uk.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous 2012!

Author: Richard Dearing, Managing Director

*Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with E Ink Pearl Technology. Please note that this competition is designed to reward our customers for continued good relations and CD Team limited considers it to be a proportionate and reasonable promotional activity. Please refer to your company policy; if you are unable to accept this type of prize CD Team Limited would be happy to provide a £100 charity voucher as an alternative.

Thursday 10 November 2011

FREE Personalised Print Samples

Personalised and branded materials are an integral part of business communication and with so many disc print choices available today it's important to make sure your print finish reflects the value of your disc's content and gives your customers and users a lasting positive impression.

Professionally printed discs can also demonstrate the importance and sensitivity of the data they contain and protect your intellectual property through clear branding and informative text.


Here at CD Team we're proud of the quality print we offer, so whether you're considering buying a disc duplication and print solution for in-house use or saving resources by using our competitive services why not see the results for yourself. Just send us your artwork and we'll send you a FREE inkjet or thermal personalised print sample*. Alternatively your Account Manager can arrange for you to visit our production area so you can bring your artwork with you for a live demonstration!

Call 01491 63 63 73 and request your free sample today.

To help you get the most out of your design, logos and images our in-house graphics specialist has published two informative articles on our blog:

Colour Matching
One of the most difficult tasks involved in printing disc and packaging artwork is colour matching. Many things can affect the way that colours appear and sometimes it is not possible to reproduce your intended colours 100%. What you see on your screen is never identical to the finished printed product. Click here to find out more.

Guidelines for Providing Disc Artwork
We are often asked how we would like artwork supplied to us to ensure the best quality output for a project. Whilst we can work with many different types of files to create print-ready artwork, some file types are less useful and can actually lead to a lower quality print finish. Click here to find out more.

Author: Richard Dearing, Managing Director

*Offer limited to two personalised disc print sample per customer. Available until the 23rd of December 2011.

Guidelines for Providing Disc Artwork

We are often asked how we would like artwork supplied to us to ensure the best quality output for a project. Whilst we can work with many different types of files to create print-ready artwork, some file types are less useful and can actually lead to a lower quality print finish.

We understand that our customers do not always have access to the latest design software and need to supply images to us as flat .jpg (or similar) files - as long as the images are of a high enough resolution we can use them.

Please bear in mind that your PC screen and many cameras will only give you a resolution of 72dpi (dots per inch) whereas we print at 300dpi. This means that a 72dpi image can only be reproduced at around a quarter of its original size.

Call 01491 636373 or click here to find our more.

When you send us your files please add the original file to your email or disc. Do not embed the image in any other document such as a Microsoft Word file. This can lead to a loss of quality as some of the image data is not retained by the software.

Most jobs will be printed using CMYK Process colours. If you cannot convert your file from screen display (RGB) to print (CMYK) don’t worry, we can do that for you. However in some circumstances this can lead to minor colour changes to your supplied artwork.

Please remember to add bleed to your artwork if it reaches to the edges of the disc surface. This means that you need to extend your supplied artwork by 3mm over each edge. This is to ensure that no white lines are seen around the hub or outer edge of your disc when it is printed. We would also be grateful if you removed any hub or edge lines that you have added to size up your artwork before you send it to us.

Here are some general guidelines to follow when creating and supplying your artwork:
  • Please provide your artwork images at a minimum of 300dpi resolution.
  • Please ensure all images are linked and fonts embedded. Alternatively, please convert any fonts to outlines before sending.
  • If possible, please supply layered working files or vector graphics rather than flattened images.
  • The majority of print jobs will be printed CMYK; therefore it is important that your file is set up in CMYK unless you have requested a pantone match print. Any linked or embedded picture images (.jpgs etc) should be supplied as CMYK files rather than RGB.
  • Please allow an extra 3mm of bleed on all edges of your artwork.
  • Where possible please remove any outlines, guides or circles to represent the disc hub. Simply supplying your final disc artwork as a 120mm x 120mm square is fine.
And don’t forget – If you have any questions just pick up the phone and ask us. We are always happy to help you with any queries or problems that you may have.

