CD Cover Art - How?

Subject: CD Cover Art - How?
From: hesperis
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 01:51 PM

Ok, so I'm working on my CD, and it's going well enough that now I need to think about the cover art. (Recommendations for the Toronto area would be great, too.)

Are there any recommendations for how exactly to go about making a multi-page jewel case booklet on the computer? What software to use, etc. My friend recommended going to a printing place for the booklet. I can probably print the sticky CD labels at home.

How do I find out what size and resolution things need to be? (I can't afford one of those deals where you pay $1500 for 1000 CDs with everything included because I'm not looking at that kind of volume yet. More like 50-100-200 range right now.)

I'd like it full colour, because I have a fantastic pic. But that's all I know.

How did you go about it for your CD?

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 01:57 PM

That -is- a hell of a good pic!

Whish I had more to offer than that!

And best of luck!

;-)

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 01:59 PM

Hesperis, check out www.mixonic.com...you can upload your artwork and all and minimum order is 1 CD. Beautiful image!

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: hesperis
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:03 PM

Thanks, pholks. I'm really happy with the way that pic turned out! (Dunno if it'll print so well, but we'll see.)

I checked out mixonic (just saw the other thread, thanks Kat!). It doesn't have an option for jewel case booklets, which is what I'm most concerned about. If I go with the easy way, they'll definitely be something to consider.

Yeah, I could do it the easy way, but it's sooo much nicer to have all that info right in the case. ;)

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:14 PM

Well, hesp, you could always have them produce the CD's, send them to you, then place the inserts, and ship yourself.:-) Still a low minimum.

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:35 PM

There are templates available on the web for jewel-case inserts in MS Word. Hesp, if you wish I can email you one which provides for front, inside front, back and edges,

A

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: michaelr
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 02:55 PM

hesperis -- great picture! How do you create the fractal art?

Michael

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 03:37 PM

I know at least a couple of people who have CD covers that depict ships. Two of them own the originals of the oil paintings that appear on the CD. One found out, however, that owning the painting did not give him the right to reproduce it. As I recall, the painter was happy to give permission for reproduction, at no charge.
The other was unable to locate the painter, but used the artwork anyhow.
I suppose the expiration of copyright on paintings is the same as for song lyrics, so paintings older than 1923 should be in the public domain - is that correct?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 03:47 PM

michaelr..Morticia was playing around with fractal art a couple of years ago and posted some links. There are two of the programs I use on this page: Index of (Fractal) Software. Lot of fun!

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: hesperis
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 05:36 PM

Amos - would Word handle artwork imports that well? I have Word97.

michaelr - I used Ultra Fractal, which is a program that usually makes the most beautiful results of the programs I've tried. I'm still definitely a beginner, though!

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 09:48 PM

Word will handle graphics just fine up to a point. Ihave forgotten what the feature changes are between '97 and 2000 but I did some graphics intensives work in Word before '97 -- I'm just not sure how much of a headache it was. You might want to see if you can gety your hands on an upgrade if it proves burdensome, You should try dropping some of that fractal art into a Word document -- see if "Insert==>Picture" is available in the meu tree or not. One work-around is inserting a frame and then inserting the graphic into it by just pasting. Don't recall when Word started providing independent frames capability, though.

A

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 27 Jul 02 - 11:20 PM

There are a number of questions you need to ask your self,, or that I would ask you rather. How many pages did you want the liner notes to be? You would be limited by how much room ( Thickness) those little tabs give you to slip in behind in the case.

Check out a few CD's that have notes like what you want, then measure carefully to make your own template.

With the run being under 200 you would probably be best off finding a place with affordable digital color copies.

As for what programs to use lets just say Microsoft word is a nightmare for a professional printer, just because it looks ok at home does not mean it will work . If you can print it at home that may be a way to go

One always winds up with font issues, art issues if you go to a printer with your files. Talk to a local printing/copy place to see if they can do the whole thing from scratch within you budget. Or find a friend who is a graphic artist, there is a reason why they use programs like Quark, Photoshop & Illustrator, cause they work, and printing places use them too.

Good luck!

Nick

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 03:59 AM

I'm fortunate in that i know a fellow who is very good at using the Pagemaker software. If you're doing it yourself, it might be worth your while to seek out a copy. If you know someone else who gas it and knows how to use it well, so much the better.

BTW,, that's a great picture.

SLR

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Fiolar
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 08:08 AM

Don't know if this of any help but CD Box Labeler Pro is one of the best software programs around. I have used it for all my jewel case inserts. Check the site
www.gpsoftuk.com
Good luck

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 11:00 AM

Just a few comments on some suggestions above... If you are going to print it from you own coputer a CD software program would be fine, unlesss you go to a professional printer who has the same progam you will likely run into trouble. If all you want is to print CD notes something like page maker or Quark is going to cost you a pretty penny, in the $500- 700 + range for real softwear.

Nick

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 01:07 PM

Hmmmm. We've been creating our own templates on Pagemaker for years and printing the jewel box inserts to an Epson inkjet with reasonably good results; any minor printer hick-up will screw up your copy registration if its two-sided.

