Print Your Own CDs

The Epson R200 Printer can print your artwork directly onto the discs you duplicate.
The R200 is fairly unique in that they will print directly on printable CD's and DVD's. In the box is the printer itself, 6 full ink cartridges, a CD print tray, three 4" x 6" sheets of Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper, a CD with drivers and the CD printing software, an effective quickstart guide, and a nicely prepared 86 page manual with table of contents and index.

Installation and Setup

This printer is easy to setup, and the quick start guide walks you clearly through the process. The steps are 1) remove the packing tape, 2) power the printer on, 3) install the 6 ink cartridges, 4) connect the usb cable to your computer, 5) load paper, and 6) install the software. This printer is compatible with Win 98 or later and Mac OS 9.x or later.

In addition to the printer drivers, the optional software available to install includes

-Epson Print CD, needed to print on CD's and dvd's
-Epson Photo Center, to connect to and use Epson's free photo sharing website
-Software Film Factory, a "Photo Management" application, vaguely similar to Adobe's Photoshop Album or Kodak's EasyShare software
-A P.I.M. II plug in for Adobe Photoshop to retain Print Image Matching quality when importing images from PIM enabled cameras.

Using the Epson R200

Printing on CD's and DVD's

Two features set this printer apart from similarly priced entry level photo printers. One is the six "individual" ink cartridge system that lets you replace each color as it runs out independently. More notable, and unique to the class of "under $100 printers", is the ability to print on CD's and dvd's.

You will need printable disks, which you probably haven't noticed in stores if you weren't looking, but they are widely available. List price for printable CD's isn't much more than list price for plain CDr's. However, unlike plain CDr's, which are on sale every week at the large computer and electronics chain stores, I rarely see printable CD's on sale. You can get Packs of 100 Taiyo Yuden printable CD's for about $50, a highly respect brand from one of the top online stores offering digital media and other supplies.

Printing CD's first involves laying out text and graphics using the Print CD software. Print CD offers a virtual CD to lay out your design on. Text can be added in any size, color, font, with shadow, or with a few other effects. The text can be horizontal or vertical on your CD, or arched to follow the curve of the CD. Adding images to be printed on part of a CD is extremely easy. When you select a typically rectangular image to add to your CD, Print CD "lays" it on top of an image of a CD, and you can resize the image to best fit the CD. The CD image in the layout window clearly shows the printable area of the CD, and when you print out CD's with images, this printer only prints on the printable area, and I've had no problems with any carry over to the edge of the CD or the small non printable area on the CD's hub.

More useful is the option to use an image as the background graphic on a CD. With this option, a virtual donut shaped image representing the printable area on your CD is shown on top of the image you select as a background. You can move and resize the CD image over you background image to select which parts of your desired background image are printed on our CD. This feature is intuitive, and helps you create an amost professional looking background for your CD's.

To print CD's, you need to first open door on the front of the printer that provides access the slot for CD printing. You insert the CD print tray in this slot, with the printable CD in the print tray. Pressing the print button in the Print CD software, causes the printer to pull the print tray into the printing area, after which printing starts. Printing a CD with a full color image takes about 3 minutes, less if only a small image or no image used. After printing on the CD, the printer feeds out the CD print tray, with the newly printed CD ready to use or store. Print quality is very good, equivalent to printouts on standard inkjet paper. If you select "photo" mode when printing, and use high quality images, you CD's graphics will approach the quality of commercial disks.

Continuous Ink System

You might want to consider adding a continous ink system if you plan to do alot of printing. It saves you a lot
of time and hassle.