Custom Jewelry Made Easy: Creating CD Labels and Covers

posted: May, 8 2003

By Jeff Sauer

What do you do the first time you listen to a new Audio CD? Odds are you turn up the music, then sit down to peruse the pictures, read the liner notes, and review the credits on the jewel case. Maybe you read the lyrics as new songs play. It's a ritual that goes back to the days of vinyl record albums, and transcends musical genres. But sadly, it often doesn't extend to CD-Rs, especially personal compilations, where no existing artwork or notes are readily available. After all, making jewel case artwork can seem like a daunting task, especially next to that utilitarian black magic marker.

Next time you make a party compilation disc, digital photo album, or even a Video CD of your kid's birthday party, try making a jewel case cover too. It's simple if you have Toast 5 Titanium, which includes the award-winning Magic Mouse Discus label creator program (found in the Roxio Data folder inside the Toast folder).

Launching Magic Mouse Discus presents you with icons for a generic jewel case lid (front and duplicate inside cover), jewel case base (u-Card), folding booklet (front and inside covers together) and the circular sticky label that will adhere directly to the disc. Clicking on any icon opens a design template, sized to fit perfectly into standard plastic jewel boxes or onto a disc. All you need to do is add the design and information. And Discus helps you there, as well.

To get started, choose one of the jewel case sections to work on, and click on the icon. Discus then tabs you through the five-step process (Canvas, Paint, Photo, Text, and Print) of creating a design. Canvas establishes a background for your cover or label art using either a solid grayscale or one of 20 stock graphics. Additional graphics and your own background art can be imported if you upgrade to the full version of Discus at the Magic Mouse Web site.

You can also import photographs for your label or cover art and use them as de facto backgrounds for text under the Photo tab, the third step in the design process. Each step in the process is actually a layer in your design. You can Paint on top of a Canvas; add a Photo on top of Paint; and add Text on top of everything. However, you cannot, for example, paint on top of a photo in Discus, so it's best to do any retouching before you import your picture.

Still, Discus' paint tools are an easy way to create colorful background elements and you don't have to go through the steps in order. You can even skip the Canvas tab altogether and create custom canvases from the almost endless gradient and pattern options under the Paint tab. And to make a text field stand out, you might first create and position it, then go back to the Paint tab to place a solid color underneath using one of Discus' arc or shape tools. Within Discus, each layer remains separate so you can make changes to one without affecting another. However, note that Discus does not treat elements within the Paint layer individually, so it's often best to create that layer last when other parts of your label are all set.

When you import a photograph under the Photo tab, you can resize or rotate it, but not reposition it out of the center of template. So use your image-editing application to check and adjust positioning before importing (being sure to keep important parts away from the hole in the CD label!). If you're making a picture CD, you'll have plenty of photos for cover art from which to choose.

For audio CDs, try the Web: it's full of pictures of celebrities, singers, and bands, including CD cover art. Control-clicking on just about any image on the Web lets you save it to your hard drive, typically as a JPEG file which can go straight into Discus. And, you're not likely to need to crop CD cover images. What's more, you can find lyrics to a large majority of popular songs on the Web, often at an artist's own Web site, which you can cut and paste into your jewel book. Just be aware that these images and lyrics might be copyrighted, and should not be downloaded for anything other than personal use within the copyright laws.

If you'd like to add a track list for an Audio CD to the back label, you can import that text information directly from Toast, Jam, or iTunes if you select it from the Tracks menu above the interface. To put tracks on the inside cover, use the spread cover. If you design a jewel case lid instead, Discus simply duplicates your artwork and prints it twice on one sheet for the outside and inside covers.

Otherwise, you can write anything you like with Discus' straightforward and more than ample Text tools. You can create as many text fields as you wish and position them by dragging and dropping; you can even independently orient each vertically, horizontally, or in an arc, and use different fonts, colors, sizes, leading, and spacing. Text fields can also overlap.

Once you've got your labels and cover art designed, it's time to print! Any color inkjet printer and photo paper will do, but for best results and to save cutting time, try the special labels made for the task (available at any office supply outlet). Magic Mouse Discus already has the most popular brands covered. Click on the Select template button under the Print tab to ensure exact page placement.

So next time you make a CD, there's no excuse for using magic markers anymore! Your CD rack, your friends, and your customers deserve better. Making yourself look like an artist doesn't require any crown jewels, just well-designed ones.