Nova Disc Blog

The importance of design in custom printed labels

2011-12-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Regardless of the type of product or service you offer, custom printed labels can add an exciting and more effective dimension to your marketing strategy. Customers are acutely aware of the type of image your business projects, making it imperative to design a trendy and professional label. Striking a balance between personalization and professionalism often proves difficult for many businesses. In some cases, the desire to stand out or make a visual impact overrides the basic necessity to accurately describe and label the product. Other products, on the other hand, fail to utilize the range of features available in custom printed labels, leaving their packaging drab and boring.

An excellent case study in custom printed labels exists in the food industry. With the dizzying array of food products available, custom printed labels are the perfect tool for making products stand out. For instance, a trip down the canned goods aisle consists of dozens of vegetables, sauces, and canned foods to choose from. Because the cans and jars are all of similar size and shape, the effectiveness of labels can be accurately gauged since they are they only defining characteristics.

The best custom printed label is one which, above all else, clearly displays the product name. After all, the first thing customers need to see on a product is the name. This helps them to quickly identify the product and promotes a subconscious memory of the image. Naturally, vivid colors and unique fonts can make labels stand out from competitors, but these designs do have their point of diminishing return. An overwrought or cluttered custom printed label can be visually confusing and cause customers to scan right over it. In essence, the best custom printed label is one which has enough uniqueness to garner attention without sacrificing the clarity of the product name.

Consider the label for Starkist Tuna. Chances are, you can imagine the appearance of the logo without even seeing it in person. The Starkist custom printed label features their typical blue shades, as well as the familiar whale character. Furthermore, the brand name font is unique and identifiable, without sacrificing clarity or vital information. Spaghetti sauce jars are another excellent example of the use of custom printed labels. Although nearly all spaghetti sauce jars are the same, certain brands like Ragu, for instance, easily stand out. Why? Again, the labeling is distinctive yet accessible, original yet readable. These are just two examples of how custom printed labels can set products apart from competitors.

The tenets of the custom printed label which govern the food industry hold true no matter what type of business you operate. In order to foster sales of your product or service, it is essential to have an attention-grabbing custom printed label. Of course, utilizing a custom printed label does not necessarily have to be limited to your product package alone. Stickers, posters, brochures, and other promotional items are other facets of your marketing campaign which can benefit from a custom printed label. By using the same custom printed label on each of your promotional materials, you can cultivate strong brand recognition and create awareness of your company among customers. Obviously, achieving this type of client rapport can significantly boost your sales.

If your sales are lagging, or if your marketing tactics have become stale and ineffective, you owe it to your company’s success to consider changing the design of your custom printed labels. Perhaps the most important aspect of marketing is brand recognition. By using your own label, with an effective design, you can promote increased awareness of your product and create an image that is all your own.

Written by L. Taylor for Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

Custom Printed Labels Are Important For Small Business

2011-11-28T07:49:00.000-08:00

The Importance Of Custom Printed Labels

In today's business environment, it's crucial to use professional custom printed labels as part of your marketing plan. It’s important to market yourself professionally in the business world. Even if you are a small business, and your clientele realizes that, it's still essential to keep up the appearance of professionalism and trust. No matter how small your customer base is, having top of the line custom printed labels for whatever products you might be selling is a powerful addition to any marketing plan.

What you need to keep in mind is that with the huge saturation of the print marketing, it’s difficult to make your small business stand out from the rest of the pack. This is all the more reason to invest in high quality custom printed labels, which will give you the ability to make the marketing of your product or services stand out, cause instant recognition and deliver a professional image. Visual appeal is one of the most essential ways you can promote your business, and using custom printed labels is an excellent way to get the attention of your current and future customers.

Whether you use custom printed labels as marketing tools outside of your business or as a hook at point of sale levels, custom printed labels will help you demand attention, establish your brand, and increase sales, as well as presenting attention getting special offers. Custom product labels are also a powerful way to make your product stand out at trade shows, online and other events, adding that extra bit of flair that calls attention to what you have to sell. You can even have personalized custom product labels created specifically for the event itself.

You can also use custom printed labels to announce an important anniversary or labels announcing a new product upgrade, enhancement or special discount. If you mail out holiday cards, invoices, new promotions and reminders of upcoming sales, using attractive labels will grab attention. They may even encourage the recipient to open your mail above the others they receive every day. They're also a perfect way to provide coupons, awards and more. Small businesses can order custom printed barcodes for their products and food product labels for their food products, providing nutritional information and even a recipe. When you order custom printed labels, you simply provide the details and your custom label provider will do the rest.

You might think this all sounds nice but you don’t have the money for custom printing, but the fact is, you’ll lose money by trying to do it yourself. First of all, to create high quality, professional looking custom printed labels requires expensive tools and equipment, not to mention the fact that even with top of the line equipment, it can take years to acquire the skills to create the high quality custom printed labels your business deserves. It simply isn't worth trying to safe a miniscule amount of money for such an important part of your business. By hiring a professional to create the custom printed labels that your business deserves, you’ll get more recognition, and more importantly higher profit margins.

No matter how you make use of your custom printed labels, you can’t go wrong using them as a marketing tool. You'll more than likely come up with fresh and innovative ways to use your custom printed labels by making them a part of your marketing efforts with a little brainstorming. Most important of all, the quality of your custom printed labels will be the key to your branding success so you need to make it a priority.

Written by L. Taylor for Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

2011-11-25T11:24:00.000-08:00

Custom t shirt printing video

Market Your Business through Custom T Shirt Printing

2011-11-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

Marketing your business through custom t shirt printing is a direction that you might want to consider taking, since this has proven time and time again to be quite effective in getting the attention of the public in a quicker, not to mention less expensive way. You might wonder what the fuss is all about. Why custom t shirt printing, and why choose this option, when print advertising is guaranteed to gain you more access to customers all over the country? This is a good question and one you have most likely asked yourself, especially when it comes to promoting your business through custom t shirt printing.

For those who are not familiar with the term, "print advertising", it pertains to advertisements you might see in newspapers, flyers or anything that is printed and handed out. This is also an effective marketing tool that most businesses use to promote their company, their products and their services. However, the cost of print advertising is a bit expensive especially when placing ads on newspapers. Is there an alternative to this expensive option? The alternative is custom t shirt printing.

Custom t shirt printing has been around for decades, and has been used by small, medium and large businesses for marketing their company way before the Internet appeared. Having other people wear your customized t shirts is a good way to market your business, because they go out while wearing your t shirts, making them your walking advertisements. Of course, if you want to make your custom apparel design a success, you need to consider what message you want to send across to your potential customers through your design, logo and specialized artwork.