Author: Doug Newman, Graphics Specialist

*Offer limited to two personalised disc print sample per customer. Available until the 23rd of December 2011.

Colour Matching

One of the most difficult tasks involved in printing disc and packaging artwork is colour matching. Many things can affect the way that colours appear and sometimes it is not possible to reproduce your intended colours 100%. What you see on your screen is never identical to the finished printed product, and below we try to explain several of the reasons for this:

Screen vs. Print
The colours that you see on your screen are never the same as those that appear on your final printed product. A screen makes up its colours from a mix of Red, Green and Blue glowing phosphors, whereas a printer uses a blend of Cyan(C), Magenta(M), Yellow(Y) and Black(K) inks. It is even possible to get different results from different printers processing the same graphic file.

Call 01491 63 63 73 or click here to find out more.

Spot Colours vs. Process Colours
Spot colours and process colours do not match. Spot colours are specific individual colours that are put into the printing press. A maximum of 5 separate spot colours is possible, but you can include special inks such as metallics.

Process colours are made up of a mixture of Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black inks and are used when printing full colour artwork (e.g. colour photographs).

If you have a mixture of spot and process colours in your artwork it must be printed with process colours, and specific spot colours used may not reproduce faithfully. Converting spot colours to process colours will always change the appearance of those colours.

The Disc Surface
Different disc surfaces react differently to the ink applied to them. For example a matt finished disc will appear different to a glossy disc. We would always recommend using a high quality disc where it is important to try to accurately reproduce colours.

As we said at the beginning it is not always possible to match your colours completely but if you follow this simple checklist you’ll be helping us to help you get the best possible results for your project.

If your artwork is to be printed in Pantones please ensure that there are no CMYK Process colours in your artwork, and specify all Pantone colours used.

Similarly if your discs are to be printed in Process colours, convert any Pantone colours that you have used to CMYK.

If a good colour match is important to you, please provide us with a printed sample so that we can match your discs to a previously printed product rather than a screen image. If you have any questions or problems at all we’d be pleased to talk them through with you. Just pick up the phone and call the Team.

Author: Doug Newman, Graphics Specialist

*Offer limited to two personalised disc print sample per customer. Available until the 23rd of December 2011.

Tuesday 27 September 2011

FalconMedia Sample Pack Offer

Working in partnership with FalconMedia we are very pleased to give you the opportunity to request a FREE Sample Pack and test their range of professional optical disc products in your duplication equipment.
FalconMedia Pro - Smart Guard Glossy Inkjet
FalconMedia Pro is a professional AAA grade media, manufactured using premium Japanese materials and technology.

FalconMedia Smart Guard is a superior water resistant inkjet glossy surface for those looking for an ultra professional image. The Smart Guard layer offers a superb bright photographic finish, excellent ink absorption, and is resistant to smudges and bleed due to moisture and humidity. The Smart Guard layer yields exceptional print results with the major inkjet based publishing systems including the Epson and Microtech.

Call 01491 636373 to request your sample pack* or click here to find out more.

 - Sample Pack 1: 10 x Smart Guard Glossy Inkjet CD-R 52X 700 MB
 - Sample Pack 2: 10 x Smart Guard Glossy Inkjet DVD-R 16X 4.7 GB

FalconMedia DupliLine - Thermal White
FalconMedia DupliLine is a professional, cost effective product range designed for duplicators with high production volumes.

FalconMedia Thermal White offers a unique solution perfectly compatible with thermal re-transfer, direct transfer and sublimation printing technologies commonly used in Microtech, Rimage and Teac thermal printers. FalconMedia Thermal White is optimized to reproduce long lasting full colour photos with stunning colours and sharp monochrome text and undergoes stringent surface control testing to ensure flawless printing and faultless handling on automated systems

Call 01491 636373 to request your sample pack* or click here to find out more.

