CD/DVD Label Maker Help - Purchase - Download - Acoustica
Can I print a label directly onto a CD? Where can I get label paper?
How can I import my own graphics and put them on labels?
I imported my own graphic for a label background and the art looks squished (or stretched).
How can I import the song titles from the CD I burned so I don't have to type them all in?
Can I print a label directly onto a CD? Where can I get label paper?
There are a few printers available that can print directly onto a CD. The label maker currently supports the Epson Stylus Photo 900, the Epson Stylus Photo 960, and the Primera Signature series. For direct-to-CD printing, you can’t use regular CDs; you need to buy printable CDs instead. These are usually labeled as printable CDs and have a white surface.
Several companies make CD label paper; you can find it at most large electronics stores and some large discount stores. If you're just starting out printing CD labels, we also recommend you buy a CD label applicator. It's a little plastic device, usually selling for a few dollars, that makes it much easier for you to get your labels aligned correctly on your CD.
If you don't want to print jewel case labels on plain paper, you can buy premade jewel case label stock at the same places you find CD label paper. It's usually perforated and is thicker than typical printer paper.
Acoustica CD Label Maker provides two ways to find images on your computer that you can add to your labels:
1) Click on the "Art Search" tab, enter some text that's in the file or folder names of the art you're looking for, and click the "Search" button. Thumbnails of all supported image files matching your search terms will appear in the window underneath the search button. We support jpg, bmp, png, and pcx graphics types.
2) Click on the "Art Explore" tab, and parse through the explorer tree to see thumbnails of all the supported image files in a particular folder.
If you've found an image you want to make your background, you can do it one of these ways:
1) Double-left-click on the image's thumbnail to make it the background
or
2) Ctrl + double-click the thumbnail to make it a tiled background
or
3) Right-click on the image's thumbnail and select one of the "Set as background" options.
If the image you've selected doesn't have the same aspect ratio as the label you're putting it on, it may appear stretched or squished. It that's the case, you can left-click the image's thumbnail, drag it onto the label and release the mouse button, then click on the sizing bars to make it big enough to overlap the label without altering its aspect ratio, and click on its title bar or the image itself to position it where you want it.
If you’ve found an image you want to add to your label as a piece of clip art (rather than as the label background), just left-click on its thumbnail, drag it onto your label, and release the mouse button. The program will place the image where you dropped it. As soon as you drop it, it should be in "selected" mode, with sizing bars and a toolbar. You can click on the image’s sizing bars to resize the image; you can click on the image’s title bar or the image itself to move it. You can also right-click on the image to pop up a menu with a variety of editing options.
You can also drag image files from Windows Explorer and drop them onto your label.
Your background graphic may look squished or stretched if it has a dramatically different aspect ratio from the label you're putting it on. When you insert a picture as a label background, it will get either stretched or compressed to fit the dimensions of the label you're putting it on. If your image is twice as wide as it is high, for instance, and you try to make it the background for the jewel case front, which is square, your image may appear squished.
To avoid this, you can either use images that are roughly the same shape (and aspect ratio) as the labels you want to put them on, or you can add them to the label as regular clip art rather than as backgrounds, so you can resize them however you like. You can do this by just clicking on the image's thumbnail and dragging it onto the label. You can then move & resize it so that it covers the entire label. It will keep its original aspect ratio unless you right-click on it and uncheck the "maintain aspect ratio" option. You can click the "send to back" button on its toolbar to make sure it appears behind everything else.
I printed and nothing happened.
If nothing came out of the printer, it's likely that you selected a different printer than the one you expected to print on. Click the "Print" toolbar button to launch the Print dialog, then check to see what printer is listed at the top of the dialog in the "name" field. Is this the printer you meant to print on? If not, set it to the correct one.
If you got a blank page from the printer, you probably either tried to print a blank label – one you hadn't added any images, shapes, or text to -- or your hard disk is nearly full. If your hard disk doesn't have at least 200 megabytes of free space, your printer driver is likely to have trouble creating the temporary files it needs to print with.
If you burned an audio CD, the Label Maker can usually import your song information from the playlist file you created with your CD Burner program. When you burned the CD, your CD Burning software should have created a file storing the names of all the song files that you were burning onto the CD. If you didn't save this list, please do so from now on -- it will save you lots of typing.
If you click the "Tracks" button on the CD Label Maker's toolbar to launch the CD Contents dialog and then click the "Import" button on that dialog, the Label Maker will pop up a dialog that lets you find & select the playlist file you used to create your CD. Once you select the file, the Label Maker will scan the playlist file, load your song information from it, and display it in the CD Contents dialog.
If you burned your CD with the Acoustica MP3 CD Burner, you can click the "CD Label" button on the CD Burner's toolbar and the CD Burner will launch the Label Maker and automatically tell it the names, artists, and lengths of all your songs. If the Acoustica CD Burner asks if you want to save before it launches the Label Maker, click the "yes" button.