How to use the LightScribe feature on your CD/DVD burner

LightScribe. That fancy feature on your CD/DVD burner that writes a monochrome image onto the label side of your CD-R or DVD+R, yet somehow you know nothing about it nor how to use it. How does it work? Good question.

With a LightScribe enabled drive and special LightScribe media, a disc can be inserted in the drive upside-down and the laser can burn an image and/or text onto the label-side of the disc. If this sounds neat, well, it is! But only if you have the right software, drivers, hardware, and media. Here’s an example of what your labels can look like.

One would think this should be a fairly easy proposition, but alas, it was much harder than it should have been. I have two optical drives in my PC — both support the LightScribe feature. I also recently picked up a spindle of Verbatim CD-Rs with the LightScribe label. All I needed was software to do the label design and burning. My PC has a copy of Nero 12 Platinum, so I figured I was all set.

Nope. Couldn’t find the feature anywhere on my computer or in the Nero software.

What a strange thing to leave out! Well, it turns out Nero makes you download their “CoverDesigner” separately. It’s a piece of software that they offer for free to anyone. Still a strange thing to leave out.

After downloading CoverDesigner, I start stepping through the install process, clicking Next, Next, EULA, Next, EULA, wait, what? Two EULAs? Oh look at that… It wants me to install a piece of Adware called OpenCandy. Oh, and look, there’s no way to opt out of it. Nope, nope, nope.

Seriously, Nero? I paid good money for your software and you still want to install Adware on my PC? I don’t like you as much as I used to, Nero…

After much searching, I figured out that LightScribe can be handled with 3 pieces of free software (that contains no adware/spyware):

1. LightScribe System Software — This is the base software that contains the drivers and control panel which runs in your system tray. (Install this first. The other software won’t install if this isn’t installed first.)
2. LightScribe Template Labeler — This is the software which utilizes some base templates which you can pick from and then customize the templates by inserting pictures and text. This produces very fancy labels, but can take 10 to 25 minutes to burn.
3. LightScribe Simple Labeler — This is a much simpler labeler than the “template” labeler. It merely allows you to put a line of text on the top and bottom of the disc. The big advantage is that it is fast — 1 to 3 minutes. I consider this 3rd piece of software optional since you can just as easily whip out a Sharpie and quickly write a description of the contents of the disc in under 30 seconds. (Click the Direct Download link on CNet so you don’t have to deal with their crappy “downloader” software.)

After installing the software, run the “LightScribe Control Panel” softwareWhen the Control Panel runs, you should see this screen. For the most part, you can just leave the default settings as they are, but if you may want to change the contrast settings for a darker label. This can also be controlled via the Template Labeler or other LightScribe software, so you can just leave it set to the current setting. When you click OK, the control panel will reside in your system task tray.

Try both the Simple Labeler and the Template Labeler. They’re both easy-to-use and are very handy tools to have when you want to produce clean and sharp labels.

The next post on LightScribe templates explains how and where to get all the additional fancy templates for LightScribe. Be sure to check it out!