 - Sample Pack 3: 10 x Thermal White CD-R 52X 700 MB
 - Sample Pack 4: 10 x Thermal White DVD-R 16X 4.7 GB

NEW Platinum Archival DVD-R
Platinum Archival DVD-R is the latest addition to the FalconMedia Century optical disc range. The discs use an innovative Platinum-Silver alloy that guarantees corrosion resistance similar to Gold-based archival media, but at a much lower cost. They have undergone accelerated lifetime tests, executed under high humidity and high temperature conditions, which confirm their excellent archival lifetime and they incorporate an Ultra Hard Coat UHC™ layer which provides maximum resistance to environmental degradation

Call 01491 636373 to request your sample pack* or click here to find out more.

 - Sample Pack 5: 10 x Platinum Archival DVD-R 8X 4.7 GB
 
Call 01491 63 63 73 now to discuss your requirements with one of our friendly Account Managers or visit our website to find out more about the products and services we offer.
 
*Offer limited to 1 sample pack per customer while stocks last.

FalconMedia Century Platinum Archival DVD-R

FalconMedia Century
FalconMedia Century is a range of archival grade blank discs which provide you with a safe, certified archival and a data storage solution, ideal for the long term storage of your sensitive and business critical data.

NEW Platinum Archival DVD-R
Platinum Archival DVD-R is the latest addition to the FalconMedia Century optical disc range.

- Innovative Platinum-Silver alloy
- Corrosion resistance comparable to Gold-based archival media
- Safe archival storage for over 100 years
- Ultra Hard Coat UHC™ protection



Archival Platinum DVD-R uses an innovative Platinum-Silver alloy that guarantees similar corrosion resistance as Gold-based archival media, but at much lower cost. Platinum DVD-R is proving corrosion resistant comparable to DVD-R with pure gold. This corrosion resistance makes Platinum DVDs inherently robust against small pinholes or other defects in the DVD bonding resins. These initial defects can cause degradation of the reflector and subsequently the archived data during long-time storage if pure Ag is used for the reflector.
 
Accelerated lifetime tests executed under high humidity and high temperature conditions confirm the excellent archival lifetime of Archival Platinum DVD-R discs. Archival Platinum DVD-R guarantees safe archival storage for over 100 years. The use of high-reflective Platinum-alloy and standard premium recording dye's ensures the best possible drive compatibility during recording and playback.
 
Platinum DVD-R media comes standard with Ultra Hard Coat UHC™, the best option to protect the content against disc handling and thus extend the lifetime. UHC™ guarantees 100 times more scratch protection when compared to conventional DVDs.

Working in partnership with FalconMedia we are very pleased to give you the opportunity to request a FREE Sample Pack and test their range of professional optical disc products in your duplication equipment. Click here to find out more..

FalconMedia Century Range:
FalconMedia Century recordable optical discs are manufactured with premium original OEM Japanese materials and technology to ensure superior archival-quality media. The stability of both reflective and recording layers are the determining factors which ensure longevity of media and its data content.

 - Gold DVD-R
 - Platinum DVD-R
 - Gold CD-R

*Offer limited to 1 sample pack per customer while stocks last.

Monday 12 September 2011

FalconMedia DupliLine Thermal White

Thermal White


FalconMedia Thermal White offers a unique solutions perfectly compatible with thermal re-transfer, direct transfer and sublimation printing technologies commonly used in Microtech, Rimage and Teac thermal printers including the Microtech Xpression and Rimage Everest. FalconMedia Thermal white is optimized to reproduce long lasting full color photos with stunning colors and sharp printing and undergoes stringent surface control testing to ensure flawless printing and faultless handling on automated systems. FalconMedia Thermal white is the best choice for large volume production where professional quality and consistency are a must to achieve smooth operations and excellent throughput. FalconMedia Thermal white comes with a full surface print layer allowing maximum artwork coverage and outstanding full color quality.

