DiscLabel 4.1.1
Reviewed by Harry {doc} Babad
Developer: SmileOnMyMac, LLC info@smileonmymac.com, or support@DiscLabel.com/ Price
$33 USD, $27 USD Academic, Upgrade $15 USD System Requirements: Mac OS X version 10.4 (Tiger) or later (DiscLabel 2.4.1 is still available for Mac OS X version 10.2.5 - 10.3.9.) Note that there are about 80 MB of graphics files that are part of this product. Multilingual- available for English, Japanese, German, Italian, and French users. Release Date: January 4, 2007 Download Size: 13.7 MB Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced Strengths: With its enhanced interface and added features, this product is, for now, the leader in the Macintosh media labeling software. Using its excellent and downloadable 80-page manual makes it easy to polish your label/insert creation skills beyond the intuitive. If you don’t like manuals, who does, play, the DiscLabel user interface is truly intuitive (e.g., Mac-like.) Weaknesses: Nothing worth noting – but I still can’t make up my mind which media labeling product is best. The software was tested on a 1 GHz dual processor PowerPC G4 Macintosh with 2 GB DDR SDRAM running under OS X 10.4.8. Product and company names and logos in this review may be registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
|
Publisher’s Summary
DiscLabel helps you make great looking labels for your CDs, DVDs, and related materials. The software package contains everything you need to design, print and apply custom CD/DVD labels. This major upgrade features new design tools, such as multiple layer support and gradients, as well as interface improvements that simplify the creation of new designs. We've streamlined the new design creation process, whether the user wants to use a template or create a custom design from scratch."
Introduction
As I continue to make heavy use media labeling software to prepare elaborate custom labels and booklets for various concert CDs and music samplers, my discomfort grows. Why, I ask, can I not pick a favorite from among the wonderful programs I own? Which programs? DiscLabel 4.1.1 [SmileOnMyMac Software, http://www.DiscLabel.com/, Discus 4.0.3ß [Magic Mouse, www.magicmouse.com] and the newer Disc Cover 1.2.1 [Belight Software, http://www.belightsoft.com/disccover/%5D.
I also own The Print Shop 2.04u by Software MacKiev which I don’t use to label media, and several sets of templates for both MS Word 2004, and AppleWorks 6.2.9, my old standby labeling applications. These are the programs that I first used to create elaborate custom media labels and inserts. Yes, you guessed it. That’s why I’ve been testing the more media focused products listed above.
Instead of choosing, I flit from program to program like a bee in search of perfect nectar, at times actually creating a label in two of the programs just to meet some imaginary goal of perfection. Now If I were disciplined and a good macCompanion, I’d set up a bakers half dozen projects, and try these tools side by side; I’m retires and paid my dues. — Get It! I could even test out the templates, design help files and even dink with the clipart provided; the developers spent lots of energy providing this material.
My Labeling Focus — Before I continue, let’s get one item straight about my labeling habits. I almost never use the templates and designs provided with these products or any of the provided clipart. I get this picture for a design in my head and then work to bring it to reality, or a closes approximation thereof. Indeed, were I hard disk space short, I’d likely remove some or all of the provided clipart collections from my hard drive. Therefore if clipart and template matter to you, you’ll need to read the earlier macC reviews of these products or better yet check test drive them your self.
Robert Pritchett review this product (Version 2.1) and gave it 5 Stars. The product has gotten better like a good wine, but I grade harder than does Robert, therefore four and a half stars. http://www.maccompanion.com/macc/archives/september2004/Software/DiscLabel.html 02/
Working With
Simply double-click the DiscLabel installer from its disk image. Follow the installation steps, and DiscLabel will be installed in your Applications folder. I found that I wanted to create a folder called DiscLabel information in which I could store the readme folder and the downloaded PDF manual. The product worked fine from within its applications folder.
There are several approaches to using the product; all are intuitive with a little trial and error. If needed, these are all explained with great clarity in a stepwise fashion in the help notes.
Step-by-step from iTunes
Step-by-step with the factory
Step-by-step building a new label starting from scratch
I actually found the text editing user interface simplified (compared to version 3.x and improved but still found changing font sizes and attributes for individual words a bit clumsy, not word processor perfect.
