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I abeling CDs with an inkjet printer is not always the best answer. Primera Technology-best-known in CD-R circles for its Editor's Choice-winning Signature line of inkjets-has understood this and is now expanding its printing repertoire to include a range of different technologies. One of these is the company's latest creation, the $2,995 Inscripta optical disc printer which boasts a thermal transfer process for directly labeling the surface of CD-R and DVD-R discs.
In contrast to inkjet printers, which create images by applying liquid ink, thermal transfer technology works by con veying solid wax from a coated ribbon onto a disc's surface through a combination of heat and pressure. This allows the transfer of monochrome images onto low-cost, lacquer surface CD-R discs instead of the specially coated media required to receive ink for the inkjet process. For printing in color, however, the use of thermal printablesurface media is required. Inscripta ribbons are avail able in monochrome black or two-color red/black, green/black, and blue/black combinations. Primera also offers custom color monochrome ribbons if ordered in quanta ties of 40 or more.
Compared to its only real competitor, Rimage's Prism thermal transfer CD printer, the Inscripta is extremely compact. With much lighter-weight construction and housed in a slender 6" x 3.875" x 12.875" plastic and sheet metal case, the Inscripta has an attractive footprint for standalone use. As printing takes place entirely within the unit, it is also well-suited for OEM integration into jukeboxes, duplication systems, and other production equipment such as Microtech Systems' ImageAutomator 150 and Primera's own Composer Optical Disc duplicator [See Hugh Bennett's review, January 2001, pp. 55-56-Ed. The Inscripta itself is a model of simplicity, having only two front-mounted buttons (tray open/close, ribbon cartridge eject) and a single status indicator light. The printer's rear panel contains a standard Centronics parallel interface port in addition to an auxiliary 61)in port for integration into disc autoloading systems.
setup and software
Primera ships each Inscripta printer package with one monochrome black wax ribbon, an external power adapter, two CD-R discs, printer drivers for Windows 95/98/2000 and NT 4.0, a 32-bit spooler, and MicroVision Development's excellent SureThing CD Labeler First Edition label creation software. It should be noted, however, that any offthe-shelf graphics software will also work quite...