Duplication Centre

BD Live – Alive or Dead?

September 2nd, 2010

BD Live - how alive is it?

The world of technology is constantly attempting to develop, and the world of disc manufacturing is no different. After the war between the HD formats (a battle decidedly won by Blu-Ray discs over HD DVD), manufacturers began to press the concept of BD-Live.

But what is BD-Live? Well, despite its new buzzword status, it is actually quite difficult to pin any industry officials down on what in fact ‘BD-Live’ entails. The best summing up can be that it is Blu-Ray discs connected to the internet for extra features. It requires back-end technologies which allow the disc to access high quality content from the internet. This content was originally intended to be apps such as being able to chat to friends during a film, being able to access websites of products featured in a film and to even buy those products on the spot, from the comfort of your own couch.

Let’s pass over what this means for the ensuing increased laziness of mankind and focus instead on what the technology has so far been used for. Mainly, it is used as a promotional tool for the studios behind the film, giving links to the studio’s website through the Blu-Ray disc. However, usually these websites do not allow any further access to the internet, keeping the user in that companies ‘playground’. Many of these websites lack original, entertaining data and do not keep the user enthralled. Aside from access to these sites, BD-Live has also so far been used for material such as one gets as extra features on DVD.

And yet the potential for BD-Live is so much greater than this: It could, in the long run, grant full web access, allow HD downloadable videos, have killer apps and constantly updated new information about the film. It has even been suggested that, for instance, if you were to buy a disc about a band, you could insert the disc and see some of their gigs live on the nights that they played. The sheer amount of work and resources that would have to go into an app like this aside, it would be a great capability to have on a Blu-ray disc. Add to this the potential BD-Live has for communication – internet chat, text messaging and phone calls – and you have yourself an amazing application.

So why have the industry been so slow to start fulfilling this potential? Firstly, there are several unanswered questions about how exactly BD-Live will work cross-continent: How exactly will people be able to communicate around the world with the regional coding Blu-ray discs have been programmed with? And, with different BD-Live (that is basically internet-capable) players having different programming and capacities, there is no guarantee that all consumers will be able to access the same amount of data. Currently, the difference in downloading time can vary from one player downloading one set of data in ten seconds, to another downloading the same set in ten minutes! Creating programs that only a small percent of the market will be able to use does not seem to provide enough impetus to develop the technology further.

From a film-makers point of view, as industry’s Van Ling pointed out, having someone be encouraged to talk through a film that you have made is, frankly, insulting, so the communication side of BD-Live is being stunted from the film-maker’s quarter.

To add to all these problems, many consumers are baffled as to why they need BD-Live when their computers and mobile-phones can serve the same purposes with less fuss and cost. BD-Live needs to develop something new and different which cannot be found simply on the web or through your phone or computer, only on a Blu-ray disc.

What it is important to remember, however, is that these are all simply teething problems: BD-Live is new and no new technology arrives on the market problem-free. All this technology needs is consumer support and eventually the programming will improve. Let’s face it, if it eventually fulfills its potential, it will be worth supporting!

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Blu-Ray Discs – The Basics!

July 30th, 2010

BDs - the basics!

So the Blu-Ray disc is here and it seems, with growing sales, that it could well be here to stay! But what are the basics facts you need to know about this disc to stop confusion and to make sure you’re not getting ripped off?
To start with, a basic outline of the disc itself: It’s a disc designed to hold high definition media in particular, best displayed on HDTV screens, but it can also be used for storing computer data. Having been in the works since 2002, the average Blu-Ray disc, or BD, can hold 25GB of information – more than enough for a feature length film! There are also dual layer discs on the market which can hold 50GB but they are rarer and much more expensive. The Blu-Ray disc is called this because, unlike a DVD or a CD, the laser beam which reads the disc is blue-violet and not infrared.
The same as with DVDs, there are different formats of BD for different uses the user may require. Bear in mind that all these formats can be made in either the 25 or 50GB sizes.

BD-ROM: This is the average Blu-Ray that you buy with a film on it. It’s not re-recordable and needs to be manufactured by a professional company.

BD-R: This is a one-time recordable disc which can hold all sorts of different data. You can also burn video onto this at home or professionally.

BD-RE: The same as a BD-R, only this one can be re-recorded onto many times.