We recently acquired a full set of templates for free via the web from Oasis (see their ad in Sing Out!) which I found useful. Note, if you are sending a file out for commercial printing be sure to have your graphics separately included and linked to your copy; sometimes if you transfer them via the clipboard, they look better on your monitor (and print fine on the inkjet) but don't print that way via the commercial printer. Also, if you're using a commercial printer, you may need to be more careful about what type of color you use, Pantone or whatever. The whole process of dealing with Oasis was an eye-openner for me. We are eagerly awaiting our first set of proofs.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble
Roll & Go

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: hesperis
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 02:47 PM

Thanks very much for all the help!

Unless making a jewel case booklet is very easy with the right software, I've decided to go with a chapbook type of thing, as I already have 12 pages of collected lyrics and dance notes at 10 pt in Word (and it's not quite everything). Getting that to be small enough to fit in a jewel case booklet and still be readable would be quite the challenge. So I'll probably go the home-produced route, since I already have CDs and jewel cases and labels.

I'll still check these options out, because it would be cooler if the info was all in the case. We'll see. ;)

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 10:02 AM

hesperis -

You did ask above about graphics in Word.

When you "insert picture" the graphic goes in essentially unchanged, and is just "passed" to the printer - so the print quality depends mainly on the "picture" file you start with unless you mess with the picture after you place it.

If you resize (especially) after the picture is in Word, results my be somewhat variable. If you can get the picture "sized" to what you want, as a graphic, before you place it, and then leave it alone, you should be able to get good results.

Actually, the same conditions apply to placing a picture in most "real" layout programs like PageMaker or FrameMaker. They should be sized accurately before they're placed - and the sizing should be done in a good graphics program - something like PhotoShop, etc.

The real problem with "home-made" color pictures is whether your printer can really do the job. Most 3-color "home" printers leave a lot to be desired. If you have a "photo-quality" 4-color printer, you should get good results - but the original graphic needs to be saved in a format appropriate for the particular printer - another reason for getting a good graphics-artist to "do" the image for you.

John

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: GUEST,Den at work
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:30 AM

Hesperis, I'm a professional Graphic Designer and have done a number of CD covers from conception. If you want to pm me we can talk production or if you want some more production advice let me know here in this thread. I'd need to know how much you have to work with, all of this information will have a significant bearing on your final CD cover. Your final output device will determine a number of the production perameters that you will have to take into consideration. Hope this is somewhat helpful. Den

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: hesperis
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 04:44 PM

Thanks for the tips.

At home I have a Canon S400 that is pretty much out of ink. (Probably the rollers need cleaning as well.) So I'd need to spend about $80 for ink just to test the artwork and placement and all. (And I need a useable printer anyway!!!)

The S400 takes 4 separate cartridges, CMYK. Of course anything pure red is printed as magenta... I don't know how to get a true red out of this thing. (There's a colour profile thing in the printer management, but have no clue what to do to compensate.) Also, to get a reasonable printout, I have to print much lighter than what appears on my screen, or it is WAY too dark. That's just the way I set up my monitor, though.

I have 100 blank CDs and jewel cases already, so that's not a problem.

I have 75 jewel case labels, Memorex. 40 cd labels, McDermid (spacing is similar to Memorex, just a light tweaking is needed). 14 cd labels, Memorex. All of these are plain white.

As for art stuff, I have Paint Shop Pro 6, which I'm used to for web art, and have access to Photoshop 6, which I don't know at all.

I have no clue about sales forecasts and that stuff, so am not too sure about trying to get pre-sales so I can do a better job on the art than my home printer will allow. This whole thing is quite the learning experience, believe me.

So, any help and advice is appreciated.

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: michaelr
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 07:43 PM

hesperis, thanks for the tip on UltraFractal. I downloaded it yesterday; it's awesome!

If you have access to Photoshop, I recommend doing all the work, including text, in that program. You'll get much better results than with Word, which is a lot less flexible. Photoshop is pretty much the professional standard for graphics. I'll be using it to create the Mudcat CD graphics.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 08:08 PM

Dear hesperis,

Take a look at this website which offers many free templates for CD inserts, including multi-page booklets.

Disc Designers

Good luck - and, yes, a great picture!

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: SeanM
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:21 PM

Joe;

Re: artwork copyright...

The owner of the piece more or less has permanent non-expiring copyright to the art. My band just shelled out a few hundred to the Met for a Restoration period art piece (artist dead for a couple centuries). Even modern works are a permanent copyright to the 'owner' of the piece... it's one reason so many artists (who can afford to) refuse to sell the original, but offer 'reproductions', lithographs or other copies.

Technically, this means that even things like pre-historic cave paintings would likely be protected under copyright unless annexed as 'cultural treasures'.

M

Subject: RE: CD Cover Art - How?
From: Robin2
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 09:37 PM

paying for artwork: our 2nd CD used a painting from the 1840's, and we paid $$$$ to the owners of the painting (it was on loan to a museum at the time)Payment was made through the museum, so I presume copyrights are extended to owners of historic artwork.

Hesp, no one has mentioned it, but there is a simple free CD graphics program called MediaFace II that does everything you have mentioned. It's put out by Neato, the CD labeling company. I don't use their products, I just use this free program, and I liked it so much I used it for our last CD. Automatically resizes imported graphics, and is really quite a sophisticated program for free! I use Paintshop Pro to get my graphics the way I want them and then import them to this program. I used it to design front cover, inside cover, CD label and cassette J-card.

Robin