LightScribe : Computer Hardware Buyers’ Glossary

A combination of a special DVD burner, special DVD blank discs, and free software that allow you to etch black and white photographs or images on the back of DVDs to label them. You flip the DVD over and the laser etches the design in the special light sensitive coating. You can get them in a number of different background colours.

The labels look professional, not something scribbled with a Sharpie permanent marker.
The advantages over paper labels are they can’t come off and gum up the mechanism and they have no thickness or weight to interfere with the operation.
The process puts no mechanical or chemical stress on the DVD which could interfere with the data recording.
The DVD is very unlikely to get scratched in the process, unlike schemes that put the DVD through an inkjet printer.

The of LightScribe has no colours, unlike an inkjet printer.
The etching process is quite slow. It can take 45 minutes to etch the entire CD surface or 15 minutes just to do a title band. Unlike a printer, there is just only one “print nozzle”.
The colour of the surface is not encoded. You must tell the software what it is.
The blanks cost twice as much as ordinary.
The labelling software comes with only a few patterns. You must manually download and install many small free packs to get the entire set.

DVD

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