FalconMedia DupliLine


FalconMedia DupliLine is a professional product, cost effective range designed for duplicators with high production volumes.  Product is available in CDR and DVDR formats with standard inkjet and thermal printable surfaces and basic bulk packaging.  FalconMedia DupliLine maintains the very high, consistent quality of other FalconMedia.  Made with licensed Japanese media code and from the same high standard Japanese specified materials as our other product lines, FalconMedia DupliLine is optimized for the manual and automated duplication systems seen across the industry whilst maintaining a competitive price and best overall manufacturing costs.

Working in partnership with FalconMedia we are very pleased to give you the opportunity to request a FREE Sample Pack and test their range of professional optical disc products in your duplication equipment. Click here to find out more.

FalconMedia Pro Smart Guard Glossy Inkjet

Smart Guard Glossy Inkjet


FalconMedia Smart Guard is a superior water resistant inkjet glossy surface for those looking for an ultra professional image. The Smart Guard layer offers a superb bright photographic finish, excellent ink absorption, and is resistant to smudges and bleed due to moisture and humidity. The Smart Guard layer yields exceptional print results with the major inkjet based publishing systems. FalconMedia Smart Guard media is an optimized professional media which meets the highest industry standards ensuring consistent quality, surface uniformity, flawless printing and handling on automated duplication systems including the Epson PP-100 and Microtech Xstreamjet.

FalconMedia Pro Blank DVD Media



FalconMedia Pro Blank DVD-R is a professional AAA grade media, manufactured using premium Japanese materials and technology. Pro DVD-R combines highest performance 16X speed, excellent compatibility and consistent quality resulting in the most reliable and durable media for professional use. Pro blank DVD-R media is available in 8X and 16X speeds, with a large variety of professional hub DVD printable surfaces, fully compatible with professional publishers and duplicators. Pro DVD-R is available with Ultra Hard Coat protective layer. UHC™ ensures 100X more scratch resistant compared to conventional media.

FalconMedia Pro Blank CD Media



Pro CD-R are professional grade media, that offer 700MB recording capacity and have write speeds of 52X.  Pro CD-R blank media is licensed TDK media code, manufactured using premium Japanese materials and technology. FalconMedia Pro blank CD-R media achieve lower error rates and ensure smooth operations with very few rejects - the performance professionals expect. Pro CD-R is available with a large variety of printable surfaces and packaging.

Working in partnership with FalconMedia we are very pleased to give you the opportunity to request a FREE Sample Pack and test their range of professional optical disc products in your duplication equipment. Click here to find out more.

Friday 19 August 2011

Move Up To Rimage Special Offer

Order a Rimage Professional Series disc publisher before the end of August and save up to £2,600* off the list price! Plus you will be automatically entered into our Summer Prize Draw for a chance to win a fantastic Kindle eBook reader.











Rimage Professional™ 5400N with two CD/DVD recorders, integrated Everest™ 400 printer and embedded control centre ONLY £7,357*

The 5400N is a compact, all-in-one solution designed specifically for front office settings. It offers an entry point into on-demand disc publishing, allowing single users or workgroups to create discs as easily as they print to the office printer, taking advantage of the convenience of an intelligent network appliance with professional print quality and hands-free operation.

Features:
  • Integrated Everest™ 400 printer: Full colour CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Discs™ are simple, fast and easy to create. The integrated, state-of-the-art Rimage Everest™ thermal retransfer printer permanently fuses waterproof, scratchproof, photo-realistic images to the surface of the disc
  • Two front-swappable recorders
  • 100-disc input capacity
  • 5-disc external output bin
  • Embedded, network ready control center
  • Optional Rapid Exchange and Next Business Day maintenence agreements
Other models in the Rimage Professional Series range:

  • 5400N with two Blu-ray recorders, Integrated Everest™ 400 printer and embedded control centre ONLY £8,052*
  • 5400N Disc Copy Station with two Blu-ray recorders, integrated digital camera for disc image capture, integrated Everest™ 400 printer and embedded control centre with touch screen user interface, ONLY £9,530*
  • 3400 (USB) with two CD/DVD recorders and integrated Everest™ 400 printer ONLY £4,285*
  • 3400 (USB) with two Blu-ray recorders and integrated Everest™ 400 printer ONLY £4,980*

Call 01491 636373 today to find out more and quote CDT1108/2 when you place your order.

