Hi everyone! I'm working on helping a musician friend release a small (around 100 copies) EP and we're looking to print on the CD's directly, with an Epson R380. Since these are audio CD's people are going to be buying from us, I want to make sure we're using the highest quality CD-R's to avoid any burning errors. I'm doing the design work for it, and the discs will need to be as blank as possible- that is, no white label or anything, just the natural shiny disc surface.

Can anyone recommend a good CD-R for this? The design to be printed on the discs is very minimal, pretty much just a small amount of black text. But I'd like to get a look as close to a traditional screen-printed disc as possible. Thanks!

I think you will need a thermal printer for shiney discs but member CDan will stop by with the skinney. All my printable CD-R discs are white and i have a Epson R320.

Taiyo Yuden silver inkjet printable, hub printable. www.rima.com

Be aware that certain kinds of things will look odd on these, they create a sort of a holographic look. So photos don't work so well, but text and graphics look WAY cool. As for the Epson, getting good results will depend on using the right settings, as it does with any printer. Epsons tend to apply too much ink, so stay with standard quality settings till you see how it goes.

I must admit I have not tried other brands of silver inkjet printables, but there are several.

Here's a thread I did on the TY silver: CLICK

Taiyo Yuden Watershield discs have an extremely glossy surface and are supposed to be waterproof. I have been using them because the glossy surface looks much butter than any discs I've used before. The prints on these discs are photo quality. The only downside to these discs is that there is a very thin edge at the outside that doesn't accept ink. This isn't much of a problem but it is noticeable.