The answers to everything duplication blog

What is UPC barcode?

webmaster — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:13:32 +0000

There are often misconceptions about UPC barcode, here we’ll clarify them one by one -

1. UPC barcode is a unique ID number assigned to a product for tracking retail sales and inventory

2. UPC barcode is not mandatory unless it is required by a distributor, retail store, or if you intend to track retail sales yourselves

3. Generally UPC barcode can be obtained from a replicator with a small fee or free. If you prefer to get your own barcode directly from GS1, and there will be a one-time fee of $750. Check their website for most updated pricing.

4. A barcode needs to be registered with soundscan or videoscan so you can start tracking retail sales. Reports can be obtained from soundscan or videoscan for a fee.

Creating silver effect on a disc

webmaster — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:23:43 +0000

Many customers love the shiny effect of the disc to come through the design. Silver effects can be printed on blank discs, replicated CDs or replicated DVDs. Here we’d like to bring up a few pointers for designers:

Example 1

Most discs (burned or replicated) have a clear inner ring (sometimes called a stacking ring). Essentially the canvas of the disc is not all silver, there will be a mix of silver and clear plastic. An example is shown here:

silkscreen printing on silver disc

Example 2

A workaround to the previous problem is to avoid silver of artwork to be around the center, or ask not to print in the stacking ring altogether:

Example 3

Printing full color image on silver can be interesting; all the white elements will appear silver, and since there is no white base, the entire image will look metallic as well, like our example here:

offset printing on silver disc

Example 4
If you are not a fan of the metallic look all over the disc, we can also apply a ‘partial white base’, meaning selective areas of the disc will have a white base coating. This will help bring out the expected color of the artwork, while still keeping the silver color coming through on other parts. In this example, a partial white base is applied underneath the England flag.

offset printing on silver disc with partial white base

Before you submit a CD/DVD master..

webmaster — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:47:55 +0000

Shiny glittery effect with foil stamping

webmaster — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:44:28 +0000

Foil stamping is the way to go if you want shiny effects on certain elements of your artwork, such as titles, logos. Foil is stamped onto the cardboard and it does not get scratched off. Common foil color is gold (shown here is gold foil) and silver. Other custom colors are also available.

To setup foil stamp on your artwork simply create a separate layer for the foil elements and assign it a PMS color.

What is CMYK?

webmaster — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:30:17 +0000

Colors on a printing press are created using a combination of four ink colors - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (called CMYK). These four inks are called process colors because they are the standard inks used in the four-color printing process. Your artwork must be in CMYK format (as opposed to RGB) before submitting.

What is the advantage of distributing content with USB drives?

webmaster — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:06:09 +0000

Many companies are using USB drives duplication not only as a marketing tool, but a distribution vehicle for latest company news and products. USB drives are flexible in terms of storage capacity, it ranges from 256mb to as much as 16 gb. Data can be pre-loaded and locked as un-erasable if desired; partitions can be set up to keep locked content separated from available space. It can be programmed to bring up a specific ad or presentation before your target audience can access the drive The possibilities are endless, it can stream videos, display presentation, archive documents and more.

Recycled cardboard CD DVD sleeve

webmaster — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:34:59 +0000

Now you can be green whether you make 10 copies or 1,000 CD duplication! Introducing a new eco-friendly sleeve to package CDs and DVDs, featuring 100% post consumer waste, this sleeve is recyclable, and best of all, there is no minimum purchase.

The sleeve can either be used as is or a sticker can be placed on top to dress it up.

CD DVD duplication process video

webmaster — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:05:34 +0000

How are discs QC’d during duplication and replication?

webmaster — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:43:03 +0000

Quality control is an important step of CD duplication, CD replication, DVD duplication and DVD replication process. When we first receive a customer’s master, it is checked for playability on a DVD player, computer and stereo. We look for errors in menu navigation, skipping, freezes in video, extreme audio levels. The disc is inspected for physical damage such as scratches and dust. Customers are notified of any potential problems before we start actual production. The duplicated or replicated discs are randomly checked under the same guidelines to ensure consistent quality.

In large run replication, specialized machines are used to verify data on the discs by comparing the 1’s and 0’s of the discs, to ensure the highest level of quality among the thousands of discs that are being produced.

Can you duplicate DL DVDR?

webmaster — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:46:49 +0000

With double layer blank DVDs (abbreviated as DL DVDR here) it allows longer videos to be placed on a single DVD. Is it possible to duplicate a DL DVDR like a regular single layer DVD? While DL DVDR has been around for a little while, there are not many choices in the brand of media, and some media tend to have compatibility issues in older players. We would suggest against making mass duplication of a DL DVDR master; instead opt to compress the entire disc to a single layer DVD for DVD duplication, or split the content onto a 2-disc set.