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Installation
Intel 3.06GHz CPU running Windows
XP Pro
Nothing much to say here, you plug in
the power, you plug in the USB cable and you install
the drivers. This is how it should work and indeed
this is how it did work. As with most USB devices
it was that simple.
The Software
The more you use the supplied software
the more it seems that TDK (or more accurately Casio)
have made a bit of a meal of it. There certainly seems
to be more complexity than there should be for something
that has relatively few options available.
Here's a basic look at what each of
the individual buttons and icons offer.
13
The large CD on the left of the interface gives a
rough preview of what you'll end up printing. As you
can see there are only two areas available for you
to design in and even this is achieved in two stages,
turning the CD though 180 degrees after the first
area is printed to allow the second area to be accessed.
Software Version 1.00.000E
Several templates are offered but in
all probability you'll end up using the "Free
Design" option for the majority of jobs. For
the top three options of "Music Label",
"Data Label" and "Digital Image Label"
there is also an assistant window available to guide
you through the process of either creating your label
manually or using an import function to automate the
process
Label Template Menu |
Music Label Import Options
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Data/Digital Image Label
Import Options
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Although they're shown there's no way
to select the curved print areas on this particular
model. Another slightly annoying point is the lack
of the ability to configure the print patterns to
allow you to print the characters at 90 degrees to
those offered as this would allow you to get creative
and add a logo or something similar to the side/s
of your CD after the top and bottom areas had been
completed. You'd do this simply by placing your CD
in again but rotated 90 degrees to its original position.
Print Area Configuration
Don't expect any creative text effects
here either, you're pretty much limited to Bold or
Italic which is a shame as the area is big enough
to apply a slight curvature or other minimal text
shape effects.
The text layout menu is only available
for the "Music Label", "Data Label"
and "Digital Image Label" options and lets
you select how manually entered and automatically
imported data is laid out.
Label Text Layout
The "Advanced Settings" panel
lets you set some fairly basic print options like
the density of the ink and whether or not the drawer
automatically pops open prior to each printing operation.
Print Settings
You can also create custom phrases that
are available for insertion into your text fields
using a right click
Custom Phrase Memory
 Though
for some reason the custom phrases you create aren't
put in the "Phrase Memory" category in the
menu but get put in a category rather ambiguously
names "User". In fact the three categories
at the bottom of the menu, "Phrase Memory",
"Music" and "Digital Image" all
contain preset phrases but there's no option to put
your own phrases in one of these categories or to
create your own categories. They all get piled in
"User" whether you like it or not and to
make it worse you can't edit or delete the categorised
preset phrases either.
Oh, and that "Time Stamp",
well, it's actually a date stamp and there's no control
over the date format it uses. Fortunately for me it
was DD/MM/YYYY
The final advanced option allows you
to set the default style for future labels, a useful
function if you want to standardise you labeling.
When importing text using the "Music
Label", "Data Label" or "Digital
Image Label" option, clicking the "Font"
button opens the "Font Settings" panel which
lets you configure the look of the text for each the
various components of the information.
Digital Image Label Font Setting Options
And the final step is to print the CD.
Ignore the pop-up printing assistant at your peril
as it shows you which way around your disk should
be placed for each of the two printing stages (or
one if you are only printing one area). Take time
to align the disk carefully for the second phase of
the print as doing it by eye rarely works. The supplied
alignment guide is a Godsend for this though a simple
platform designed to rotate exactly 180 degrees wouldn't
be too hard for TDK to implement even allowing for
the pressure it needs to withstand from the print
head.
Pop-Up Printing Assistant
The manual suggest printing to the CD
before you burn your data to it so as to reduce the
danger of heat from the print head corrupting your
data. Although I suggest you do what they recommend
I did try it several times the other way around with
no problems.
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