Author; Richard Dearing, Managing Director

Thursday 28 July 2011

Ten reasons optical discs are going to be around for a long time





Who needs a DVD or Blu-ray Disc, now that there’s broadband? Turns out lots of people. Here are ten reasons optical discs are going to be around for a long time.

1. Inertia – Discs today are the media of choice for entertainment content. This massive market footprint is not easily nor quickly changed, even when there are online alternatives.

2. Ubiquity – Optical disc players are available to just about every computer user on the planet. This virtually guarantees that content distributed in CD or DVD form will be playable.

3. Capacity – Blu-ray discs hold up to 50GB, moving on to 100GB. One or a few discs can backup many consumers personal data. You can push all of that content to online storage – if you have days to do it and a rock-solid connection.

4. Permanence – Good-quality discs last 50 to 100 years. This is increasingly valuable as people realize that they want to keep their content for their lifetime.

5. Physicality – People like to be able to see and touch the things they own or value. It’s not always logical, but it matters.

6. Privacy – Discs can be kept away from prying eyes or malicious thieves, in contrast to the seemingly wide open web.

7. Passive storage – Unlike disk drives, data on optical discs rests quietly for decades, without the need for any power or maintenance.

8. Viewer experience – Blu-ray discs provide a video experience that rivals that of a movie theater. That’s because no compromises have to be made to accommodate the bandwidth limits of the internet.

9. Reliable playback – Likewise, there are no network outages or WiFi dead zones when playing optical discs.

10. Bundled experience – The internet is like a content supermarket. That’s great if you’re browsing, not so great if you want a specific experience. Discs package that experience to make things simple and more immersive.

Please do not hesitate to call us on 01491636373. Your call will always be answered by a member of the team, no automated systems, no voicemail. Just friendly, helpful advice from real people.

Thursday 23 June 2011

Summer Prize Draw

Take CD Team to the beach!

You will automatically enter our prize draw to win a Kindle Wireless Reading Device* when you place an order with CD Team this summer!

*Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology.
"The Kindle is a triumph. It's a beautifully designed eBook reader with a gorgeous display offering a superbly integrated book-buying experience. ... Amazon has delivered a game-changing device at a bargain price; it is deservedly onto a winner here." - PC Pro

"They've cracked it - this is the future." - London Evening Standard

"Its e-ink display is a thing of great beauty." - The Independent

"Battery life is long enough for space shuttle missions." - Wired

Each month this summer CD Team is going to give a Kindle Wireless Reading Device to a lucky customer!

You will automatically receive one entry into our prize draw for every £500** you spend on our fantastic products and services from today until the end of June, July and August 2011 so the more you spend the more chances you will have to win!

Call 01491 63 63 73 to take advantage of this exclusive prize draw today!

Want to make sure you don't miss out on the next prize draw? Then sign up to our monthly email newsletter. Please visit our web site and complete the 'How can we help' form on the left or send an email to: enquiries@cdteam.co.uk.

Author: Richard Dearing

**Excluding vat and shipping. To qualify orders must be received after the 22/06/2011 and invoiced before the closing date of each prize draw; 30/06/2011, 31/07/2011 and 31/08/2011.