BDAV: This is read-only format, the Blu-Ray equivalent of the DVD-Video format. Ot allows for enormous (in fact unnecessarily large) pixel formats: Either 1920×1080 or 1280×720 and uses a progressive scan functioning at 50 or 60 Hz rather than DVD-Video’s 25 or 30Hz. What do all these numbers mean? Basically, it has a killer image – so good that for most households with average sized TVs, it’s quality overkill. Still, it’s worth it for the occasions where massive screens are around and the video just looks perfect!

Manufacturers of BD-ROMs, BD-Rs and BD-REs claim that the discs have a 10-15 year life span and have the strongest content protection which includes strict licensing procedures. (Unfortunately these licensing procedures can seem quite complicated at first – so complex, in fact, that they merit an article all of their own which will be coming shortly!) BDs also ensure the highest HD quality and memory capacity of any disc available. They also use a tough coating which makes the disc slightly resilient against scratches and fingerprints.
So that’s a basic guide to Blu-Ray discs – enjoy watching you’re BDs with their excellent quality and great interactive features!

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Blu-Rays and Regional Settings

July 30th, 2010

Regional settings for BDs can look very complicated - so here's a simple break-down!

The world of technology is constantly moving forwards and the latest addition to the world of discs is the Blu-Ray discs. However there have been some problems and confusion over Blu-Ray regional settings: Not only are they different from DVD regions, they are also not very well labelled!
So, to save the confusion, here is a list of the DVD regions:

1 – US and Canada
2 – Europe, Japan and the Middle East
3 – Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong
4 – South America, Australia and New Zealand
5 – Russia, Eastern Europe, India, most of Africa and North Korea
6 – China

And here is a list of the Blu-Ray regions, which use the ‘ABC region code scheme’:

A – North America, South America, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong
B – Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Autsralia and New Zealand
C – India, China and Russia

While it is worth bearing in mind that only about one third of Blu-Rays have regional settings, for those that do, it is very often marked on the packaging very poorly or not at all! Mass Blu-Ray duplication companies have been asked by the BD license to mark on the packaging somewhere what region the disc is, however very often the writing is miniscule and only says ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ which is meaningless to most people anyway! Some companies have also been guilty of leaving off the region setting altogether and have not been questioned on this: Therefore no marking could mean no regional code but it could also mean it’s simply missing or that you haven’t found the tiny writing it’s in yet!
Not only this, but some companies have started renaming the coding systems: Amazon has turned ‘A, B, C’ into ‘1, 2, 3’ but does host a page explaining this in its FAQ section to counterbalance confusion. The BDA (Blu-Ray Disc Association) has been made aware of this situation.
But many of you may well remember that when DVDs first started out they were avidly restricted to region settings and it was not until ‘hacked’ DVD players with no coding came out that the DVD market really took off, mainly because there were more DVDs in some regions then in others, thus when the regions were taken out of the equation, consumers were given much more choice as to what they could buy. Perhaps mass Blu-Ray duplication companies are hoping for the same thing because recently a ‘hacked’ Blu-Ray player, which is BD-Live enabled, has become available and, as yet, has also not been made illegal even though it breaks the coding laws!
Whilst I obviously cannot condone a ‘hacked’ machine, it does seem to be the underground answer to the confusing labeling of Blu-Ray discs. The other option is from the BDA to finally call the mass Bly-Ray duplications companies to task and force them to properly label discs, not just send them the document which states that’s what they should be doing!

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Green half-thickness DVDs – as good as they say?

July 30th, 2010

Green half-thickness DVDs - do they really work?

With society’s growing occupation with ‘going green’, people are starting to ask what the bulk DVD duplication industry can do to help the cause. Thus the half-thickness ‘green’ DVD, or ‘EcoDisc’, was invented.
Just like a normal disc, this DVD can store audio, visual and text information on it, yet unlike the standard disc it comes at only half the thickness (0.6mm instead of 1.2mm), using less resources in its creation and saving on plastic, emissions and thus allowing the bulk DVD duplication industry to help the environment. This effect is created because a normal disc is two separate halves glued together, while the EcoDisc has only one half, no glue and special clamps and rings to assist the disc player in clamping it properly. The absence of the adhesive used in normal discs is another environmental plus, as the glue gives off toxic fumes.
But do these EcoDiscs actually work?
So far, the bulk DVD duplication centers manufacturing these discs have been keeping quiet about which discs exactly are EcoDiscs so it is quite hard to tell, but several magazines have given away EcoDiscs as free gifts and some consumers had issues getting them to work in ordinary disc players. The half-thickness can seriously compromise the disc player and a disc can become stuck in a player which does not have an ejecting disc-drawer (like the ones you normally find in cars or in mac computers).
Aside from this, the much of the bulk DVD duplication industry is up in arms: They claim these discs are a serious compromise of DVD standards and licensees have been notified that manufacturing sub-standard discs will cause them to have their licenses taken away.
So while the verdict is still out on half-thickness DVDs, the evidence is not looking promising for them! While I agree that going green is all for the good, we need to make sure that the products created in this cause should be fully tested and work very well in all circumstances before they are put out onto the market!

