Los Angeles (CA) – Disc labelers aren’t anything new and they certainly aren’t the most exciting things to report on, but we saw a nifty little labeler from Dymo that could churn out full color covers in just one minute.  The company showed off the compact printer at the Siggraph trade show and told us that almost any type of inkjet-friendly disc can be used.  

The Dymo DiscPainter unit comes with labeling software for Macs and PCs and the marketing rep whipped up a custom labeled disc, complete with curved fonts and snazzy graphics in just a few seconds.  She then popped in a disc and the printer deposited the image in just over a minute.  The CD graphic was just slightly sticky after the disc was done.

Unlike other disc labeling systems (cough Lightscribe), you aren’t limited to proprietary media.  Any disc that is ink-jet friendly can be used.  In fact, you select the type of disc surface in the labeling software’s print menu.

The DiscPainter uses a multi-color inkjet cartridge that lasts approximately 100 discs and costs $39.95 each.  The unit itself costs $279 and has an estimated life of 6000 discs.

UPDATE Aug 15 2008 3:00 PM Pacific - A company rep told us that the estimated lifetime is around 2000 to 3000 discs, not the 6000 discs that we reported earlier.

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