Please note that this prize draw is designed to reward our customers for continued good relations and CD Team limited considers it to be a proportionate and reasonable promotional activity. Please refer to your company policy; if you are unable to accept this type of prize CD Team Limited would be happy to provide a £100 charity voucher as an alternative.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Disc Design - Hints and Tips



Designing your own artwork for print can be a daunting task. By following some basic guidelines, picking the right tools for the job and doing some simple preparation it can be a very straight forward and rewarding process.

Before you start your design on the computer, get a basic idea in mind. Things to consider include what colours and fonts to use, any images or logos to be included and the focus of the design e.g. brand awareness, marketing material, product catalogue etc

Which print method is right for you? This is a tricky question, and is where we come in. When it comes to disc printing there are many ways to go about it, each with their own Pros and Cons. Once we have discussed your design and know the quantities required, we can offer helpful advice to ensure you achieve the best print possible.

Thermal Printing – Short-run printing either for full colour images or plain black text using heat and pressure to apply the print from a CMYK or Black only transfer ribbon directly on to the disc surface. Provides high quality vibrant images with a durable glossy finish. Full colour thermal print is perfect for photographic images and vivid designs. It is not suited to very light tints and gradients. Black thermal print produces a sharp finish for plain text and simple logos.

Inkjet Printing – Short-run printing, full colour. Inkjet systems will sometimes use 1 combined CMYK cartridge or typically 4 or 6 seperate CMYK cartridges. Gives a high photo quality print which handles more subtle gradient images and skin-tones due to the mixing of inks directly on the disc surface. A glossy or matt finish will depend on the media used. Image is not physically fixed to the disc surface, so if moistened the print may smudge.

Litho/Offset Printing – High volume printing full colour. Four plates (CMYK) need to be manufactured from your original artwork. Each plate is used to transfer an inked image onto a rubber blanket that has been mounted on a cylinder. The rubber blanket then transfers (or offsets) the inked image onto the disc as it passes through the press. As the disc moves through the press, the four colours combine to create a high resolution picture on the face of the disc. With offset printing, the colour resolution is much greater. This printing process works best when using CMYK plates plus a WHITE base plate and will create the highest quality and most detailed print finish available. This process is therefore ideal for realistic photo images. Litho is a great alternative to Silk Screening for those highly detailed photographic artwork designs though this process does not lend itself to large block areas of solid colour.

Screen Printing – High volume printing using up to 5 Pantone, ((PMS or “spot”) colours giving the advantage of an exact colour match to your corporate colour/artwork guidelines. This gives a high quality durable finish. In this process ink is pushed through a screen mesh so the print is made up of very fine dots. This is best suited to solid block colours, the lower the tint of a colour, the lower the density of dots printed. At very low tints the print may take on a spotted appearance. For this reason, light tints, drop shadows and gradients etc. are best avoided.

(Short run = Up to 1000 discs High Volume = 1000 discs and above)

How your job will be printed will affect how your artwork needs to be designed. If printing in CMYK, you must ensure your artwork is created using CMYK settings not RGB. If printing using Pantone (PMS or ‘spot’) colours you must make sure that these colours are correctly specified within your file. A combination of both is often possible, but can be more expensive.

What colours to use? Most commercial print will use a CMYK ‘four-colour’ process (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black). This means that colours will be made by mixing varying amounts of these separations. These colours will NOT match those seen on your screen, computer monitors display colours in RGB and are backlit, meaning colours will appear much brighter than on the printed material. Print techniques using Pantone (PMS or ‘spot’) colours, which are standardised colours (a bit like those on a paint chart), allow for consistent results. Companies will often have strict corporate guidelines and specific Pantone colour references for logos or corporate colours.

Use the right tools for the job. There are a plethora of software packages out there, choose the most suitable for high resolution disc printing. For example, you can create effective and striking screen presentations in Powerpoint®, but it’s next to useless for creating artwork for print. Ideally use an ‘industry standard’ design software package like Adobe® Illustrator®, but not everyone has access to these tools. Speak to our designers and we will be able to offer you advice on the best way to create your artwork with the tools at your disposal.

