DVD/CD printer alignment

Asked by Tom Horsley

I would like to print DVD/CDs with my C5580 from any application by simply telling that app to print
the right size page, but there doesn't seem to be any documentation of what size page that
should be.

The .ppd file says the page size is 360pt, but my experiments indicate that I'm not centered correctly
if I use that size. I haven't yet tried just telling it 120mm (the actual size of a CD), perhaps that might
wind up closer to the center, or 118mm (the actual size of the printable surface).

I'd really like to be able to print from any app rather than being restricted to a single app like glabels
with a special template, but there is almost no documentation available on how to do things like
tweak .ppd files.

Complicating things is my experiment with open office. Both inkscape and gimp show the exact same
offset from center when printing a 360pt page size, but open office shows a completely different
offset when printing the same size page, so I don't know what the heck goes on there.

I don't suppose HP wants to sponsor a goole summer of code project to produce a snazzy printer
alignment tool that lets you printout a pattern, then pop the printed media into the scanner up top,
and scan it in to deduce the alignment tweaks required? :-).

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MMarking (cpt-mocha) said :
#1

Hi, I just purchased that same printer. It's very nice once I purged and reinstalled HPLIP packages in Ubuntu. I have the same problem as you. I was trying to make a glabels template and came up with this.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Glabels-templates xmlns="http://snaught.com/glabels/2.2/">
  <Template brand="none" part="none" size="Other" width="4.72in" height="4.72in" description="CD-DVD Tray Label">
    <Label-cd id="0" radius="2.3125in" hole="0.8125in" waste="0.125in">
      <Markup-margin size="0.125in"/>
      <Layout nx="1" ny="1" x0="-0.03in" y0="-0.03in" dx="-0.155in" dy="-0.155in"/>
    </Label-cd>
  </Template>
</Glabels-templates>

Fill-in something above for the Template and part.

This template works so-so, anything you put on the label in the layout gets printed about 4 mm shifted to the left, so just keep that in mind when you do the layout. Perhaps you can tweak this and make it center properly? I don't fully understand how the glabels templates work.

Revision history for this message
Tom Horsley (tom-horsley) said :
#2

Well, I have my experiences documented at:

http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley/dvdprint/dvd-print.html

There is a .svg file pointed at in there with exactly positioned circles in a 5 inch aquare.
They come out centered over the DVD media (at least with my printer), and allow
me to use gimp to position graphics and text inside them to produce nicely printed
DVDs.

I still want to figure out how to tweak the printer definition so I don't have to get
into fiddling details with each application's exact layout.

Revision history for this message
MMarking (cpt-mocha) said :
#3

I opened your svg in Gimp, put in 360 for width and heigth, and 300 pixels/in, and the template comes out as 1.2" wide and tall. If I use 450 pixels and 90 pixels/in, it comes out as 5" x 5" and the large circle looks like the proper CD diameter.

Revision history for this message
Tom Horsley (tom-horsley) said :
#4

Yea, there is something wrong with gimp's .svg code. When I start gimp from scratch and open the .svg,
it always ignores at least one of the settings. If I close the file, and open the exact same file again with
the exact same settings, it works the 2nd time.

Revision history for this message
MMarking (cpt-mocha) said :
#5

Hmmm.. It always is 1.2" wide on my system regardless how many times I open it.

Revision history for this message
Tom Horsley (tom-horsley) said :
#6

Weird. I did find I can get it to work the first time (for me anyway) if instead of attempting to specify
the units in points, if I leave them in the default pixels and tell it 1500 pixels, and set pixels/inch to 300.
It definitely has problems with the units selection.

I did add: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=570353 as a gimp bugzilla, so I'll see if it
ever gets fixed.

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said :
#7

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.