Custom apparel helps promote business much the same way as “word-of-mouth” does. This technique helps get the message across to potential customers through catchy lines, logos, and designs, which is exactly what promotional t shirts are all about. People often find their eyes straying to promotional t shirts that underwent custom printing, especially when they find it interesting and catchy. They read what's written, or make them want to take a closer look at the logo, which is already the first step in marketing-- catching your audience's attention. Once they see your custom t shirt printing product, they are sure to remember it, especially when you get to use the right colors, logos and designs for your custom t shirt printing and custom apparel.

In custom t shirt printing, the color of the promotional t shirts play an important role as well. Black, grey or white colored t shirts are highly favorable, but it really depends on your market, company colors, and message. Bright and pastel colors are ideal for children. When it comes to custom t shirt printing, you should carefully select the color of the shirt as well as the color of your advertisement, to make it eye catching and easy to remember. Seek the advice of professionals in the advertising specialty business who can help guide you in the right direction.

Written by L. Taylor for Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

Custom T Shirt Printing Will Keep Your Business On Everyone’s Mind

2011-10-25T11:34:00.001-07:00

Marketing is an expense most companies have to tolerate if they want to be successful. However, there are plenty of ways to advertise without spending more than you have to if you consider sponsoring a local team such as for example, football, baseball, or hockey teams. You can order custom t shirt printing with the name of your business on them, so everyone will see it and remember your name.

Sponsoring a local team can be advantageous for your company. When you sponsor them, you have custom t shirt printing with the name of your business on t shirts. Your name is out there for everyone to see and remember. It’s not only a skilful PR ploy, but it’s also terrific for the local teams to have a business supporting them.

Local teams have a hard time coming up with the money for uniforms, plus they also need to cover costs for transportation, food, and equipment. Most bake sales don’t cover those costs. When you involve your company in the community, it builds good will, not only for your company, but for the community, as well. When parents talk about their kid’s games, they will mention your company.

When you order custom t shirt printing with team apparel your logo on them, the kids get the uniforms they need while you get the exposure. It’s a win-win situation for both. There are many local teams you can sponsor such as little League baseball or hockey and soccer teams. You’ll have a bunch of kids running around with your name on their backs if you decide to do custom t shirt printing.

Local newspapers love to snap pictures of teams in their new uniforms. That gives you even more exposure for your company since your name is on these custom t shirts. Custom t shirt printing can be very effective in this way, to raise public awareness.

As a small business or even a large business, marketing dollars need to be spent cleverly. Sponsoring a local team gives you the exposure as well as a reputation in the community. With custom t shirt printing, you can create any design you want. The design will have your company’s name or logo, plus the name of the team. You’ll also be able to do custom t shirt printing for your workforce when they go to the games.

Local sponsoring with custom t shirt printing is a smart business decision. When you do custom t shirt printing, you save on the cost of marketing while creating good will in the community. Your custom t shirt printing will be seen by almost everyone in the community. Not just when they go to watch the games but when the kids go out for food after the game. Whether they win or lose, the team coaches or families take the kids out to soothe their defeat or enjoy their victory.

Also, not to mention the times the team practices during the season. Your custom t shirt printing on the uniforms will be seen throughout the season of the game, whether it’s baseball, football, or hockey. It will also give you a sense of satisfaction, knowing the kids are having a terrific time while you’re saving advertising dollars and keeping your name out there through custom t shirt printing.

The next time you think about marketing, think about including custom t shirt printing to keep your name out where everyone can see it and remember it.

Nova Disc Video

2011-10-12T13:43:00.001-07:00

Saving money on printing, part 2

2011-09-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

Part 2: Saving on custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, and custom apparel.

Ok so you want to save money on custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel. Well, quantity is important. By that I mean that the more you order the better the price will be. For instance, let's say you want to order a small quantity of labels. Maybe 50 or 100 labels. Well in this scenario, you'll probably pay a lot per unit as compared to say, 1000. The price is very similar at 250, 500 and 1000, generally just a few dollars more will get the unit price down considerably. This is why it is always wise to go up in quantity when you place any printing order. Your unit price will always go down as the quantity goes up. It is one of the basics of the printing industry, especially with custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel, and actually or pretty much any industry actually.

I once shopped for an air conditioner, and my neighbor needed one as well, so we teamed up, thinking that two air conditioners sold might be more attractive to a seller than one. Well, we were right, but as it turned out, 2vs. 1 is not a big deal. Had we wanted 10 air conditioners, we would have done much better. Too bad we didn't need 10. We could have gone around to other neighbors to see who needed one, but I digress. ..you get the point, don't you?

When you go to a market and buy a case of something, the grocer gives you a discount, doesn't he (or she)? It's the same principle. So, for custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers,and custom apparel, always think in terms of higher quantities. Now the other thing to be aware of is your need for these products. If you only need 50 units, it won't help you to get 1000, so even if it's $20 difference, it may not be worth it to you because it would be a waste of $20. This is something you need to think about. Weigh the pros and cons.

"When I became of age my mother called me to her side
She said 'son you're growing up now, pretty soon
You'll take a bride'...
[Sings:]
And then she said...
'Just because you've become a young man now
(Man, now)
There's still some things that you don't understand now
(Son, now)
Before you ask some girl for her hand now
(My son)
Keep your freedom for as long as you can now'
My mama told me...'you better shop around'
(Shop, shop around) a-whoa-yeah
You better (uh-huh) shop around!
(Shop, shop around)
Uh-uh-uh"
-SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES

"Shop Around"

(William "Smokey" Robinson & Berry Gordy)

Why am I quoting song lyrics? Well, another idea of saving money is, you guessed it, shopping around.

When shopping online for custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers,and custom apparel, or anything really, most people only look at the first 3 listings in google, yahoo or bing, but if you want to save money, you have to go deeper and visit numerous websites to get quotes and compare prices. When I shop, I look at 5-10 pages of listings. Granted, that's a lot, but I like to save money, LOL. You really need to take the time to get the best deal. That's always the tradeoff isn't it? Time vs. Money. Do you have the time to invest in shopping to get the best deal. If the answer is yes, you can certainly do it well. On the other hand, if the answer is no, you'll be limited in your shopping to not get as good a deal as you can because of time limitations. these are things you will have to consider. Is it worth it to you to take the time out to do all the shopping necessary to make an informed decision?

Custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers,and custom apparel can be had for reasonable prices. You really just have to educate yourself about the process, and the business in general.

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

What Good Are T- Shirts Anyway? Custom T Shirt Printing As Advertising

2011-08-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

Custom t shirt printing is a unique avenue for businesses and corporations to take promotionally. Whether you're a small start up with the intention of bringing in new clients or in the case of a corporation attempting to solidify your brand, custom t shirt printing is increasingly becoming a popular choice in promotional advertising. Think of the many possibilities in purchasing custom apparel. First, your company logo would be front and center. (Or on the breast pocket, if your prefer).

You can get creative with the design and have fun with it yourself. Designing promotional t shirts does not necessarily have to be done by your creative people. Any printing company can work with you to create a unique design. Always keep in mind though to make the shirt representative of who you are as a brand. You are most passionate about your business. So make sure you are clear on the message you want to get out on your custom t shirt printing.

Developing promotional t shirts can result in your producing a profit on the items, or just getting the word out to the public. Either way, once the end user has the garment in their hands, they can't forget you. Every time they see or put on the shirt, they are reminded of you, and isn't that what advertising and promotion is all about? This creates a long lasting impression on your custom t shirt printing, so make sure it's a good one!

When considering your custom t shirt printing design, an important factor you might overlook is the color of the shirt. While white shirts are least expensive, they are not the best selling for custom t shirt printing. Our independent studies have shown that red ink on black is actually the best seller for custom t shirt printing. But does that coincide with your company's color scheme? Something to consider...

If the company's focus is on kids, then for your custom t shirt printing you might decide on pastel or bright colored shirts. Kids happen to love bright colored apparel and will be more likely to favor it over blander colors, which will help keep your company in the foremost thoughts of their parents. If you are geared to an adult clientele, as I mentioned earlier, black is always a great choice for custom t shirt printing, followed by grey, white and blue. Think of your audience and the focus of your company or organization.

If you have a slogan or USP (Unique selling proposition), would it be appropriate for the custom apparel? This is an extremely subjective question that only you can answer. For instance, for a cleaning company or moving company, it would be very appropriate. But for more of a conservative real estate company, the logo might be enough. Then again, a real estate company might want to stand out with a bold statement, so it really depends on the direction you want to take with your advertising and promotion on custom t shirt printing.

What if you are a new company and don't have a logo designed yet for custom t shirt printing or for any purpose? What if you have no one to do your custom t shirt printing design for you? These days anything can be found online. Need a designer? There are literally thousands out there. You just have to put the time in to find one right for you. If you need help, our company has been doing design for custom t shirt printing for 16 years.

Once your design is set, you'll need to decide on the type of custom t shirt printing you want to have done. You can either screen print the shirts (the most popular choice), heat transfer, direct to garment print, or print with special effects like "distressed" printing. This is the "washed out" type of look you get that is presently very popular on custom t shirt printing.

As you can see, promotional t shirts are an interesting way to advertise your message. When designing your custom printed t shirts, it's always best to keep in mind the end result that you want to achieve. Ask yourself, "What is my goal in doing this?", and this way you'll have a clearer understanding of how to design and print your custom apparel.

As a final word, always remember that custom apparel does not have to be t shirts. Custom golf shirts, polo shirts, hats, towels, bags and promotional items might be more appropriate for what you want to do.

Feel free to contact us for ideas. We're always happy to bounce ideas off of.

We'll get around to part 2 of suggesting other ways of saving money on custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers,and custom apparel soon, but I wanted to get this article up today!

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

Saving money on printing

2011-07-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

In this tight economy, businesses are trying to save money on expenses to stay afloat. So with that in mind, how can you save money on printing products such as custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel and other custom printed products?

We'll go through several ideas on this topic...

Going standard size on custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel.

When you are printing custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel, or any printed item and going for sizes out of the "standard", you may pay 50% more than if you order a standard size. For instance, let's take a close look at printing labels. If you've got, say, a 2. 26" x 3. 467" label, it's a non-standard size. Here at Nova Disc, we can accommodate this order on a square cut label, with no bleed, without incurring any extra charges, but, if you need a full bleed, or round cut corners, we would have to do a special order where we have to make a die. Dies generally cost about $500-700 to create. This is an added expense that, if you are only ordering several thousand labels, can drive your unit cost up significantly. If you are ordering 100k or more, it ends up only being pennies more, but at a few thousand, as I said, it can hurt the bottom line. Compare this with a 2. 25" x 3. 5" label, which is a standard size, and you will save the cost of the die. If you are able to do this, you'll save a large expense on a special order.

Taking a look at other printing products, we see the same thing happening with flyers, postcards, brochures, catalogs and other paper printing. Once you get out of the standard sizing, it becomes a non-standard job. While there are no die charges as with labels, the job needs to be run on a press by itself, and the paper needs to be cut to the custom size or shape that you request. We do offer interesting flyers and postcards in oval and round shapes at close to standard pricing, but if you need printing at a special size, it can be costly, depending on what you need.

The rule to keep in mind in the printing business is that anything which is not standard will cost more.

Going for standard packaging vs. special orders

This also includes CD and DVD packaging. While the industry is changing and CDs and DVDs are no doubt on the way out, replaced by MP3 files, Wav files, and other online file types, it will take a while for them to be completely phased out. Like the 8 track, vinyl, audio cassettes and VHS tapes before them, CDs and DVDs still have followers that refuse to give them up, so they will be around for quite a few more years before they receive 8 track status.

Meanwhile, when it comes to packaging, you have your standard jewel case or 5" cardboard pocket, aka jacket aka minijacket, or standard 5" cardboard mailer, and then you have your digipak, becoming more and more popular.

When you get into wallets (essentially a 5" cardboard pocket sleeve with an extra panel or several panels, this can add up in terms of expenses. They are viewed as custom items. 3D packages, where the cover of a CD or DVD package is in 3D is also {considered to be special packaging. Boxed CD or DVD sets are likewise, viewed as special items. Now, if you have a special boxed set that you can sell for a special price, it's certainly worth the expense. But the jury is out on whether it's worth the extra expense on printing special packages for the specific purpose of standing out on a retailer's shelf. Does a package which happens to look different from all the others on the shelf grab people's attention? No doubt it does, however, it's what's inside that will ultimately sway the consumer's decision to buy or not. The choice of whether to spend for a specialized package is, of course in the hands of the designer and company ordering the product, but be aware that the cost may be on average, about 50-100% more than standard packaging.

