Thermal CD printers use pressure and heat to transfer print materials (text and graphics) to the disc surface. The magic behind all this technology is accomplished by placing a thin film ribbon that gets sandwiched between the disc and the print head.
To produce a wide variety of printed options for your CDs, ribbons come in a wide assortment types: single, dual and multicolored.
What’s really nice about thermal CD printers is they get the job done faster than other CD labeling techniques. And thermal printers will produce a print that’s durable. You won’t need any additional coating as your thermal print is waterproof and also scratchproof.
There is a downside to thermal CD printers though. It’s difficult to transfer pictures or images using them. Well, it’s difficult to get a “good” transfer for photographic images anyway. So it may not be your best option if that’s what you had in mind. It’s recommended you stick with simple text and graphics in making your CD labels.
The good news: If you do what quality photographic images on your CDs, consider using a Thermal Retransfer printer. These will provide realistic photo image quality you seek.
Thermal Retransfer printers work like thermal CD printers in that they work by using heat to make the transfer and ribbons technology. But with a twist!
The twist is one more step in the process. With thermal retransfer printing, prints the color image to an interim ribbon. Then this interim ribbon is then used for the actual printing to the disk.
Why a second ribbon? The interim ribbon allows for much better color mixture. And when it’s all said and down, the better color mixture results in a more exacting print. If you use this type of technology, you’ll end up with a very durable print with excellent quality.
The Cost of Thermal CD Printing
Actually, the cost per print for single and even two colors is pretty cheap. If you want full color then per print costs are about the same as if your using inkjet technology.
The savings of a thermal CD printer come with continued usage. If you don’t plan on doing very many print jobs, then your initial purchase for a thermal printer is more expensive and you might be better off with an inkjet printer. But if you print a number of disks, you’ll receive a greater return on investment when printing disks.
