Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Fellowes CD/DVD Labelling System
Add a touch of class to your CDs and DVDs
| Product | CD/DVD Labelling System |
|---|---|
| Company | Fellowes |
| Web | www.fellowes.com |
| Price | £19.99 |
| We like | Flexible software, good range of labels supported |
| We don't like | Nothing Much |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
The Fellowes CD/DVD Labelling kit combines everything you need to start labelling all your media in one handy kit. The bundle is based on the well known Neato device. This simple unit helps apply labels to CDs and DVDs as evenly and straight as possible. The box also contains a copy of MediaFace 4 software for designing your labels and finally a selection of labels to get you started.
Designing
MediaFace 4 is responsible for the design and printing of the labels. It starts up with a simple wizard driven layout that lets you choose what you want to design. This could be a CD label, a jewel case, the inside pages, DVD covers or even things like cassette labels and video sleeves.
A range of royalty free photographs are provided for backgrounds or you can supply your own. Text is then added to standard locations in the layout. The positioning and font can then be adjusted to suit your tastes.
You can optionally choose to switch to advanced mode at which point Mediaface throws away the wizard interface and turns in to a full blown Windows program with more options than you could possibly consider feasible in a labelling tool. You can add basic things such as rectangles, circles and lines. More advanced options include the ability to drop in Bar Codes or "objects" such as an Excel spreadsheet or elements created in any of the other packages you may have installed.
If you have a Mac and are unable to use the MediaFace program, there is a folder full of templates for various packages that allow you to ensure you can design layouts to the correct dimensions.
Printing
Once you've created your label, you can print it out. The package includes a range to get you started including matte and glossy CD labels as well as a small mixture of others including jewel case liners.
Once you've used these up you can buy more in packs to suit whatever your needs are ranging from Minidisc labels though to ZIP cartridges. Fellowes claim their labels are approved for up to 64 speed drives. This may sound an odd thing to worry about but very fast CD drives do suffer from stability problems and a label only makes life harder for the drive trying to spin the disk without it shattering. It's reassuring their specially developed adhesives are up to the job!
Conclusion
The Fellowes CD/DVD labelling kit contains everything you need to get started. You can add to it as you need later on buy buying whatever blank labels suit your requirements. The software is powerful and the price is right. If you need a CD labelling system, look no further.
