[ale] More Lightscribe for Linux

Mon Jul 11 23:15:01 EDT 2011

You're absolutely right Greg.  I have on occasion had to have the heads
cleaned and cleared from dried ink.  Not expensive to have done but
necessary from time-to-time if not using the printer.  Still, for the
price, you can't beat the results (at least nothing I've come across
thus far).

RinL

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Clifton <gccfof5 at gmail.com>
Reply-to: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
Subject: Re: [ale] More Lightscribe for Linux
Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:31:40 -0400

One caution on Epson printers, they are piezo printers vs thermal
printers like HP, etc. The technology allows for much smaller ink
droplets and much finer control of the ink delivery, hence the higher
quality results from Epson. The heads are also more durable than the
thermal units, which is one reason the Epson heads do not get replaced
with the ink cartridges as with most others. HOWEVER, they don't like
sitting around not being used with some regularity. I.e. if you don't
use it and the ink dries out in the head you have great difficulty
reviving the printer. Caveat, this info comes from my experience with
Epsons from ~6 yrs ago so Epson may have improved the heads in that
time. It is my understanding that their wide format printers have a
[ink-o-phobic] coating in the printer nozzles that helps to prevent
clogging. I don't know if they have applied that technology in the $100
printers.

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Scott Castaline <skotchman at gmail.com>
wrote:

        On 07/11/2011 10:02 AM, arxaaron wrote:
        > On 2011/07/09, at 15:26 , Cornelis van Dijk wrote:
        >
        >> Thanks to all that replied to my previous post about
        Lightscribe for
        >> Linux. Meanwhile I succeeded by using inkscape at 180 dpi and
        get a
        >> good sharp image with the Memorex Lightscribe drive.
        >>
        >> Another problem that I have with Lightscribe for Linux is
        that it
        >> takes about sixteen minutes to burn a label. This is probably
        because
        >> the bitmap covers nearly the entire cd surface. Usually I
        have quite a
        >> bit of text, so cutting on that is not going to help much.
        Not only
        >> that, but after one burn the image is barely legible so that
        I have to
        >> do a second burn on top of the first one to get a decent
        image. While
        >> this works fine, it now takes me over half an hour to burn a
        label!
        >> Is there a way around this?
        >>
        > Your experiences with bLight Scribble, as reiterated by others
        > on this thread, just reinforces my previous observation that
        > the technology is a gimmick.  Perhaps fine for labeling one
        > or two disks in pinch, but too low contrast, low quality and
        > time consuming to be really useful.
        >
        > Only thing to suggest for improving speed and output is to
        > push the contrast of your image before you send it to print
        > (e.g. output from scribus as pdf file, load into gimp&
         adjust).
        >
        > If the background areas are maximum white, they should
        > be read as "transparent" in printing and the laser might
        > not have to etch those areas.  The increased contrast may
        > help overcome the marginal contrast of the technology as
        > well and keep your process to one pass. Interesting that
        > you can do a "second burn" pass and have it align to the
        > first, though.
        >

        I'm glad that I wasn't the only one that had questionable
        thoughts on
        this. I was thinking that it maybe possible to get the alignment
        correct
        if you could tell the sftwe to write twice without stopping.

        >> I know that hp sells a specialized printer for cd labels
        >> (saw it a Fry's), but it uses special blanks and probably
        >> uses Windows. Anyone know about this?
        > I've used both Epson and HP inkjet printers with CD/DVD
        > printing capability.  At least for these low cost units, the
        > Epson produced much better quality than the HP.
        >
        > Linux CUPS print drivers will be available for either
        > since Mac is CUPS and they work fine from OSeX.
        >
        > Repeating my earlier recommendation, get yourself one
        > of the several Epson Stylus or Artisan models with CD/DVD
        > print capability and be happy.  Inkjet printable media is
        > equivalent in cost to non-printable media.  Only costs are
        > in the ink cartridges - my production runs come in with
        > around $0.10 per disk for crisp, high quality black and
        > white or gray scale (that blows bLight Scribble out of the
        > water), or about $0.35 per disk for photo quality color.
        > With my low end Epson models (Stylus 200 / 260), disk
        > print times are 3 to 6 minutes per disk depending on
        > complexity and color of the image.
        >
        > Looks like an Epson Artisan 50 can be purchased
        > and delivered for less than $100.
        >
        > Epson Artisan 50 Inkjet Printer - Color - CD/DVD Print,
        > Photo ...
        > $82 - 3 stores

        Good info Aaron, at that price I might even consider getting one
        for
        that purpose only. As I prefer to use duped CD's in the car then
        the
        original and I can't read my own handwriting as my hand written
        with
        Sharpie label.

        >> Thanks, Cor
        > peace
        > aaron
        >
        > _______________________________________________
        > Ale mailing list
        > Ale at ale.org
        > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
        > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
        > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

        _______________________________________________
        Ale mailing list
        Ale at ale.org
        http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
        See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
        http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20110711/ce1a7b85/attachment-0001.html 