The same goes for retail products that are boxed. Dies have to be created for special sized boxes, so try to go standard whenever you can. Once again, an out-of-standard size box can add a lot to the visibility and impact to consumers at retail, but weigh the costs vs. the benefits.

PMS colors vs. CMYK

When printing custom printed labels, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, and other paper products, with PMS or Pantone colors vs. CMYK there are always extra costs involved. Especially when printing paper products, this can drive your costs up significantly. CMYK jobs are generally gang run, where your job will be placed on a printing press with other jobs are run together. This saves costs for both the client and the printer. But when you order PMS or Pantone color matches, the job must be run on its own. The discount you receive with gang run printing no longer applies, and as a result, the cost of the print run, which was spread around the gang run to all the clients on that run is now transferred fully to the client with the PMS/Pantone job.

When it comes to labels, it's not as costly. Pantone of PMS matches only cost $40 per match regardless of quantity, but still something to keep in mind.

With custom t shirt printing and custom apparel, once again it's only a few dollars per color match. Interestingly enough, when silk screening apparel, CMYK ends up being more costly than PMS/Pantone colors because of the process used. In silk screening, a screen must be made for each color, separately. PMS/Pantone colors are easy, but with CMYK, you need to create films as well, driving up the costs of the setup by $100-500. While it can be argued that all t shirt printing is custom, some custom t shirt printing is more custom than others. Though this is a somewhat subjective argument, for the purposes of this article, with the goal being saving money, CMYK on apparel is more costly than standard or PMS/Pantone colors. One thing to keep in mind, if you opt for heat transfer printing on apparel, you can get CMYK prints done without any setup costs at all, but the unit price goes up. So if it's a small quantity you are printing, it's something to consider. Not recommended for large runs though in terms of costs, because the unit price is much better on silk screening even when paying the extra setup costs.

In our next article, we'll suggest other ways of saving money on custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers,and custom apparel ...

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

Custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, custom apparel printing prices: If the price sounds too good to be true, it is.

2011-07-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

In this article, I would like to discuss printing prices on custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, and custom apparel.

With the advent of the internet, competition in the printing industry became fierce. Companies began popping up that didn't exist before. Some weren't even companies, but individuals with no experience looking to make a quick buck.

Excuse us for this rant...But it's important...Fly by night companies also disappear overnight.
It's quite common in this industry to see companies come and go. Many of them are starting up and don't have the experience to have the foresight to anticipate and tackle a possible problem before it even occurs.

Instead they are scrambling around "putting out fires", covering up their errors... Some don't have an office number listed on their website, and some don't even have an office.

No wonder their prices are so low...We are contacted by clients all the time, telling us horror stories about a cheap printing company they found online, and the prices sounded too good to be true. Guess what? The client paid much more in stress than in dollars.

There are printers in the industry that offer a low price for an even lower quality product. Printing looks washed-out, or look like second generation copies.

The old saying goes...If the price sounds too good to be true, it is.

There are some fixed costs involved in printing...namely materials such as garments, paper, adhesives, inks, screens, plates and other considerations. Of course there is also overhead costs in running a printing company, but that aside from that, you can only make your prices so low before you end up losing money on a deal. Sometimes as a printer, if you want to land a good client you might take a small loss or break even just to get them to do business with you, but if if a price sounds fishy, look into it carefully.

I just did a search on google and immediately found this:

"-----Print, for anyone who hasn’t heard of them, offer a printing service, so business cards, leaflets all types of printing. Their prices are ridiculously cheap, and as with all things what you pay for is what you get. The business cards I ordered were badly printed (barely read some of the fonts), the colour was off ...and the card was flimsy and just felt dead cheap."

This is not uncommon at all. Sadly, I have heard many such stories. It amazes me that some companies think they can get away with this. To me, I like doing a great job that my clients will be happy with. It makes me feel like I am doing something worthwhile and earning my money for doing a good job. But not everyone thinks the way I do. Some printers just want to do a money grab and run. I'm not saying all printers are like this. But those that burn people are burning themselves with bad word of mouth.

We are not the lowest priced. Nova Disc however, is committed to delivering the best quality custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers,and custom apparel and other custom printed products at the best price.

With our custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, and custom apparel, we provide the highest quality materials coupled with careful attention to details to ensure that your printing job is carried out correctly, and to the highest quality standards.

Check the website of the company you are considering doing business with and find out all you can about the company. Don't rush into an order just because you are in a hurry. People get burned that way. Make sure that the company has a physical address listed. Also that they have samples that you can look at, and that they have testimonials on their website from real people, and not "L.M, New York". Who is to say that their testimonials are real when it just has initials on it???

Please make sure that the custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers and custom apparel printer you choose to work with has a reputable track record of at least five years. Obviously, your product is important to you, so make sure you put it in the hands of someone who has the experience to make the process stress-free.

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, vhs duplication, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, mastering, custom printed labels, custom t shirt printing, customized stickers, custom vinyl stickers, and custom apparel printing services to clients worldwide.

Audio CD Replication: The Inside Scoop On The Music Business

2011-04-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

This article was originally published in 1998 on www.novamusic.com. I successfully predicted the direction of the current music industry. Now, many years later, this article still rings true...

To coin a phrase, “It’s not like it used to be.” “It used to be” that major record labels discovered artists and developed and nurtured them over time. Money was invested into the artist, sometimes for years, before the record company saw any return.

That day has come and gone. Major record companies today want to make the quick buck. You can’t blame them. The old way lost money more times than it made money, and the record business is after all, a business. Musicians today have to be businessmen and businesswomen as well as artists, because in order to get a major record deal, you need to have a track record.

To digress for a moment, think of it this way. The record company is like a bank. They LOAN you the money to allow you to record, release, promote and distribute your CD. You will pay them back when the record sells. They will “supervise” your project, by taking over all the aspects of the aforementioned, and as an artist, you will listen to their suggestions because they have the business expertise, experience, and track record in those areas.

The thing is, like a bank, they want to make sure they loan the money to a “good risk”, so they can not only recover the money invested, but make money, much more money than they invested in you. They figure that if you’ve “been in business” for years, and have sold goods (CDs) consistently on your own, then you’re a good risk. You may ask yourself,”Hell, if I could do that, what would I need them for?” Well, you might have a point there.

Artists like Ani DiFranco, an independent artist from day one, forming her own successful Righteous Babe record label, have been proving that you don’t need a record company backing you. You can do it yourself. Then, you have record companies coming to you, offering you mad money, because you have a proven track record.