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Lightscribe Technology – is it as good as all the hype is making out?

May 6th, 2010

Lightscribe technology - the new way to make pretty discs!

Some years ago, Hewlett Packard became increasingly frustrated with its own home-CD-printing software: It was a hassle to print out and stick labels on CDs and it was very easy to get it wrong! So their developers began to come up with a new plan; why not use a laser to etch the CD label onto the disc instead?

The technology to achieve this was developed, dubbed Lightscribe Technology, and software and etching devices were unleashed onto the market. Lightscribe has been a massive success so far, allowing consumers to produce professional-looking CD labels at home by etching labels onto discs rather than printing and sticking.

But how does this new technology work? Allow me to explain; First, there is the Lightscibe drive, a disc-drive which etches your CD label design onto your CD. To use one of these drives, you must have compatible media (Lightscribe-printable CDs are very clearly labelled and available on the internet with a quick search-engine check) and the appropriate software installed to your computer. Hook the Lightscribe drive up to your computer and away you go!

The drive itself works by using the same kind of laser that burns CDs to engrave an etched image of your CD label onto the front of your disc. However, it has a ‘control feature zone’ which not only allows it to take in the full dimensions of your disc, but also means that every time you insert the disc, it begins printing in the same place again. this means you can print multiple times on the same disc, adding a title or extra image if you wish. It is no problem if you forget something: You can always just insert it later on!

While this breakthrough is a marvelous development, it does come with some drawbacks; it takes a very long time to etch a CD label onto even one disc – up to thirty minutes, dependent on how complex your design is! – while printing and sticking usually takes between three and five. Also, while thermal and inkjet printing allow for variants in colour, Lightscribe is simply monotone.

However the quality of the CD label is guaranteed to be superb and the etching effect does look incredibly professional: Much more so than a CD marker pen!

And bear in mind that this is very new technology: Developers have a lot of time to work on improving the current model and fixing the problems that have occurred in it. And, as always, the more we as consumers invest in a product, the further the product will develop over time!n

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Water-Resistant Disc Printing

May 6th, 2010

Disc duplication just got water-proof!

Once you get involved in CD label printing you begin to realise that most users favour the inkjet printed labels for their vibrant colours and the fact that they print directly onto the disc. However it does not take long to discover the frustrations of printing inkjet labels and then smudging them! Be it a sweaty finger picking one up carelessly or a spot of rain as you pull the disc out of your pocket to hand it to a colleague, one of the reasons thermal printing has been so much more popular than inkjet is that it simply does not smudge!

BUT developers have come up with new water-resistant discs which can be printed on, left to dry, and do not smudge under any watery-duress. The technology had been dubbed WaterShield and was created by Taiyo Yuden, the inventor of recordable discs.

The discs work by having a specialised printing surface which makes the ink dry very quickly on CD labels and locks it in place, stopping it from smearing and smudging. There are two kinds of water-resistant disc currently on the market, the aforementioned WaterGuard by Taiyo Yuden and Primera and the AquaGuard brand also sold by Primera. Both Primera brands are sold under the label ‘Tuffcoat’.

But which type works better? And what is the cost effect of buying these specialised discs?

To begin with the pricing; it is possible now to get reasonably good quality discs for inkjet printers at about 30p each without shopping around too much. WaterShield and Aquaguard discs come out at about 5-10p more however they can be used in an ordinary inkjet printer so no extra cost is inflicted there!

To determine which brand works better, each one has its own pros and cons. Both work excellently well at not smudging: A damp thumb does not effect them, nor a running tap on cold or hot. It is not until you boil them that you notice any difference at all (and frankly anyone boiling their CDs is probably not that interested in playing them again!) Once boiled, both discs exhibit some almost irrelevant bleeding. The WaterShield discs, which have a glossy finish to them once printed, begin to turn slightly blue when boiled, but I feel the extreme drawback is made up for by the professional-looking finish of the gloss CD label. The AquaGuard remains matt but also does not turn a hint of blue when boiled.

