How to print a CD label or case cover

Labels and covers, on the Tools menu of Burn by Zaweba, does it for you. It makes printable covers as an A4 PDF with crop marks: a round disc label 118 mm across with a 41 mm hub, a CD front insert, a back insert with spines, and a DVD case cover. Print the PDF and cut along the marks.

Burn also offers labels and covers at the right moment: after an audio CD, with the track list filled in, and after a backup, with a label for each disc marked Disc 2 of 3 and so on.

What you can make

The round disc label fits the face of a CD or DVD, at 118 mm with a 41 mm hole for the hub. The CD front insert goes in the front of a jewel case. The back insert sits behind the tray, with spines that fold along the sides so the title shows when the case is on a shelf. The DVD case cover wraps around a standard DVD case.

Everything comes out on A4 with crop marks, so you know exactly where to cut.

Printing and cutting tips

Print at actual size. Many PDF viewers shrink pages to fit the printer's margins by default, which makes covers slightly too small for the case. Look for a setting called actual size or 100 percent in the print dialog.

Use a sharp craft knife and a metal ruler rather than scissors for the straight edges, and cut just inside the crop marks. For the round disc label, printable sticky label sheets or thicker paper work better than plain office paper. A test print on plain paper first, held up against a disc and a case, shows whether the sizes line up before you use the good stock.

Colour printers vary in how close to the edge they print. Covers with a coloured background may show a thin white border on some printers, which disappears once you trim along the crop marks. Keep important text a little way in from the edges so nothing gets trimmed off by a slightly uneven cut.

Covers for music, covers for backups

For an audio CD, the track list is put on the covers for you, so the back insert lists the songs just as on a shop-bought album. If you typed CD-Text titles while making the disc, they're the same names.

For a backup, labels matter even more. A multi-disc backup is only useful if you can tell the discs apart. Burn makes a label for each disc with its number in the set, which you'll be glad of the day you need to restore.

Editing the design further

If you have Labels by Zaweba installed, Burn's Open in Labels by Zaweba option writes the designs as .ozl files, a round 118 mm label and a 120 mm insert, to Documents\Burn covers, and opens the disc label in Labels for editing. Labels takes one file at a time, so the front insert design is saved beside it for you to open next.

That gives you room to change fonts, add pictures or rearrange text, while Burn's PDF stays the quick route for a clean cover in a minute. Burn by Zaweba is free software that works offline, so both routes cost nothing.