Artists are now releasing albums exclusively over the internet, doing their own cd manufacturing without a record company. People are forming their own record companies and becoming successful. Sure, many fail, and let me tell you, those that fail would never have gotten a record deal at all, or if they did, it would have been a “throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks” deal. And many excited industry virgins have been sacrificed at that altar. (Record company invests $100K each in ten bands and takes a half-hearted shot with all of them, as opposed to investing $1M in one band. They figure “hey, if one of these seeds sprout, we’ll water it, but if they all die, let ‘em, and we’ll use them as tax write-offs. If none of the ten make it, we’ll get ten more. It’s a numbers game.”) See, They’d rather sink money into a proven commodity. (Insert name of Platinum selling artist here.)

Still think groups like Nirvana, Live, Green Day, Jane’s Addiction, Collective Soul and Hootie and the Blowfish got discovered from a demo tape? Nope. They sold CDs, lots of ‘em before record companies came-a-callin’. And when a record company comes to you, you’ve got the upper hand in a deal making situation. Anyway, if you do it yourself, selling 5 to10 thousand copies is a big success. Major labels will take a major bath selling those numbers. Get signed to a major label and fail, and you’ve got a black ball on you. No other major label will want to touch you again. (It’s scary that way.)

So how do you get there? Well, first of all your music must be great. Not good. GREAT! You’ve got to feel in your heart of hearts that this stacks up with (insert band you respect here) . Next, you’ve got to form alliances with the right people or companies who can help you record and promote your album. Make all the connections you can. Then do it again! The days of being “discovered ” and “developing” artists are over. So develop yourself, and reap the benefits down the line.

-Michael Nova & Sal Gagliano

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, custom printing, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, and mastering services to clients worldwide.

Getting A Product Bar Code

2011-04-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

Getting A Product Bar Code.

If you want to sell your products in retail stores, you’ll need a bar code. The bar code is called a UPC (Universal Product Code). You can obtain a UPC from the Uniform Code Council.

You will need to become a member of the Uniform code Council and the fee is dependent on the number of products you will be selling and your company’s gross revenues.

It takes about 3-5 days to receive your company prefix number. You can then create your full bar code number for each product with the help of the membership kit you will receive.

-Michael Nova

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd manufacturing, dvd manufacturing, custom printing, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, and mastering services to clients worldwide.

Marketing Genius: The CD Business Card

2011-04-07T16:11:00.000-07:00

What is a CD Business card?

CD business card replication is a relatively new concept.

CD Business Cards are business card shaped CD-ROM’s that can play in any standard computer CD drive. Usually jam packed full of multimedia information about your business…anything from a full interactive web site to a catalog to a power point presentation with music, video, whatever you can imagine. These cd business cards give you the power to illustrate much more than a standard printed business card can.

With cd business cards, you can include any audio, video (digital or VHS), PowerPoint presentations, brochures, sales literature and catalogs. You can even have “hot links” to your website and unlimited e-mail addresses to multiple departments, such as sales, customer service, technical support, etc.

Your entire product catalog can be put on a CD for a fraction of the cost of standard printed paper catalogs.

They actually come in many shapes and sizes, including an “hockey rink” shape with rounded corners, a credit card size and shape, a 3” round mini, and custom shaped cds (imagine a cd die cut to your logo’s shape).

The real advantage to cd business cards is that besides being a cool marketing product in itself, they are small sized, and are easily stored in a wallet or shirt pocket, just like a standard printed business card.

Technology is now available to print on the disc in many ways. The standard is silk screening. But you can also upgrade to offset printing or digital printing at quality up to 600 dpi.

In addition, Using a unique new all-digital imaging process to print labels for any format of optical disc media, variable data can be printed on each individual disc, making serialization and personalization possible, regardless of the number produced.

Serialization can be used to control who can access data, along with accountability for how it is stored. This trackability helps prevent problems of piracy, theft, loss of production, and loss of sales, by making positive authenticity and ownership easy to establish.

Personalization can be used to provide consumers with individualized promotional items and even serve as mailing labels. Photos of agents and/or products provide big impact as business cards, invitations, catalogs and other marketing materials, even on a small marketing budget.

Some potential uses for cd business cards…

For a salesman/executive…

Photos of your products or services can be printed in full color on the CD business card with full contact information. Within the content of the card, full catalogs can be included with product information and links to your website. On each CD label, individual client’s name and information can be printed, making each card uniquely personalized.

For real estate company…

Houses can be shown in multimedia virtual tours. Individual representative’s data can be printed on the face of the cd, specifically addressed to the prospect.
For an insurance company…

Client’s individual name and policy data can be printed on the CD label. Complete policy, actuarial information, and FAQs can be included or a full marketing presentation in multimedia can make an immediate impact.

For an automobile company…

Each dealership’s customer database can be leveraged by simply sending a CD business card to each customer with the latest leasing /product information. Each CD label can be individually personalized and printed with each customer’s information, salesman’s name and contact info, and type of vehicle that interests the customer.

For a fortune 500 company…

Reports, whether quarterly or annual can be issued to each stockholder on CD with individual name and number of shares printed on the CD face. Prospect uses could be distributed with current performance information printed on each CD label.
CD Business cards seem to be the hottest marketing item in the business sector these days, and its popularity is growing. They are only limited by your imagination.

-Michael Nova

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd replication, dvd replication, custom printing, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, and mastering services to clients worldwide.

How does copy protection work?

2011-04-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

How does copy protection work?

Copy protection (sometimes erroneously referred to as “copyright protection”) is a feature of a product that increases the difficulty of making an exact duplicate. The goal is not to make it impossible to copy—generally speaking, that can’t be done—but rather to discourage “casual copying” of software and music.

The goal is not to conceal information from prying eyes; see section (3-19) for information on encrypting data on a CD-ROM.

A separate but related issue is “counterfeit protection”, where the publisher wants to make it easy to detect mass-produced duplicates. An example of this is Microsoft’s placement of holograms on the hubs of their CD-ROMs. There are full CD pressing plants dedicated to creating counterfeit software (the worst offender being mainland China), so this is a serious concern for the larger software houses.
Copy protection on CD-ROMs used to be rare, but as the popularity of CD recorders grew, so did the popularity of copy protection. A large percentage of games released in the past few years have been protected.

A more recent innovation is copy protection for audio CDs, inspired by the rise of MP3 trading over the Internet. This is more difficult to do, because the protection must allow correct behavior on a CD player but altered playback when being read by a CD-ROM drive. The best that can be accomplished is to force the user to play the music in an analog format and then re-digitize it, resulting in an imperfect reproduction.