My Tests — To test the product, I focused on about six projects, some of which I’d done previously either in an earlier version of DiscLabel or with a competing product. All were successful, and took a minimal effort; after all I’d mastered the learning curve. The projects included my using photo collages of images collected on the Internet [googled, of course.] These were applied to music or recipe CDs. I also created jewel case booklets. That required importing both biographical information about album artists, as well as the album play lists. Much of the material I needed for the labels and booklets was stored in my CD database collection or found as a result of an Internet search. I maintain information on all my CDs owned or lusted-for in a FileMaker Pro database, still version 6. Would that personal computers were available when I stated collecting vinyl.
I don’t use jewel case inserts, favoring slim cases for my creations. I also tested that feature. I picked the insert design I wanted from the list based on the paper I had on hand. In a number of instances, I used the label art as a background for the second pages of a booklet or insert, by making it more transparent than the label art, so I could more darkly type over it.
Multiple Layers to Enhance Graphic Effects — DiscLabel 4.1 features the option to add multiple layers, which can be hidden or reordered. What fun, but my skills are not up to maximizing the benefit of this feature. I don’t even yet do Photoshop Elements. The user can copy and paste all layers into a new design to create additional packaging elements like jewel cases. I did not test either the new tools for creating freehand scribbles and polygons or the support for multicolor gradient fills for text and objects, they would have made my design too garish.
An interesting Side Note — The publisher provides us with a comparison of features, which of course makes the product shine. SmileOnMyMac compares DiscLabel 4.0, discus 3.10 [I’m now using the 4.ox beta which is richer in features], and Disc Cover 1.2 (a new excellent contender.) Here’s the Edit Function Interface.
Note that with each successive major update the features set of these three fine products become more comparable Therefore, since cost is not a differentiator, that leaves the choice to how one interacts with the product’s interface a major decision criterion. If there’s a feature you can’t life without in the tables below, then that will help you choose. There is also an ongoing effort by all three developers to add new features to one-up the competition, grrreat if it’s a feature you’d use.
Obviously, you folks who prefer to use templates and who welcome the excellent provided clip art in these collections have different needs than those of us who like to start from scratch.] There are a significant number of blessed features that I don’t use in the tables below. Like all other such choices, the set of you can’t life without a given feature which product you prefer becomes an individual choice. The items I marked with an asterisk {*} are unique to DiscLabel.
Features I Care About:
|
|
|
|
Things I Don’t Use Now Nor Will Likely Use:
|
In addition for those of you who use LightScribe, direct-to-disc labeling technology used with LightScribe-compatible burners and media, enables users to burn images and text directly to the top of the disc itself rather than using an inkjet printer.
Discomforts
Print Preview — There's no print preview either, I miss that but the loaded template using the template stationary does an excellent job or predicting what the final product will look like.
Too Much Ado with iApps — The software too often defaults to searching the Apple iApplications, none of which I use. I neither store photos in iPhoto, nor add music to iTunes. iDVD, who needs it? [Surely, I can’t be along in ignoring Apples “i” offerings?] I would turn these connections off, but most of you will find them helpful.
Conclusions
As Carol Mary Miller who writes for Mac360 noted “‘DiscLabel’ is simple, it’s elegant, it’s feature-laden, it’s intuitive, it’s affordable, it’s attractive, and it works. That will put a smile on your face.” I agree. Ms. Miller further notes: “Every disc needs a label but what you want is a label that either 1) communicates simply, or 2) has great style, or 3) does both well. DiscLabel has a shoebox full of attractive, pre-designed templates that look as though you’d hired someone who knew what they were doing to design your label. Of course, if you know what you’re doing, you can design your own, too. DiscLabel simply adds your design to the other templates, so you can use it again and again.
Other DiscLabel reviews I found compelling
Review of the DiscLabel 3.3 CD & DVD Software for the Macintosh by Scott Kessman; http://www.associatedcontent.com/pop_print.shtml?content_type=article&content_type_id=42270
DiscLabel 4 Gains Layers, Tag Editor, More… By: Erik Vlietinck, November 21, 2006
http://www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/more/DiscLabel_4/
Disk Labeling Reloaded— DiscLabel 4.1 is out, Softpedia News By: Codrut Nistor, Editor, Software Reviews. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Disk-Labelling-Reloaded-42430.shtml