Artwork Sizing. Create your artwork at the correct size from the start and include any bleed that may be required. This will avoid your artwork having to be re-sized, which may result in a loss of quality. If your artwork needs to be re-sized it can alter the scale, perspective and positioning of elements within your design and may also have detrimental effects on the print quality of your artwork. Use images of resolution 300 dpi (dots per inch) or more and try to avoid increasing the size of pixel based (raster) images such as JPGs and TIFFs. When you enlarge an image you do not increase its resolution. Think of it as only having enough paint to cover one wall, you could try to spread it thinly to paint the entire room, but it won’t look as good. Take into account the finished size of your design, what to include will be limited by the actual space you have (on a CD for example). Think about the scale and don’t try and include too much. You may be able to fit a lot more into your design by making everything smaller, but will someone be able to see it easily? Rather than using tiny illegible text, consider adding a paperpart such as a DVD wrap or CD booklet to give more information. A design with a few, well proportioned elements will always look better than having too many elements ‘competing’ for attention.

Fonts. Fonts come in literally thousands of different forms, but you don’t have to use them all at once. Often choosing fonts from the same family and using varying weights (Regular, Light, Bold etc.) will produce a more cohesive and attractive piece compared to one where many different font types are used. Due to the fact that so many different fonts are available across both Macs and PCs, we may not always have the same fonts as you. If we need to edit your artwork for you (to make colour/text changes etc.), we will not be able to carry out the necessary edits without the font. One way to ensure text compatibility is to select all text used within the design and select the “Create Outlines” option (usually found under the “Type” menu), this will convert the text into vector objects (graphic shapes) and eliminate the need for the font. Once this is done however, text is no longer editable, so it is wise to pre-save a separate copy with the text as fonts in case you need to edit the text at a later date. Very small font sizes and very fine text should be avoided wherever possible, particularly when against a dark background. Try to use a minimum of 6pt, also for crisp print results try to avoid drop shadows and gradients on text. If you are emailing fonts with your artwork, put them into a Zip file first. Fonts can become easily corrupted when being sent by email.

Whilst the tips and tricks given here will not cover every single aspect of designing your own artwork I hope at least some of the points will help. We have gathered a handful of handy tips and put them on the following page, if you like you can cut them out and keep them by your computer!

You may also find our Artwork Guidelines helpful which can be downloaded here:

Artwork Guidelines »

Submitted by Jamie Quinlan, Graphic Designer

Thursday 31 March 2011

New Epson Discproducer PP-50

The NEW Epson Discproducer PP-50 offers an ideal blend of quality and economy, the Discproducer PP-50 delivers high-quality disc publishing at low cost. Plus, you can also take advantage of the Epson CoverPlus Service Pack and extend the on-site warranty up to 3 years.


Burn and print CDs and DVDs the easy and economical way. The Epson Discproducer PP-50 is fully automated, leaving you free to get on with other tasks while it reliably publishes up to 50 discs in one batch. It's the perfect choice if you need to produce up to 400 discs per month.

Low cost per published disc
Thanks to Epson's individual inks system, the cost of each printed disc is low as you only need to replace the colour used and, depending on the print image, you can produce over 1,000 discs from one set of cartridges. When a cartridge becomes empty, the PP-50 automatically stops printing until it’s replaced to avoid mis-prints.



High-quality output
Impress clients or present a professional image with the PP-50's high-quality, photo-realistic printing on the CD/DVD surface. The Epson Micro Piezo printhead and 6-colour inks produce ultra-fine colour gradations and razor-sharp text, even in very small font sizes. Combined with the PP-50’s accurate disc burning, this means you can rely on the readability of your archived discs for decades.

Dependable operation
Epson has drawn on its expertise in manufacturing robots to develop the patented AcuGrip robotic arm, which ensures that only one CD/DVD is grabbed at a time; even if they’re stuck together. This allows you to leave production runs unsupervised with less risk of failure. To ensure trouble-free operation for years to come, the PP-50 has a dust-proof body and minimal moving parts.

