It’s easy to create professional-looking, customized labels on your DVDs and CDs using HP’s LightScribe direct disc labeling system. Simply design your label, insert the disc in the drive label-side down, and burn your design right onto the disc. No pens, no printers, no sticky labels, no mess. With LightScribe, your disc is your label, and your memories last and last.

As easy as one, two, three

LightScribe uses three components to produce silkscreen-quality labels: • A LightScribe-enabled drive – with innovative laser technology to replicate custom designs directly to disc. • LightScribe labeling software – that lets you get creative with photos, graphics, text, track names, and more. • Specially coated LightScribe CDs and DVDs – that allow the laser to burn a precise label directly on the disc.

Making your mark

Let your creative juices flow by using LightScribe technology to create beautiful labels that reflect your personality. Create a digital slideshow of your family vacation and add a group photo to the label. Make your CD mixes truly personal by adding track titles, graphics and digital photos. Give your business presentation a professional look before handing it to your client. The only limit to the possibilities is your own creativity.

Your disc, your project – it’s your masterpiece. Why mess it up with some scribbled-on words or a peeling adhesive label? Your memories deserve the best. Your projects deserve HP and LightScribe.

LightScribe information

What is LightScribe? LightScribe is a disc labeling technology that burns text and/or graphics directly onto the label side of a CD or DVD by using the drive’s laser and a specially coated LightScribe disc.

How does the LightScribe technology work? The coating on a LightScribe disc changes color when it’s exposed to the CD/DVD drive’s laser. The process is similar to film exposure, except that the LightScribe surface reacts specifically to the intense light of the laser.

What does it take to burn a Lightscribe disc? Burning an image onto a disc with LightScribe requires three things: • A LightScribe-enabled CD/DVD drive • LightScribe media • LightScribe-enabled software

How do I use LightScribe to label a disc? To burn a LightScribe label, you simply follow your software’s onscreen instructions. If you’re using a data burning application that’s LightScribe enabled, the application will ask whether you want to burn a label, then it will gather content to pre-populate a suggested label design and present the design onscreen. You have the option to select that label or to make changes.

If you’re using stand-alone disc labeling software, you simply launch the software and design your label onscreen by typing in your title information and/or choosing graphics.

In either scenario, once you’re finished with your design you simply flip your disc over and insert it label side down, then click “Print” to send the image to the drive. After the label is burned, the disc is ejected and your LightScribe CD or DVD is complete.

What happens if I forget to flip the disc before burning the label side? The LightScribe system recognizes whether the disc is label side down, and it will not attempt to write a label to the data side—nor will it attempt to burn data to the label side. If the wrong side is presented for either data burning or label burning, your disc will be ejected and a software message will be displayed.

What happens if I try to use LightScribe to label a non-LightScribe disc? The software prevents you from sending a label image to a non-LightScribe disc. LightScribe-enabled software is designed to recognize a LightScribe disc from the identification features embossed on it, and the system creates an image and sends it to the drive only if the appropriate media is inserted.

Does the additional use of the laser in a LightScribe-enabled drive shorten its life? No significant reduction of laser life is expected under typical labeling circumstances. LightScribe uses only the optical drive’s CD laser, not the DVD laser, and LightScribe optical drive providers have conducted significant testing to ensure the CD laser outlasts the amount of data and label burning that most customers will need.

How long does it take to burn a LightScribe label? Current LightScribe system specifications stipulate the following print times:

Setting Title only Title & content listing Full label (with graphics) Best <4 min. <9 min. <36 min. Normal <3 min. <7 min. <28 min. Draft <2 min. <4 min. <20 min.

Can I use my computer for other things while the LightScribe label is burning? Yes. The labeling process runs in the background, so the PC can be used for other tasks while the labeling process is underway.

Can I leave my computer unattended while the LightScribe label is burning? Yes. LightScribe presents no tasks that require the user’s attendance during the burning process. In addition, a LightScribe system will not go into “sleep” or power-save mode while it is burning a label.

Can I rewrite a LightScribe label, the way I can rewrite a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc? No. The current LightScribe technology is not erasable. Once the image is burned, it’s permanent.

Can I burn a LightScribe label more than once, adding to the content already burned? Yes. With LightScribe you can add information to a label at a later printing session, and the additional content will be correctly aligned with the already-existing material.

What if I burn my LightScribe label and then decide I don’t like it? Unfortunately, the current state of LightScribe technology does not allow for erasure of the LightScribe image, so the burned image will be a permanent part of the disc.

However, software applications with LightScribe capability are designed to show you the image onscreen before it is burned. You have an opportunity within the software to accept or make changes to that image before moving forward, so unplanned or undesired images will not be sent to the disc for burning.

Will the LightScribe image cause imbalance when the CD or DVD is spinning in the drive, the way a paper label can? No. A LightScribe disc is as evenly balanced as any high-quality CD or DVD, and it spins evenly within the drive. Burning an image onto the disc does not change its balance and does not endanger the disc’s ability to spin properly.

Does the LightScribe imaging process emit any hazardous chemicals? No. The laser imaging process initiates a chemical change in the colorant material embedded in the disc coating, but no hazardous chemicals are created or emitted during the process.

Is the LightScribe disc hot or dangerous to handle immediately after the label is burned? No. Although the terms “burning data” and now “burning an image” are standard in the industry, there is no appreciable temperature change involved in either process. A CD or DVD is safe to touch immediately upon ejection from the drive.

Can LightScribe create a label in color? Currently LightScribe technology is available only in grayscale, creating an image that resembles a black-and-white photograph. LightScribe’s development strategy does include future announcements about additional capabilities; however, business and legal requirements prevent publication of more specific information at this time.