So, it appears that developers have solved the problem of inkjet CD label printing: No more smudges for a little extra cost!

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How to get your music published – a guide for unsigned bands and DIY musicians!

April 4th, 2010

Unsigned bands can have a tough time getting there music published - so here's some helpful hints!

In today’s harsh music industry, it can be really difficult to get your voice heard among the rest and get your music published. But there are ways to do it without having been signed or having an agent. In this article, I hope to explore the various ways this is possible and help you to get your sound on the market and being played!

Firstly, of course, there are the basics of the internet. Having a website can greatly increase your fanbase as friends share the link with each other and word of your music spreads through cyber-space. If you are a bit of a whizz, you can create your own website, or hire someone to do it for you if you have the spare cash. If you lack both money and know-how, you could always use a website-creator, like blog website WordPress, which can put in the basics of the site for you and allow you enter in the information you want and upload photos and music.

Aside from having your own website, also abuse the growing rash of social networking sites. Myspace music pages are an invaluable way of getting your music out there. You could also start up a Facebook Fan Page or even a Twitter account to gather your followers! And don’t forget to post music videos on YouTube as this is a great way to get lots of new fans and links!

But how about how to get your music onto the market? Well, believe it or not there are lots of relatively easy ways to do this! Firstly, Amazon is a fantastic site for selling your own wares. Simply go to their website, find the ‘Sell your stuff’ link and, for a comparatively small fee for what you will make selling your CDs on here, you can sell as many CDs as you want! I would advise, however, if you are selling on an official website like Amazon it will probably be worth your while to get a UPC barcode for your product as then you can sell worldwide and also will be able to branch out into more mainstream retail very easily.

Other websites, such as the America-based CD Baby are online distributors of music, sending out products to companies such as iTunes, Amazon and Rhapsody. They do keep a small percentage of whatever you make, but it is a small price to pay for all the services they offer, including business cards, free web hosting, disc duplication and weekly pay to you! Though they are an American website, because they work with online sales and companies which make shipments world-wide, it is still alright for a UK based band to use them. However, if you want to keep things in the UK, you could use a UK based independent music distribution company such as TuneCore. Again, for both of these, you will need a UPC barcode.

But remember that in today’s digital world, people are starting to listen to music online, too. Websites such as LastFM are becoming increasingly popular and they make it really easy for you to upload your own music! Spotify, too, the famous downloadable program, encourages artists to work with them and upload their music for download. Although these organisations do not provide much profit at all, they are invaluable methods of getting your music heard by thousands upon thousands of listeners. This, in itself, will help to increase your sales.

Last but not least, remember to keep playing, keep writing and keep on recording because the more you put yourself out there, the more listeners and fans will come back to you! Good luck getting your music selling and I hope this article has helped!

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UPC Barcodes – What Are They and Why Do You Need One?

April 4th, 2010

UPC barcodes - easy once you know how!

In this day and age it can sometimes seem like a not altogether straight-forward thing to get your music or film on the market. One of the most overlooked issues is that of UPC barcodes. You need to have one to begin selling your product and in this article I hope to help explain what they are, why you need one and how to get one.

To begin, a UPC (universal product code) is a unique, 12-digit code (provided by the GS1, usually at the same time as you purchase the barcode) which is assigned to your product. Commonly known as barcodes, they are scanned in shops so that the retailers can access the price and information on the product. The way they work, once you have purchased them, is that you put the barcode onto your product and send it off to a retailer/distributor. They will then ask you questions about you and your product and enter it in their system under the UPC barcode you have provided. Thus, when your product is scanned at the register, it looks up that information and your sale is recorded. In order for them to work properly, you need one UPC barcode for each product: For example, you would need one barcode for a DVD recording of a concert, but another one for the CD album recorded at the same concert. In these instances, as with all discs, the barcodes would be placed on the CD or DVD cases.

It should be noted that UPC barcodes work well if you are planning on selling your product world-wide. However, if you are going to exclusively sell your product outside of the USA and Canada, you may want to use an EAN barcode. It is pretty much the same as a UPC barcode except that they have a 13-digit code, not a 12-digit one. UPC barcode readers can only read UPC barcodes, however EAN barcode readers can read both UPC and EAN barcodes. It is your choice, but given that UPC barcodes can be read pretty much universally, I would be inclined to go with them as there is little difference in price between the two.

The reason barcodes are important for selling your product is because it makes it very easy for retailers to sell them on. Most retailers, such as Amazon, will not accept a product unless it has a barcode because their retail systems work based on the barcodes themselves.