Simple to use
The PP-50 couldn’t be easier to use: it’s conveniently controlled from the front, and its LED system shows the ink level status for each individual colour. The included software is user-friendly too, with pre-defined templates and images, so you don’t need to be an expert to use it.

Easy installation
One of the smallest disc publishing solutions on the market, the fully-stackable PP-50 has a compact footprint and measures only 38cm wide to fit easily onto a shelf or desktop.

Author: Richard Dearing, Director

Wednesday 9 March 2011

TRANSFORM 2011

CD Team invites you to our event of the year...


TRANSFORM 2011 – A Complimentary Digital Content Workshop
2:00 pm Tuesday 22nd March at UKIE, 167 Wardour Street, London, W1F 8WP

When you present and distribute your data you don’t have to limit yourself to simple spreadsheets, uninspiring PowerPoint presentations or lists of facts and figures. Now you can TRANSFORM your content and engage your audience using our new range of content creation services.

TRANSFORM 2011 is a unique opportunity for you and your team to interact with designers and programmers and experience examples first hand using an iPad. Industry experts explain why digital content is the way forward, how it can help your business connect with customers and catapult your sales figures through the roof.
This is a complimentary educational workshop therefore delegate places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. Please register your interest by completing the the online form here.
Combine any or all of the following to inject some life into your presentations. 
  • Video production, online streaming and TV adverts
  • Interactive flash presentations and bespoke website design
  • 3D Animation, product modelling and walkthrough graphics
  • Viral campaigns, SEO, e-marketing and games
  • Mobile applications and electronic brochures
  • Audio files, music effects, podcasts and voiceovers
Create effective sales and promotional tools that connect with your audience and open up a whole new world of communication. The possibilities are endless, please view the Content Creation Showreel on our website or call us on 01491 636373 to see just how far you can go.

Author: Richard Dearing, Director

Monday 10 January 2011

Epson Discproducer PP-100 with 3 years Epson CoverPlus Service Pack, only 42p per disc!

 Epson Discproducer PP-100
The Epson Discproducer PP-100 combines photo-realistic printing and fully automated CD/DVD reproduction in one neat package.
The cost per finished disc example below is based on the following:
Epson Discproducer PP-100 with two CD/DVD recorders, integrated 6 colour inkjet printer and 3 years Epson CoverPlus Service Pack.
Discs per month = 1,200
Discs over 3 year period = 43,200
Cost of equipment* and CoverPlus Service Pack = £0.07
+ £0.23 (DVD discs**)
+ £0.12 (Ink**, standard design with 50% coverage)
= £0.42 per finished disc
*When you take advantage of the Epson Discproducer PP-100 January 2011 special offer.
**Based on a monthy order of 1,200 white inkjet printable discs and a set of 6 Epson ink cartridges.
 Epson Ink Cartridges
Call 01491 63 63 73 or visit www.cdteam.co.uk to find out more about the optical disc products and services we offer.

Author: Richard Dearing, Director

Epson Discproducer PP-100 January 2011 Special Offer

 Epson Discproducer PP-100
Order an Epson Discproducer PP-100 before the end of January and we will give you 5% off the list price and deliver it for FREE! 
Plus, you can also take advantage of the Epson CoverPlus Service Pack and extend the on-site warranty up to 3 years.
The Epson Discproducer PP-100 combines photo-realistic printing and fully automated CD/DVD reproduction in one neat package.



 Epson Ink Cartridges 
Epson Discproducer Ink Cartridges: 5% off the list price in January
Individual colour cartridges: Cyan, Light Cyan, Magenta, Light Magenta, Yellow, Black.

Simply call 01491 636373 and quote CDT0111A when you order. Offer price does not include VAT. Special offer only available until the 31/01/11. 

Author: Richard Dearing, Director