- Cd Inlay Printing Software Downloads
- Cd Inlay Printing Software Download
- Cd Inlay Printing Software Free
This little piece of paper is the most misunderstood template in CD printing. To be honest even CD printers call it by different names, the two most popular being “CD Inlay” and “tray card”. It wouldn’t surprise me if you are thinking “what is a CD inlay?”, and you would be surprised to know that is one of the names given the the the piece of paper that goes in the back of a CD case, you know the one, it normally has the track listing, a barcode, the text you can read on the sides when the CD case is in the rack? OK here is a picture to help jog your memory…
Even though the album case is still the most popular format of CD packaging, and we are so familiar with it, many people struggle to get the artwork for the CD inlay printing set-up correctly, but don’t worry read on and we will put that straight.
O ur CD Inlays can be printed full colour on both sides as standard. The inlay has a 6.5mm spines on the left and right hand side. The inlay has a 6.5mm spines on the left and right hand side. If you are having a barcode it will be printed on the rear of the inlay, barcode position is entirely up to you. This page contains the CD Jewel Case templates that you or your graphic artist will use in order to lay out your project for manufacturing at Oasis. Click here for the guide to using our design templates. Design and print custom CD, DVD or Blu Ray labels and covers with Disketch disc label software. Free to download. Quick to install, easy to use CD label maker software for PC or Mac.
Different types of CD Cases
Most CD pressing plants offer two types of CD cases. These days most people opt for the type of CD album case that is fully transparent/clear, this will allow you to print on both sides of the inlay. Current macbook os. If you decide to have the type of case with black clip trays, you will only need artwork for the rear inlay. If you are producing a double CD that is going in a black tray, you will still need artwork for the inside inlay.
CD Inlay Rear / Outside
Most people assume that the area on the back of the CD case where we normally have the track listing and barcode on is square like the CD booklet pages (121 x 120mm). It is actually a different aspect ratio, being much wider and slightly shorter @ 138 width x 118mm height, this does not include the spine area. As the aspect / size is different, if you are using the same image for the booklet and inlay, the inlay version will have to be cropped slightly differently or have the aspect ratio changed, if it is a photo of the artist or band, I don’t recommend altering the aspect by stretching the width, it will make them look like they have put on some weight!
CD Inlay information
The sort of information that is normally included on the CD Inlay is, the tack listing, the barcode, record label and distributor information & logos, contact details (email, website, facebook or twitter), copyright text and the catalogue number. A fairly recent trend for albums with a large number of tracks, is to have the information rotated by 90 degrees, by doing this is you are utilising the extra width. It does help with fitting on large track lists, but otherwise I would tend to stick with the traditional top to bottom text arrangement.
We are often asked where it is best to put the CD barcode on the CD inlay, and to be honest it doesn’t really matter from the point of view of CD manufacturers, distributors or retailers. The size of the barcode is another consideration, there is no industry wide standard for barcode size, but we recommend approximately 15 x 30mm as a good safe option. If your barcode is at the edge of the page, your barcode artwork will need enough room for “bleed“.
The Outside CD Inlay Spines
Our final tip for the rear inlay artwork is the one that causes most confusion. Along both sides of the CD rear inlay we have an area called the spine. This is the artwork that runs up the side of the album case where you normally have the name of the artist, the album tittle and the catalogue number.
In order to be read the right way up when in a rack or storage system that has the discs stored horizontally the spine on the left of the inlay should read from bottom to the top, and the text on the right hand spine should read from top to bottom.
CD Inlay Rear | Correct Orientation for the spines
The spine width is 6.5mm and from a visual point of view and in order to allow for any movement during trimming I would not recommend having the text the full width of the spine. It is best practice to allow about 1 – 1.5mm from the edge of the spines.
Inside CD Inlay
![Cd inlay printing software free Cd inlay printing software free](https://www.cdrom2go.com/content/images/thumbs/016/0166704_cd-and-jewel-case-w-2-panel-insert.jpeg)
If you have a CD album case that has a clear tray / fully transparent you will need to have artwork for the inside of the inlay. Only two main points to consider for this artwork, but they are big ones. Firstly you will need to remember that as the CD case is fully transparent the artwork on the left of the inside inlay will be visible from the front of the case when closed.
CD Inlay Clear Spine Area
The section that is visible is from through the front of the case is about 9mm wide form the inside left hand spine. If the difference between the artwork of the booklet and the inside inlay is vastly different you may want to consider printing this area as a solid block of colour to match the front page of the booklet and the inlay. I would actually recommend that the section that should be be about 13mm, just to be on the safe side.