You should also be aware that if you are selling a CD or DVD, it is important to get a barcode – whether UPC or EAN – which is registered with SoundScan, or register your product with SoundScan separately. SoundScan is the company which records music and film sales and compiles the music and film charts so it important to get your CD registered with them otherwise it will not be included in the charts or the music and film sales records.

Barcodes can be quite pricey, but there are ways to make them cheaper and they are not difficult to buy. The best way to purchase one is though an agency. Companies such as Simply Barcodes are reliable agencies which will give you a unique barcode for a not unreasonable price. It is not necessary that the company from which you are purchasing your barcode is based in the country where you will sell your product, however this may have some effect on how fast they can complete your order. Most companies will give discounts to registered charities and bulk orders, so if you need more than one barcode it will be to your benefit to purchase them all at once. Many of the companies will process your order within a matter of hours, emailing you the barcode as soon as possible. Some of them also print labels of the barcodes and send them to you so that you don’t have to do it for yourself.

I would caution, however, against companies offering you free barcodes and ridiculous discounts: It is very easy to fake a barcode on the spot and if you end up with a fake barcode it is very likely that it may already be being used by another product. This is a waste of your time, a waste of your retailers time, and ultimately can lead to much confusion and you losing a lot of money. Try an find some customer references which legitimise the company, or a certificate from a certified crediting body. It is also important to make sure that your barcode does not have a ‘sell by’ date, that it is a permanent number designated to your product. Also, try to get a deal on your barcode whereby you do not have to renew it or pay annual fees: A one off fee is the most cost effective way to get your barcode!

I hope this article has been informative and helped you on your way to getting your barcode and selling your product!

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How to Use Duplication Centre’s Artwork Creator

April 4th, 2010

Duplcation Centre's artwork creator will help you make stunning CDs and DVDs

It can be very difficult to get a CD design which is right for your product: But, thankfully, with Duplication Centre’s new online Artwork Creator, you can design and make your own CD design! And, to help you even further on the way to getting the design you want, here are some helpful tips on how to use it…

To begin with, let us examine the basic screen. At the top, from left to right, are the options for a ‘New Design’, to ‘Load Design’, ‘Save Design’ or ‘Upload Image’ from your computer. Below is the ‘Clip Art Gallery’ at the top of which is a drop-down list allowing you to select which category of clip art you which to have displayed. Beside this is the ‘Text Tool’ and to the right of this is the colour chart which can be used to select the background colour. At the bottom of the screen is the ‘Workspace’ in which you create your image.

It is here that the first step in design occurs: Here you pick which aspect of the CD you are designing. You are given the choice to design a 4-page booklet for the insert, the CD/DVD body, a plain card for the insert, the inlay for a Jewel case, a DVD book or DVD wrap. Each option gives you a different space to design in, specifically measured to the design requirements of a CD: The CD body is the actual size of a CD body, the 4-page booklet, the correct dimensions for a 4-page booklet insert. These options are selected by pressing the option tabs at the top of the ‘Workspace’.

Within the workspace, different coloured lines mean different things: A red line indicates the edge of your product, though to allow for cutting errors, your image should go at least to the edge of the page. The light green lines indicate the space in which it safe to put important information. Between the red and green lines will be on your CD, but, again, due to cutting errors, it is not a wise plan to put important information so close to an edge which could potentially be cut off. Dark green lines indicate where the pages will fold.

It is also important to know that at the top of the ‘Workspace’, beneath the aspect option tabs, are two tabs. One says ‘Workspace’, the other, ‘Preview’. By selecting the preview tab, a new window opens with a full preview of your work. To get back to the main screen from the preview, simply close the new open window.

Once you have selected the part of the CD which you wish to design, it is time to select your background colour. Go to the right hand side of the page and find the background colour selector. You can either select one of the colours displayed or click the ‘More Colours’ button to open a new internal window which will allow you to select a colour from a chart. To get rid of it again, simply re-click the ‘More Colours’ button which will now say ‘Hide’. If you have a colour you know that you want already, simply click the ‘Enter Own Colour’ button and insert the hex code before clicking ‘Accept’.

After you have decided on your background colour, it is time to put an image onto your work. To do this you can either use one of the existing images by single-clicking on it in the ‘Artwork Gallery’ (middle, left-hand side of the screen) or upload your own. To do this, click the ‘Upload Image’ button at the very top of the screen. Then, select from your files and folders the image you wish to insert, before clicking ‘Select’. The image will then be uploaded into the workspace.

