Okay to write on discs with a marker?
| Blank Media Discuss, Okay to write on discs with a marker? at Consumables forum; CD Media comes in different finishes on the top: painted silkscreen, unpainted shiny silver, frosted matte. Those 3 are the main types one will encounter. I have tried a Sharpie Fine Point, a TDK CD Mark (Ultra-Fine), A Staedtler CD Mark and a long ago pen since worn out. The |
| CD Media comes in different finishes on the top: painted silkscreen, unpainted shiny silver, frosted matte. Those 3 are the main types one will encounter. I have tried a Sharpie Fine Point, a TDK CD Mark (Ultra-Fine), A Staedtler CD Mark and a long ago pen since worn out. The sharpies seem best only for shiny smooth surfaces.. on frosted surfaces I see a bit of bleed. They are ok on silkscreen too. The ink on this appears to apply deeply but as it dries you can slightly see a bit of 'fade' in the middle. The TDK CD Mark seems best only on silkscreen and frosted, and terrible on shiny. Ink application deepness totally depends on the surface, some are better than others (silkscreen being best).. The Staedtler which I can't seem to find on my desk and which has had it's tip ruined by someone who thought it was a normal pen and used it as such, seems to be good on all 3 surfaces based on looking at past discs from long ago. The ink on this from what I can see seems dark and rich. There are other brands on the market now, like Memorex, etc. How do those compare? I'm also wondering what colour people think is best. If the top of the CD is silver, do you prefer a nice blue, black or another color? What if the CD surface is another colour like gold? Also, what tip? I think the Sharpie fine point is too 'broad' while the TDK Ultra-Fine is a little too fine.. an in-between would be good.. from what I can see, I did have this in-between once.. It was my first pen that I don't remember the maker for, the Staedtler might be ok too maybe if someone doesn't ruin the tip. The CD pen, the underappreciated part of burning. |
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| I usually just write on top of my DVDs, but I just read that Sharpies aren't good to use for marking DVDs. Are there any alternatives? |
| Sharpies are fine. Any alcohol based marker is harmless. |
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Are they more safe to use or is it all the same? Andy  |
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| Don't mind BoSkin---I don't think he can help it. If you really want to be safe, just mark in the clear area in the center of the disk. But I really don't think you'll have problems with a sharpie anyway. |
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| I got bunch of these from meritline.com: LinK (25 Pack Genuine Ritek G04 1X-4X DVD-R (Silver Shiny) Blank Media 4.7GB for General Purpose DVDR Disc (Discs) $0.53 Each) Now, they are silver at the top and purple in the bottom, so i am wondering if its ok to use a Redisharp marker or a sharpie to write on top (silver side) of these. Would that be alright? Thanks. |
| Yo- Look real close at the clear outer ring in the center - if it has a two digit like "GG" or "TG" plus six numbers and then opposite and on the other side a five digit code - then they are REAL Taiyo Yudens - if not they are fakes - Meritline is getting infamous for sending this crap to their customers - return them and buy your discs from www.rima.com or www.supermediastore.com - both very good vendors that do not send fakes to their customers- And yes you can write (gently) on the top of the disc (I have used a Stanford sharpie marking pen for years on all my media - no problems)- Mike
__________________ Mike  (Y)- - - - - - - -(a tribute to *someone*) Brayden & Lil Burnits Proud Cyber Grampie - 'CERCA, TROVA' - 'NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM'  Work Computer= QuadCore Q6600 /4gb OCZ PC2 6400 DDR2 SDRAM /XP Pro-sp3 /(2) Seagate 500 gb HDD's /OCZ 600 watt psu /Optiarc 7200A w/v1.09 fw as Primary/Burner /LiteOn 20A4H w/vQP57 fw as Primary/Reader/Ripper/Disc Quality Testing /Palit ATi Radeon HD 4850 w/512mb GDDR3 Ram Videocard /HP 24" LCD /Nero 6.6 /DVDFab Burning Computer = AMD Opteron 180 /2gb G. Skill PC3200 DDR SDRAM /XP Home-sp3 /(2) 250gb Seagate SATA Hard Drives /Thermaltake TR2 600 watt psu /Optiarc AD-7200A /LiteOn 20A4P /Pioneer 115D /BenQ 1640 x/flashed to EW 164B /Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 4670 w/512mb GDDR3/256 bit Videocard /Planar 20.1" LCD /Nero 6.6 /DVDFab On The Shelf: (2) LiteOn SHM-160P6S as backup, BenQ 1640, LG 4167, Liteon 1693, AOpen 1648/aap-pro |
| I have a 100-pack spindle of Taiyo Yuden TYG02 DVD-R discs and the tops of them are all clear, with no coating to write on. Is it still possible to write on them with a 'Sharpie' and not damage the discs at all? Also, what recommendations do you all have for dvd labeling? And are dvd labels safe to use? I heard a few years ago that using labels on cd/dvd recordable media can damage them over time? Here's a picture of the tops of my DVD-R Media:  |
| Yes to the first question. DVD's are pretty well protected from damage, even without the coat of paint on the top. You can put good quality labels on a good quality DVD. It will probably reduce the quality slightly, but as long as the disc is good and the label is dry before you apply it to the disc, you will notice no deterioation in playback. I haved used hundreds of Photo Gloss Pressit labels with no ill effects, but you will find plenty of people that swear blind that DVD labelling is one of the worst ideas since the inflatable dartboard. |
