Printing back inserts for Jewel Cases i got a few questions

[s8n]

hi people , im looking to buy paper for back inserts on Jewel CD Cases.

Im not sure what people use to print on so im here to ask , i would like to replicate the type found in store bought Music CD back inserts..... thats what im aiming for. I want something with Gloss not thin and see through , an exact name of the Product would be great as i can search for it at Officeworks or if they dont have it somewhere else.

Also im looking for some Software to design my own back inserts , what i want is Software that will let me type in the Spine and on the Back.


i look forward to your knowledge

s8n

[Ziggy]

As for the software, Photoshop is gonna be your best bet. I guess you can use GIMP, a free alternative to Photoshop. Take the back label out of a CD and measure the length and width precisely, then make your Photoshop image that exact size. Then measure the exact width of the side labels and create guides for those exact measurements. And bingo, you've got a template for the back insert.

If you want, I have this old, OLD program that is basically just CD insert templates. It's about 1.5MB and I don't even know who made it. It has templates for the front/inside cover, back cover, and CD. You can copy/paste images to it and add text with basic functions. It doesn't do much else than that though, other than print. That's why Photoshop is gonna be your best bet. But maybe you just want something that's simple and easy to use, then it would be a good choice.

[AppleQueso]

You don't need special glossy paper, it'll look plenty glossy behind the shiny plastic of the jewel case. The paper doesn't even have to be all THAT thick at all, especially if you're only printing on one side. Just make sure it's thick enough that the color looks good and you're fine.

I've got a couple of reprinted jewel case inserts for a few games I own, and you seriously can't tell that they're reprints, even side by side with retail games, without some seriously close inspection.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, when I use to make CD inserts, I would just use regular old paper.

After my recent experience with Kinkos, I would highly suggest using them. It would be dirt cheap, and awesome quality. Unless you happen to have your own high quality printer. I recently ordered a few covers for universal game cases and they came out fantastic, and only $1.50 each (8.5 x 14" sheets). The paper feels like magazine paper. Not too glossy, and it's not photo paper.

[AppleQueso]

Yeah, when I use to make CD inserts, I would just use regular old paper.

After my recent experience with Kinkos, I would highly suggest using them. It would be dirt cheap, and awesome quality. Unless you happen to have your own high quality printer. I recently ordered a few covers for universal game cases and they came out fantastic, and only $1.50 each (8.5 x 14" sheets). The paper feels like magazine paper. Not too glossy, and it's not photo paper.

What do you mean by "ordered"? Like online or something?

Didn't know they could do that.

[CRTGAMER]

You don't need special glossy paper, it'll look plenty glossy behind the shiny plastic of the jewel case. The paper doesn't even have to be all THAT thick at all, especially if you're only printing on one side. Just make sure it's thick enough that the color looks good and you're fine.

I've got a couple of reprinted jewel case inserts for a few games I own, and you seriously can't tell that they're reprints, even side by side with retail games, without some seriously close inspection.

THIS
The case gives regular paper the shine and keeps the paper from peeling up. Its not perfect but looks pretty good. For a clear disc holder, you can stick with single sided printing and use two pieces of paper.

Some disc copy programs come with a DVD-CD case maker, I use an old one that came with NERO.

[AppleQueso]

You don't need special glossy paper, it'll look plenty glossy behind the shiny plastic of the jewel case. The paper doesn't even have to be all THAT thick at all, especially if you're only printing on one side. Just make sure it's thick enough that the color looks good and you're fine.

I've got a couple of reprinted jewel case inserts for a few games I own, and you seriously can't tell that they're reprints, even side by side with retail games, without some seriously close inspection.

THIS
The case gives regular paper the shine and keeps the paper from peeling up. Its not perfect but looks pretty good. For a clear disc holder, you can stick with single sided printing and use two pieces of paper.

Yup, that's what I've always done.

[Ziggy]

What do you mean by "ordered"? Like online or something?

Didn't know they could do that.

Yeah, and it was tubular.

You need a little more know-how than the average Joe to order online (for something like a CD insert) but it was a fairly simple procedure. The closest Kinkos location to my house is a 20-30 minute drive. It's not a bad drive, but I didn't have time to go down there on my day off, so I ordered online. I submitted my order around noon and immediately got an email saying the expected delivery date was THAT DAY around 6:30 PM. Long story short, I just missed getting it delivered that night, but it came the next morning. Also, you can order online and then pick it up yourself.

I say you need a little more know-how because they don't exactly have clear instructions for printing pictures. Basically, the upload thing on their site likes certain formats (like Word, Excel, Power Point, PDFs). I uploaded my images as TIFF and it doesn't like that format. It doesn't like any picture format, not even JPEG. Long story short, I had to create a boarder around the images so that the exact size of the document met one of there standard page sizes, and save it as a PDF. Not that that's a hard thing to do, but you kinda have to figure that out on your own.

[AppleQueso]

I use PDFs when I go up to Kinko's anyways. I might have to try that myself. Kinko's isn't very far away from me, but not having a car makes it difficult to get up there.

[Ziggy]

That was my first time using Kinkos, but I imagine if I went down there with some JPEGs on a flash drive or something they'd be able to print it out for me. It's just that when your ordering online, their upload and preview software doesn't like picture formats. You CAN upload a TIFF, for example, but you can't preview it and it wont give you a price estimate. And to make it confusing, you'll upload a TIFF and it'll tell you "To use other formats, download and instal our Kinkos print driver." So I did that, and it still didn't accept those formats, so I have no clue what the print driver actually does.