Once you have an image in the workspace, you can drag it around until it is in the correct position. You can also alter its size by bringing the mouse to the edge of the image until it turns into an arrow. Click and drag until the image is the size you want it. You can make it smaller or larger by doing this!

By inserting an image, you have made a new ‘Layer’. Each image has its own layer. To view the layers, look to the bar at the bottom right side of the screen, alongside the workspace. Drag and drop the layers higher or lower in the list to bring them forward or back. Aside from this, you can edit the brightness and opacity levels from here by selecting the layer then dragging the slider up or down on the corresponding scale in the layers toolbar. Rotation can be adjusted here, too, allowing you to twist and spin your image as much as you want.

The final thing in the design process is to insert the words you want. You could just have a title or you may want to print some lyrics inside your booklet. Whichever way, turn now to the ‘Text Tool’ which is situated near the top of the screen in between the ‘Clip Art Gallery’ and the ‘Background Colour’ selector. First, roll your mouse over the ‘Font’ button (Top left hand corner of the ‘Text Tool’) to decide which font you like. As your cursor scrolls over the font, a preview of it is temporarily shown in the Artwork Creator. Once you see a font you like, simply click on it to select it. Next, choose the size by selecting it from the drop-down list beside the ‘Font’ button. To select the justification, simply click either the right-hand orientation or the centralise buttons (top left corner of the group of icon-buttons in the top right corner of the ‘Text Tool’). Similarly, the button with the double-ended arrow going from side to side orients the text horizontally, as normal. The button with double-ended arrow going from top to bottom orients it vertically and the arrow going in a circle makes the text go in a circle. ‘Bold’, ‘Italics’ and ‘Underline buttons are directly beneath the orientation buttons and the final button in that group, which is a ‘T’ with a coloured block beside it, allows you to select the colour of the text you want. To add the text, simply click ‘Add Text’ and then drag the text to where you want it once it has appeared in the workspace. If you wish to edit the text once it has been inserted, simply double click it then edit the options in the ‘Text Tool’ space.

Lastly, to save your design, simply click the ‘Save Design’ button at the top of the screen. Click ‘Ok’ is a screen pops up, and the image you have created should save on your desktop in and ‘Artwork Creator’ folder. To load a previous design, click the ‘Load Design’ button (left of ‘Save Design’ button) then select the folder in which you previously stored the design you made. Then select the only version of the design which is not greyed out (file type ‘.prj’).

And if it all goes horribly wrong, just click the ‘New Design’ button in the top left corner of the screen which will give you a fresh canvas!

I hope this guide helps you to fill your design needs easily and effectively!

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How To Get Your CD Artwork Designed

April 4th, 2010

Attractive CD artwork means a disc which sells well!

Getting the right look for your CD can be a real challenge. You want your product to look good and yet still appeal to the right consumer-group. There are several different roads you can take to get your artwork designed, and by covering them in this articles, I hope to help you make up your mind which one is most suited to your needs.

Perhaps the highest quality design will come from hiring a professional designer to do the job for you. It’s their livelihood so they’re sure to know what they are doing and will probably have much better software at their disposal to do it with than you will. The design they come out with will be exactly what you ask for and they can work to a certain time-scale. However, hiring a professional is perhaps not the most cost-effective way to get your CD artwork designed as they do charge for the hours they work on your design. However, if you do want one it can save you a lot of your own time and they are not difficult to find: Simply search in the ‘Yellow Pages’ or on an internet search engine.

The next option is to use an online or downloadable artwork creator. My favourite is the Artwork Creator designed by Duplication Centre. It’s very easy to use but still offers you many options for editing your image, without having to spend a lot of time learning how to use new software. Of course, if you have a program such as ‘Photoshop’ you could always use that.

Though it can be very time consuming to design your CD artwork yourself, if you do decide to take this route, you then have the question of where to get the images you use in your artwork from. You can take the photos yourself but be warned that unless photography is a hobby of yours, it can be difficult to get high-quality results. So you could get them professionally taken, but remember that this costs a lot of money. If you want a cost effective, fast way to acquire photos without having to take them yourself, you can always set up an iStockphoto account. iStockphoto is a website designed to let you browse through literally thousands of photographs and buy them to use on your products royalty free.

I hope that these ideas help you to decide how best to design your CD artwork to the high quality you would expect and in the time frame you need!

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