| Hi, the DVDs and the labels have different thermal expansions. The more heat the more difference. In a lot of cases you'll get a DVD with an out-of-balance. Another point is, that with upcoming heat the label might be separated. If you wanrt label, why not directly on the DVD. There's lot of printable high quality DVDs. All you need is an appropriate printer like Canon's pixma 5000. Hope I could help Shakin |
| Good to know I can write on them! I've been putting Post-Its near the dvds to remind me what they are right now lol. Only thing I really don't like about dvd-r without the smooth finish on top is that if you just touch it in any way, your fingerprint sticks to it, and trying to rub it off seems to only make it worse. Are there any types of cloth that you can use on them to clean them without scratching the media? I've thought about buying one of those burners that also can write labels on the disc. Those are 100% safe? It's called LightScribe isn't it? ...then again you have to buy a special type of disc too to use them. |
| Lightscribe is alright, just takes a long time to burn the label onto the disc. Also it is only black and brown, no colours. And you have to pick an image with a lot of contrast otherwise the image is really washed out, even on the best setting. Its a good technology but it requires some fine tuning. AT the moment I would suggest either Labels or Printable media and a nice printer like the Pixma or the R200. |
| Hi I have been using special markers (TDK, Memorex) to write on my CDR media. I read somehow the recording/reflection layers of CDR media is pretty much right on the top. I realize these critical layers in DVDR media seems to be better protected? So can I just use a regular permanent marker (much cheaper and easier to find than those special ones)? This will not hurt the lifetime of my media? |
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Dont waste your money on special markers anymore. Buy any permanent marker (I prefer Sharpies as do many others) and you can use that on any cd (including silver generics) and dvds. The sharpies ink will come right off if you put rubbing alcohol on it so there should be no fear of damaging the disc. DVDs the media layer itself is sandwiched between 2 transparent plastic discs. You could deliberately scratch the top of the disc and so long as the top layer isnt punctured you will have no damage to the data at all. |
| thanks a lot. I just finished my 4 pack markers bought 4 years ago. Will go with the cheap Sharpies! 99c/4pack from Staples |
| Does the sharpie ink dry fast enough to label a disk and put it (upside down) on the stack (5 second dry time). I didn't feel comfortable putting the ink right next to the data surface of the adjacent disk so quick, so now I flip the pack upside down first and number them backwards and this leaves about 30 seconds of dry time. Is this being paranoid ? If ink did smear onto the data side of the disk above, then can you use rubbing alchohol on the data side of the dvd, or is it just for the label side? |
| Interesting questions! Dry time: personnaly I'm on the paranoïd side too  - I'd do the same.Rubbing alcohol: it's actually very difficult not to scratch the data side when cleaning it. I tried cotton but it still leaves (slight) scratches. Best for me is chamois leather. I have to disagree with Max_clif about CDs, though, I've had problems with Sharpies/permanent markers on CDs. Many were unusable after 12-14 months. Now I use a special CD marker and everything seems fine. Sharpies/markers are OK for DVDs though, as the data layer is under 0.6 mm of plastic, unlike CDs.
__________________ The artist formerly known as Francksoy I won't reply to technical help requests by PM, but ask you question in the forum and notify me, I'll be glad to help if I can! |
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| Sharpies are great. My CD's are about 9 or10 years old. In those days the cheap CD's media was awful and didn't last long. All my Gold Sony's from then are still good. Think about this - how can something dry and chemically stable eat thru plastic ? Inks dry in seconds, else it would smear and be useless in a pen. |
| You can use rubbing alcohol on any part of hte disc without fear of damage.. unless the disc has ink prints that might rub off from the alcohol. I use it on the bottom and on top of cds without problem. I usually give it 20 secs before trying to test if the ink has dried |
| Chemically stable depends on the environment. Water in a glass is chemically stable. Pour it over a chunk of pure sodium (not sodium chloride) and it's a different matter entirely. A given ink may or may not be chemically stable on DVD or CD substrate. It depeneds on what's in the ink, and what's in the substrate.
__________________ Samsung SH-S223Q Verbatim Producer 44 (NEC ND-1300A external) (1.0C bitsetting-modded) Samsung SH-S162L (TS06) BenQ DW1620a (B7W9) LG GSA-4163B (A106) NEC ND-6500A (in my notebook PC) (2.24) CyberDrive DX082d (150B) BenQ CRW5232 TDK VeloCD USB 2.0 external Yamaha CRW-8824E (1.0a) Ricoh 6201S SCSI |
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This is not the case with DVD nor with some very rare older CDs that were sandwiched between plastic. |
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