The article at http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-7320279-0.html is a nice introduction to the issues.

Some people have questioned whether copy protection is legal. In some countries it may not be. In the USA, the law allows “fair use” of copyrighted material, but does not require that the content provider make it easy for you to do so. So while making a copy of a song for your own private use may be legal, there is nothing in the law that requires the publisher to make the material available in an unprotected format. Copy protection has been around for many years—some of the schemes employed on the Apple II were remarkably elaborate—and has never been challenged on legal principle.

See http://overclockers.com/tips907/ for an article about why “fair use” is a legal right rather than a constitutional right in the USA, and what that means to you. The article also has some interesting quotes from the courts regarding the DMCA and DeCSS, notably this one: “We know of no authority for the proposition that fair use, as protected by the Copyright Act, much less the Constitution, guarantees copying by the optimum method or in the identical format of the original.” In other words, arguing that “fair use” means the publisher must allow you to make a perfect digital copy (as opposed to a lower-quality digital or analog copy) is without merit.

...on a data CD-ROM?
There are several approaches. An article with a good overview of some popular protection technologies can be found at http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/02q2/020617/index.html. Another source is the “CD Protections” articles on http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_protections.shtml.

For anyone interested in protecting their own discs: don’t bother. Copy protection, on the whole, does not work. If you have a major application, such as a game or CAD package, you may want to consider one of the commercially licensed schemes listed later, or (heaven forbid) the use of a dongle. In general, though, if the disc can be read, then the contents can be copied. If you don’t want somebody to make a copy of your stuff, then you’d better encrypt it (3-19).

A simple and commonly seen technique is to increase the length of several files on the CD so that they appear to be hundreds of megabytes long. This is accomplished by setting the file length in the disc image to be much larger than it really is. The file actually overlaps with many other files. So long as the application knows the true file length, the software will work fine. If the user tries to copy the files onto their hard drive, or do a file-by-file disc copy, the attempt will fail because the CD will appear to hold a few GB of data. (In practice this doesn’t foil pirates, because they always do image copies. And, no, none of the standard software provides a way to create such discs.)

One possible implementation, given sufficient control over the reader and mastering software, is to write faulty data into the ECC portion of a data sector. Standard CD-ROM hardware will automatically correct the “errors”, writing a different set of data onto the target disc. The reader then loads the entire sector as raw data, without doing error correction. If it can’t find the original uncorrected data, it knows that it’s reading a “corrected” duplicate. This is really only viable on systems like game consoles, where the drive mechanism and firmware are well defined. This can be defeated by doing “raw” reads.

A more sophisticated approach is to write special patterns of data to the disc. The stream of data that results, after EFM encoding, is difficult for some recorders to reproduce successfully, apparently because they don’t choose correct values for the merging bits. This is often referred to on web sites as “writing regular EFM patterns” or “weak sectors”. See section (2-43) for details on EFM.

A less sophisticated—and no longer effective—method is to press a silver CD with data out beyond where a 74-minute CD can write. Copying the disc used to require hard-to-find CD-R blanks, but now it’s easy to use an overburned 80-minute disc (sections (3-8-1) and (3-8-3)).

The approach some PC software houses have taken is to use nonstandard gaps between audio tracks and leave index marks in unexpected places. These discs are uncopyable by most software, and it may be impossible to duplicate them on drives that don’t support disc-at-once recording (see section (2-9)). With the right reader and software, though, this isn’t much of a problem either.

A method that enjoyed some popularity was non-standard discs with a track shorter than 4 seconds. Most recording software, and in fact some recorders, will either refuse to copy a disc with such a track, or will attempt to do so and fail. A protected application would check for the presence and size of the track in question. Some recorders may succeed, however, so this isn’t foolproof. (In one case, a recorder could write tracks that were slightly over three seconds, but refused to write tracks that were only one second. There may be a limit below which no recorder will write.) In such cases, the pirates need to remove the explicit check from the software itself.

Putting multiple data tracks interleaved with audio tracks on a CD will confuse some disc copiers. However, it’s difficult to actually use the data on those additional tracks.

Sometimes the copy of a disc will have a different volume label. This usually only happens with file-by-file copies, not disc image copies, so checking the disc name is marginally useful but not very effective.

Modifying the TOC so that the disc appears to be larger than it really is will convince some copy programs that the source disc is too large.

Some of the fancier technologies use non-standard pit geometry that cause players to read the data differently on consecutive attempts. Sometimes the player sees a “1”, sometimes a “0”. If, when reading the track, the CD-ROM drive sees different data each time, the software knows that the disc is an original. A duplicate disc will return the same data reliably. (So too will some CD-ROM drives… this technology is not without problems.)

Some programs will examine the disc to try to determine if it’s a CD-R. This doesn’t work on all readers, and it’s possible to disguise discs, so this isn’t very effective.

CloneCD (section (6-1-49)) can copy many copy protected discs without trouble, given the right combination of reader and writer. Its main feature is “raw” reads and writes, which not all drives support.

The Laserlok system from http://www.diskxpress.com/ claims to be able to prevent unauthorized disc duplication at a low cost. It can be copied by CloneCD.

An unrelated product called LaserLock, from MLS LaserLock International (http://www.laserlock.com/) has similar features. It can be copied by CloneCD.

TTR Technology’s DiscGuard (http://www.ttr.co.il/ or http://www.ttrtech.com/ claims to be able to write a signature onto pressed CDs and CD-Rs that is detectable by all CD-ROM drives but isn’t reproducible without special hardware. A program could use this for copy protection by checking for the presence of the signature, and refusing to run if it’s not there.

Sony DADC is promoting a simliar product called Securom. Some information is at http://www.sonydadc.com/hotnews/secu_fra.htm.

Yet another variant is C-Dilla’s SafeDisc. They were bought by Macrovision (http://www.macrovision.com/). Their more recent product, SafeDisc 2, was the first to feature “weak sectors”.

Yet another variant is CD Cops from Link Data Security (http://www.linkdata.com/).

...on an audio CD?
The challenge here is to create a disc that will play on a standard audio CD player but be difficult to copy or “rip” into an MP3. The techniques making headlines in mid-2001 were developed by Macrovision (2-4-3) and SunnComm (2-4-4).

The earliest form of audio CD copy protection was SCMS. This only works on recorders that support SCMS, specifically consumer-grade stand-alone audio CD recorders. “Professional” recorders, and recorders that attach to computers, do not support SCMS. See section (2-25).

