Disc Printing Process Comparison

	B.M.P. UV Digital	Desktop Inkjet	Thermal Transfer	Pre-Printed Thermal Transfer	Silk Screen	Offset	Paper Label
Print on Standard Disc Surface?
Smudge / Scratch Resistant?
Cost Effective for Small Quantities?
Cost Effective for Large Quantities?
Glossy Finish Available?
Serialization / Variable Data?
Print Direct on Silver?
Number of colors (excluding White)?	6	≤6	≤3	≤4	≤5	4	≤6

Print on Standard Disc Surface?: Certain printing technologies such as Desktop Inkjet printers require a special coating to allow the water based ink to adhere to the surface and dry. The requirement for a 'special' surface increases the overal disc cost.

Smudge / Scratch Resistant?: A simple and industry wide test is performed to establish if a printed surface is scratch resistant, it is known as the Scotch Tape Test. A series of # marks are scratched into the printed surface 1 inch area. A piece of Scotch Tape is placed over this area and is then lifted. If any portion of the print pulls away from the substrate (disc) below it has failed the Scratch Resistance test. Smudge testing is another simple test, a damp finger is used to rub on the printed surface, if the printed surface colors smudge then this test has also failed. Typically, Desktop Inkjet printers will fail this test due to the majority of inks being used are water based, unless a 'special' more expensive disc is used.

Cost Effective for Small Quantities? To establish the Cost Effective for Small quantites various factors are consider: time to print one disc,  disc cost, ink cost,  job change time. The slower the printing speed the fewer discs per hour = higher cost per disc. If you are able to print 2,000 discs per hour on one format and only 60 discs per hour on another then obviously the cost per disc would be higher for the latter. This will be the same scenerio for the Cost Effective for Large Quantities.

Glossy Finish Available? Certain printing processes offer a glossy finish either by default or as an option. Typically this glossy finish also acts as a print protection especially in the case of Thermal printing. Gloss coats can enhance the appearance of the image printed such as photo images or solid colors can 'pop' with a gloss coat.

Serialization / Variable Data? This option / feature allows each individual disc to be unique either with a different numerical or alphanumerical configuration or barcodes or random data from an excel type file.

Print Direct on Silver? Offering the ability to print directly on to the silver surface of the disc can provide some unique effects as well as offering the most economic form of printing - simple black text on silver is popular for the budget minded purchaser who is not interested in full blown graphics.

Number of colors (excluding White)? The greater number of colors offered by a printer the better! Why? The greater number of colors will yield a greater depth of colors available in the color spectrum.