A
Review of Discus
CD Labeling Software
By Ted Bade
While searching for the best CD
label software, I was lucky enough to learn about Discus.
If you want to create truly phenomenal labels and don't
own a high end desktop publishing program for the Mac OS,
you need to seriously consider Discus. It offers every
tool I have ever wanted to use to create a label and a
few more I hadn't even considered. It is well worth the
$39 price.
Perhaps I am a bit over excited
about this program, it is only a label formatting and
printing program after all. But when you consider other
similar programs, Discus outshines them all. The people
who created this program surely considered the needs of a
person creating a label, what they might like to print on
a label, and some of the problems they might
encounter.
Once the program begins you
decide what type of label you are creating, three types
of disc labels (regular, mini and business card), as well
as jewel case base, lid or booklet. Once this is done you
are offered a window with five tabs, each for working
with one aspect of the label creation process, the
canvas, paint, photos, text, and
printing.
Within the canvas tab you can
create or insert a background image to place the rest of
the information upon. The CD comes with almost 560 images
for this purpose. It is difficult to describe the variety
offered. They cover a wide range of artistic tastes and
subjects.
Just in case one of the offered
images doesn't suit your fancy, the paint tab offers a
number of tools to either create your own background
image or touch up one of those included (or for that
matter, touch up a photo you import from within the photo
tab).
The paint tools include the paint
brush, spray and fill can, solid polygon, solid and
hollow oval, arc, rectangle, stamp tool, and line tool.
Each tool can be customized in some way, making for many
more options.
For instance, the there are
several pages of numbers and symbols that can be used by
the stamp tool. You can also control size, angle,
spacing, and the darkness/lightness of the image you
stamp. When you select a particular tool the options for
this tool are displayed below the tool palette, for easy
selection. The color of what each tool draws can also be
manipulated. Lines can be colored or even patterned.
Solid rectangles can be filled with a solid color, color
gradient, or colored pattern, while a hollow rectangle
can have a line color, a special border, or a colored
pattern. One could spend hours just trying all the
possibilities.
The biggest disappointment with
this program is that one must work in 256 colors. If you
import a high quality JPEG image, you will see it
displayed in 256 colors. The good news is, this program
prints in 24 Bit color, so your output will look great.
There isn't a lot you can do with the photo you import
except increase the size of the image or move the image
across the face of your label.
Text formatting offered in this
program is superb! If you are using Toast (or Jam) to
burn Audio CDs, the track-title list of a CD you are
burning can be imported directly into Discus. Or you can
type the text in yourself. You enter your text into a
text field and manipulate this field. With the text you
want to use entered, you then have a number of ways to
format it. There are all the standard things like
selecting a font and size, font color, make bold or
italic and justify, as well as several extra useful
options. You can manipulate the letter and line spacing.
The text can be displayed vertically either in a vertical
column or in a line reading up or down. Finally, you can
have the text form a curve either convex or concave! I am
a big fan of using curved text on a circular
label.
The printing tab assists with
printing your label. Due to variations in printers and
label forms, this can be a difficult task. With Discus
you first choose one of the 23 label types, then select
which position your label will print on. Since most label
sheets contain more then one label, a check box in each
position lets you tell Discus whether or not to print
that position. Most people print only one label at a
time. If a form has only a certain label available for
use, Discus easily lets you move the image to be printed
to any of the positions the label type offers.
Before you print it's a good idea
to make sure the printer and the label line up properly.
To help this process, Discus will send a Test Pattern to
your printer, formatted for a particular label template.
This test print prints an outline of the label template
and provides some measurement marks. If printed on a
regular piece of paper you can physically compare the
test print to the label form. Discus lets you nudge the
image left, right, up, or down to get it right where it
should be. After setting up your computer and printer
with a particular label form, you should get consistently
good results.
As I mentioned before, there is a
version of Discus included with Toast 5. This version has
almost all the features of the purchase version. Most
noticeable, you don't get the option for CD business
cards or mini-discs. Next there are a limited number of
graphics included; 50 Megabytes versus the 300 Megabytes
included on the CD version. That is backgrounds, stamps,
and gradients. As far as I could see, the other tools are
there.
This package is an excellent
choice for any Mac user who is interested in creating
great labels for their CD collection. I highly recommend
it. Magic Mouse offers a number of other graphic programs
which are probably worth considering. Visit their web
site at http://www.magicmouse.com.
Specifically for Discus go to http://www.magicmouse.com/_discus.html.
Discus retails for $39 and there is a 30 day trial
version for download. It's a great way to try the
software for your self before you buy!
|
Ease
of Use :
|
5.0
|
|
|
Quality
:
|
5.0
|
|
|
Over
All Score :
|
5.0
|
|
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