Some CDs used a damaged TOC (Table of Contents—see section (2-27)) that confused some CD-ROM drives and ripping software. More recent schemes attempt to modify the audio samples in ways that confuse CD-ROM drives into playing static. The next few sections describe these approaches in detail.

A web site at www.fatchucks.com used to have a list of suspected copy-protected discs and some tips on what you can do to let the industry know that copy protection isn’t appreciated. The web site appears to be gone, but you can see an archived copy of it here: http://web.archive.org/web/20031206075520/www.fatchucks.com/corruptcds/

Many forms of copy protection violate the CD-DA standard, and so the discs aren’t allowed to use the official CD logo art. However, many CDs don’t have the logo anywhere, so its absence doesn’t prove anything.
A paper entitled “Evaluating New Copy-Prevention Techniques for Audio CDs” by J.A. Halderman (available only in PostScript format) can be found at…
http://crypto.stanford.edu/DRM2002/halderman_drm2002_pp.ps.
The paper was submitted to the 2002 ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management (http://crypto.stanford.edu/DRM2002/prog.html).

Incidentally, if you’re convinced that record companies and artists are raking in huge piles of cash from every CD they sell, you might want to take a look at an Electronic Musician article that talks about where the money comes from and where it goes. See:
http://industryclick.com/magazinearticle.asp?magazineid=33&releaseid=
9554&magazinearticleid=132835&SiteID=15
(You may need to use IE; Netscape 4.7 for Linux couldn’t view the site.)

Interesting figures: only about 16% of CDs sold make enough money for the publishers to break even. The ones that do make enough money have to pay for the rest. For the recording artists, only about 3% sell enough music to get any royalties. With figures like these, it’s not surprising that the industry is taking steps to combat piracy.

For more news & commentary, see:

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000093190nov22.story
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/entertainment/story/183508p-1775112c.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/cd121701.htm

For some messages about Sony’s discs that can crash computers, see http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/04/03/226233&mode=nested. A later article in MacUser noted that the Celine Dion disc A New Day Has Come will lock up iMacs and require physically disassembling parts of the machine to get the disc back out. The article is… http://www.macuser.co.uk/macsurfer/php3/openframe.php3?page=/newnews/
newsarticle.php3?id=1990

-Andy McFadden
http://www.cdrfaq.org/
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq02.html#S2-4 (link to this article)

CD and DVD Reference Books

2011-04-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

CD-R/DVD: Digital Recording to Optical Media with Cdrom
Author: Lee Purcell
Publication Date: 2000
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
ISBN0-07-135715-7

The CD-ROM Book: A Brief System Description
Author: Sorin Stan
Publication Date: 1998
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
ISBN 0-7923-8167-X

The Education of A CD-ROM Publisher
Author: Christopher Andrews
Original Publication Date: 1993
New Release: 15 June 1998
Publisher: CD-Info Classics an imprint of The CD-Info Company

CD-ROM for Schools
Authors: Pam Berger & Susan Kinnell
Publication Date: 1996
Publisher: Pemberton Press
ISBN: 0-910965-13-7

Publish Yourself on CD-ROM
Authors: Fabrizio Caffarelli & Deirdre Straughan
Publication Date: 1992

Recordable CD Bible: With Cdrom
Author: Mark L. Chambers
Publication Date: 1997
Publisher: IDG Books Worldwide
ISBN: 0-76453-103-4

Electronic Publishing on CD-ROM
Authors: Steve Cunningham and Judson Rosebush
Publication Date: Aug 1996
Publisher: O’Reilly & Associates
ISBN: 1-56592-209-3

CD Recordable Handbook: A guide to Choosing the Right CD Recorder for You, 2nd ed.
Author: Robert DeMoulin, Toshi Iizuka, Rod Volturno and Ricoh DMS Division, Japan
Publication Date: 1994 & 1995
Publisher: Ricoh Corporation
Ricoh P/N 28363-002
on-line version at http://www.octave.com/library/ricoh/cdrhandbook.html.

Creating Interactive CD-ROM for Windows and Macintosh
Author: Scott Fisher
Publication Date: 1996
Publisher: AP Professional

The New Optical Storage Technology
Author: John A. McCormick
Publication Date: July 1993
Publisher: Business-ONE Irwin (now Times-Mirror Education Division)
ISBN: 1-55623-907-6

A Guide to Optical Storage Technology
Author: John A. McCormick
Publication Date: 1990
Publisher: Business-ONE Irwin (now Times-Mirror Education Division)
ISBN: 1-55623-320-5

Create Your Own Multimedia System
Author: John A. McCormick
Publisher: Windcrest/McGraw-Hill

Computers and the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Manager’s Guide
Author: John A. McCormick
Publication Date: August 1993
Publisher: Windcrest/McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 0-8306-4445-8 (paperback)
ISBN: 0-8306-4444-X (hardback)

CD-ROM Fundamentals
Authors: Dana Parker & Robert Starrett
Publication Date: 1994
Publisher: Boyd & Fraser Publishing Company, Danvers, MA
ISBN: 0-87709-168-4

CD-ROM Professional’s CD-Recordable Handbook
Authors: Dana Parker & Robert Starrett
Publication Date: 1996
Publisher: Pemberton Press
ISBN: 0-910965-18-8

New Rider’s Guide to CD-ROM, 2nd ed.
Authors: Dana Parker & Robert Starrett
Publication Date: 1994
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1-56205-308-6

The Compact Disc Handbook, 2nd ed.
Author: Ken C. Pohlmann
Publication Date: 1992
Publisher: A-R Editions, Inc.
ISBN: 0-89579-300-8

Principles of Digital Audio, 3rd Ed.
Author: Ken C. Pohlmann
Publication Date: 1995
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
ISBN: 0-07-050469-5 (softcover); 0-07-050469-7 (hardbound)

Super CD-ROM Madness!
Author: Lee Purcell
Publication Date: 1994
Publisher: Macmillan/SAMS Publishing
ISBN: 0-672-30638-7

The Complete Guide to Recordable CD
Author: Lee Purcell & David Martin
Publication Date: 1st Qtr 1997
Publisher: SYBEX, Inc.
ISBN: 0-7821-1994-8

CD-ROM Handbook, 2nd edition
Author: Chris Sherman, Editor
Publication Date: 1994
Publisher: Intertext Publications, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
ISBN: 0-07-056693-3

Electronic Publishing Unleased: Discover the Power of Electronic Publishing—Online and Via CD-ROM
Authors: William Stanek, Lee Purcell, Robert Bindl & Mitch Gould
Publication Date: Oct 1995
ISBN: 0-672-30752-9
Publisher: Sams

DVD Demystified: The Guidebook of DVD-Video and DVD-ROM
Author: Jim Taylor
Publication Date: Sept 1997
Publisher: McGraw-Hill, INc.
ISBN: 0-07-064841-7

The CD-ROM Directory: 1996 Edition
Publication Date: 1996
Publisher: TFPL Multimedia

-Michael Nova

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).
Nova Disc provides cd replication, dvd replication, cd business cards, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, recording, and mastering services to clients worldwide.

