Silk screen printing uses a stencil onto which a thick layer of ink is poured and the excess scraped off, forcing the remaining ink through the holes in the stencil to create the image on the surface of the disc. This is then repeated for different colours in the CMYK process, using different stencils for each colour.

This results in high setup costs for the print, but it is very economical for production runs of over 3000 discs.

The quality of the artwork is not generaly as good as for laser printed labels, with complex gradients and photographs being difficult to accurately reproduce in terms of both detail and colour. However for simple designs with only a few colours it can produce very good results with a solid and very hard wearing finish that is water proof and smudge resistant.

The silk screen process is typically used for many of the audio CDs that you may buy, although you will notice that the printing on the surface of the disc is typically limited to only a few different colours.

The print quality is not in terms of dpi (dots per inch), but lpi (lines per inch) in which our printing is at 160lpi.

Advantages:

	High quality results for simple, solid colour artwork
	Very economical for large print runs of over 3000 discs
	Resistant to smudging
	Water proof

Disadvantages:

	Accuracy of colour reproduction is not as good as laser printing
	Quality of fine artwork is not as good as laser labels, particularly for thin lines or colour gradients
	Not economical for small production runs due to the high setup costs
	Longer turnaround times of about 14 days are typical due to the time taken to setup the stencils

Please follow the following links to find out more: How do CD business cards work? Request a free sample CD How much do CD business cards cost? What are the turnaround times for CD business cards? What are the sizes of your CD business cards? What can I put on CD business cards? Can you help with the content for the CD business cards? What are the artwork specifications for the labels? Do you provide a label design service? How do I contact you?