![Inlay Inlay](https://binaries.templates.cdn.office.net/support/templates/en-us/lt01042744_quantized.png)
If you are designing the inside of the inlay with text in this area to be seen from the front of the case, a maximum width of 9mm is a good safe bet to make sure that the text is not obscured by the front of the case.
CD Disc Holder Area
Another common misconception about the inside of the inlay is that the hub and disc holder section that the CD sits on is in the centre of the artwork, it is actually offset slightly to the right, so if you place an image that you want to appear directly under the disc in the middle of the inlay it will actually not be central to the disc. Macbook copy shortcut.
The disc holder section is 120mm in diameter, so if you don’t want the image that sits underneath the disc to be visible it should be within this diameter. The actual centre of the disc holder is 80 mm from the left of the inlay and 59 mm from the bottom, these measurements are from the the edge of the page and exclude bleed. It is also worth noting that when the disc is in place any artwork under the central hole of the disc disc will be seen.
CD Inlay – Inside inlay dimensions – click to enlarge
Making a Dummy of your CD Printing templates
So that about wraps it up for specification for the inlay, but I have one last practical point. Once you have finished your design I would strongly recommend printing the artwork on to a sheet of paper, then using the crop marks cut the booklet & inlay to size and putting this in a CD case.
We call this making a dummy and you can often pick out design elements that don’t work particularly well by doing this, saving the heart ache of getting your order back from your CD printing company only to find out that the design does not work in print as you thought it did on screen.
Go forth and create a great CD Inlay Design
I hope this article makes things a little clearer, to be honest it is one element of designing great CD artwork that even some of the the best designers struggle with. The fact the CD inlay is an integral part of the case, what you see on screen does not always translate to print as you might expect. But if you take the above tips into consideration, you should be almost there with your CD inlay printing.
Cheers
Kev
If you are a music or movie lover, you must have got tons of CDs/DVDs. Sometimes you may want to make some personalized CD/DVD covers for each so as to better cataloging and finding them. At the same time, the CD and DVD covers can help you protect your CD/DVD discs from being easily damaged.
Here we recommend the top 3 free CD/DVD cover makers for you to make custom CD/DVD covers with ease without spending a penny!
Cd Inlay Printing Software Downloads
Free CD/DVD Cover Maker 1. CoverCreator
CoverCreator is a free online CD/DVD cover maker designed to make good-looking covers for your CD, DVD and even books and then print the covers out. You can use you favorite photos, logos, texts, etc. to make personalized covers from lots of professional CD/DVD cover templates. You can customize the colors, backgrounds, etc. No installation, just go to its website http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/cd-dvd/ and begin the artwork of CD/DVD cover making.
Free CD/DVD Cover Maker 2. CDCoverCreator
Cd Inlay Printing Software Download
CDCoverCreator is a freeware designed by Thyanté Software, aiming to help users designing and printing CD covers, inlays, labels, and even booklets. It can also create covers for Jewel Cases, Slim Cases, or (cut-out) paper sleeves. CDCoverCreator is compatible with Windows 2000/2003/XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. There are many built-in styles to define the layout of the cover. With a built-in cover browser, you can directly download CD covers from the CdCoverCreator web. Digital design software. Besides, you can directly make a copy of your covers when scanning them in CdCoverCreator.
Cd Inlay Printing Software Free
Free CD/DVD Cover Maker 3. UnderCoverXP
UndercoverXP is freeware to make and print CD and DVD covers. It supports JPEG, BMP, PNG and GIF photo format for making custom CD/DVD covers. It allows you to make CD/DVD covers with correct size as you like. The workflow is very simple: just choose the image you like from your computer and select the print format like CD, DVD, video game player, etc. UndercoverXP will automatically scale your image to the menu format. You can have a preview of the cover before printing. This free cover printer tool is available in more than 20 languages and can work in Windows Vista and Windows 7. However, this free CD/DVD cover maker is not a real designer. For image editing, you can use some photo editing tools.
Tips: Since you have got so many DVDs, why not make a copy of them in case they get damaged or lost? To back up DVDs, including protected DVDs, you can use Aimersoft DVD Copy, which can help you copy and back up DVD to DVD folders, DVD discs or ISO image file with high quality. If you want to copy the DVD to your computer in video formats and watch them on any media player or portable devices, you can use Aimersoft DVD Ripper to rip the DVD to any popular video and audio formats as you like.