There are alternatives to large runs and big companies. Screening is a bit difficult for CDs without all the right equipment. Thre are some decent inkject solutions for affordable prices, and you can do 1-300 affordably.

Rimage CD / DVD printer. Is a thermal image printer works with ribbons. Can print B/W and color

www.rimage.com

I have researching this for a while. What I found is that you have to use UV ink that doesn't have any abrasives in it. I went to a local silkscreen supply who ad the ink on hand, and we did a test screen on it. You can leave it in the sun or put it on your light table to dry. The test came out pretty good. The ink doesn't flake or scratch off, and doesn't effect the cd. I'll let you know when I try it myself.

Amy, you have several alternatives such as:

Ink jet labels which may loosen and damage CD players, try picking out all the bits of sticky back paper from a closed CD drive!

Direct ink jet to CD, the machines have been coming down in price and you could print CD for other bands!

But the best is to simply screenprint them. I have printed runs of 50 promo CDs for an artist and have printed as many as 5,000 quite successfully. You will need a flat table and two jiffy hinges to hold the screen in place. You will need at least a 355-tpi (threads per linear inch) mesh that is tensioned to the manufacturers specifications on an aluminum frame. You can use a 70-durometer squeegee with a sharp edge.

Your ink (not paint) will need to be a UV screen ink. I suggest Nazdar PowerPrint 1600 Series ink (check with nazdar.com for a supplier near you. They are worldwide). This is an ultra-violet ink that a few people are allergic to so you may want to test yourself with a small drop on you skin and wait 48 hours to see if a red rash occurs. If it does, then you will need to wear protective clothing and a respirator with the product. The odds of an allergic reaction is very slim, but you should play it safe. The ink comes in a wide range of both gloss and matte colors.

The best part about this ink is that it can be cured at low levels of ultraviolet energy which means less cost for a cure lamp (200-watt mercury vapor lamp) or you can use the sun if you want. Just don't print in the sun or your ink will cure in the screen! You must be careful about the curing process as undercuring will result in poor adhesion of the ink, while overcuring will result in the ink chipping easily. Also, if you print two colors and the first color is overcured, the second color will not adhere well to the first color if they overlap. If you use the sun, the curing time will vary depending on your location, the time of day and the clarity of the sky.

Testing For Cure - Take a razor blade and make several cuts (approximately 1/8 apart) through the ink surface to the substrate and then make several cuts on a right angle to these cuts. Place a piece of Scotch Brand 810 Magic tape over the cuts and press down onto the ink for 5 second with a firm pressure. Pull the tape up and see if the ink comes up. If it comes up clean, you have overcured. If it comes up but leaves some color residue, it may be undercured or it has possibly stained the substrate. See if the ink stain can be wiped. If so, you are undercured.

Two Colors on a round object - this is easy with CDs as they have this great clear center and are usually marked with letters and numbers if you look closely. Set up a jig that will hold the CD on the press bed. I use three old CDs, one on each side and one below the printed CD. You place the CD to be printed in the jig and align the type with a mark that you have made on the table. If you align each CD in exactly the same place for the next color it will go register quite nicely.

You will need to purchase this ink in quarts or gallons, but you will be able to print on a wide variety of substrates such as Styrenes, rigid vinyls, pressure sensitive vinyls, polycarbonates, some acrylics, coated papers, coated cardstocks and treated fluted polypropylenes. This means that you can use the same inks to print your Jewel Case cards if you want.

On another note, I have successfully printed CDs with Nazdar's 9700 all purpose plastic ink which can be air cured at room temperature in about 20-30 minutes.

One last thing - be sure to keep your art image more or less equal all the way around the CD. If you put an extreme amount of graphics on one side it may cause the CD to perform poorly in some of the less expensive CD players. Of course, you will want the music to sound good in all machines.

Bill Hood
School of Screenprinting
schoolofscreenprinting.com