Duplication & Replication – Whats the difference?

2011-04-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

Many people use the two terms Duplication & Replication interchangeably. However, in the world of Disc-Media they are two very different processes. The purposes of both processes are similar in the fact that they are used to put data, video, or audio onto a disc.

In general terms, CD Duplication (a.k.a. Burning) is a process where lasers “burn” pits into a dye that is manufactured inside the disc. Burning is the process used by the drives in virtually every home or work computer used today. CD Replication on the other hand, is an injection molded manufacturing process that makes use of a “glass master” and stamps the image (‘pits’, read as zeros and ones for data or ‘waves’ for video and audio) into the extruded poly.

So what does this mean to the person tasked with publishing content onto a disc? What do they need to consider? The primary differences between these two processes comes down to the efficiencies each process has at various volumes.

Because of the extensive project-start-up-costs and the low per-unit-cost of replication, this process is most efficient (and therefore economical) at volumes of 1000 units or more. In contrast duplication has a very low project-start-up-cost and a somewhat higher per-unit-cost. So Burning is most efficient (and therefore economical) at volumes below 1000 units.

– Todd Mortenson
President/CEO DiscBurn

"How to save time and thousands of dollars in printing costs... Avoid the top ten mistakes people make when choosing a printer." (Part 2)

2011-04-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

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3. Do They Work For The Plant Or Do They Work For You?
------------------------------------------------------

Most printers are locked into their printing plant,

with no other options. Their focus in on filling their lines
to capacity. After all, they don't want the machines sitting
there.

They want the machines rolling all day, every day. That's
good for them, but not good for you. why? It's simple. The
busier they are, the longer it takes you to get your job
done. In fact sometimes, power outages can take place due to
over-capacity. Then you are stuck with them. Waiting...and
waiting...till they fix the problem, and that can take days.

If you work with a company that has partnerships with many
plants across the U.S., that gives you flexibility. This
flexibility is key for getting your order produced swiftly
and reliably. Whereas the plant's focus is on filling
capacity, a company with the flexibility of having several
plant partnerships places their focus on the pleasing the
client.

Bottom line; When you choose a printer,

It's important to work with a company that
gives your interests priority over filling their lines.

That means a company with more than one printing plant.

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4. Superfast Turnaround Times.
------------------------------------------------------

Many printers will quote and publicize turn times that don't

include the time to properly proof graphics and production

materials prior to printing.

Again, this is part of the "rope 'em in" strategy mentioned
in point #1 we sent you yesterday, where some competing
plants just try to get you in, and then change the rules on
you once you are playing with them...

Make sure the company you choose to print

your product gives you honest turnaround times
IN WRITING! Otherwise, they are giving you empty promises.

For more tips, please visit www.novadisc.net and sign up for the FREE REPORT!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd replication, dvd replication, custom printing, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, and mastering services to clients worldwide.

"How to save time and thousands of dollars in printing costs... Avoid the top ten mistakes people make when choosing a printer."

2011-04-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

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1. Watch For Additional Fees Not Stated Upfront.
------------------------------------------------------

Some companies quote prices without film, proofs, file

adjustments, all of which goes into producing your job to

the highest quality standards. Make sure you get prices in

writing.

This is part of the "rope 'em in" strategy, where some

competing printing plants just try to get you in, and then

change the rules once you are playing with them. Watch out
for super low pricing. Low price means you end up paying for
it in the long run. Either in time wasted or low quality.
The old saying holds true... "if it sounds too good to be
true...it probably is".

Some companies lure you in with free items, but charge
hundreds more than necessary for each order. The items in
question are not really free. they just calculate the cost
of the item and add it into their package rate, so you end
up paying for the " free " items anyway, even if you didn't
need it in the first place.

Most printers will charge you more to fix your graphics

if they are set up incorrectly, making file adjustments,
and often charging you without your consent! If you look

at their general policy fineprint, it's in there.

They have the right to charge you for file
adjustments if you don't give them your finished graphics
exactly the way they want them.

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2.The Real Secret Behind Top Quality Printing.
------------------------------------------------------

Not all printing is the same. The secret to making a
beautiful print job is in the care of the print process.

Make sure that your printer follows only the best
printing procedures in completing your order,
and takes the time to LOOK at your work before printing it.
You'd be shocked to know that many printers
do not even take the time to look at your job before they
print it. It's just set up on a run with other jobs, and
glanced over.

Investigate the printer you choose,

and be aware of their quality control practices.
Don't be afraid of asking tough questions about their

quality and clarity of printing. Make sure they stand

behind their product and will replace them
if they are faulty.

Michael Nova is director of Nova Disc (www.novadisc.net).

Nova Disc provides cd replication, dvd replication, custom printing, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, promotional items, poster printing, postcard printing, website design, graphic design, audio and video production, recording, and mastering services to clients worldwide.

Welcome To The Nova Disc Blog

2011-04-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hi,
My name is Michael Nova. I am director of Nova Disc. We provide clients worldwide with cd replication, dvd replication, vhs duplication, t shirt printing, label printing, poster printing, postcard printing, promotional items, brochure and catalog printing, graphic design, website design, audio and video production services and more.

I thought I would create a blog which would educate people a bit about the replication industry with an emphasis on cd replication, dvd replication, and custom printing in particular, so you can become more of a knowledgeable shopper.

As we go on, this blog will hopefully get bigger and bigger with more and more helpful information, but for now, we’ll start with several articles and part one of the five part free report that you can get from our website, www.novadisc.net.

It’s called, “How to save time and thousands of dollars in manufacturing costs… Avoid the top ten mistakes people make when choosing a replicator.”

Please feel free to submit articles by email if you are in the industry. The idea here is to help people become more knowledgeable so they won’t get ripped off!

You can email to my attention at novadisc (at) gmail dot com.
Thank you,
Michael