LightScribe Burning


Invented by Hewlett-Packard, LightScribe technology is simply used to burn images on top of a CD/DVD so we do not have to use labels anymore. The laser inside a CD/DVD disc drive with LightScribe technology focuses light energy onto a thin reactive dye coating on the label side of the disc. Only LightScribe media has this special coating and as mentioned before, this makes Lightscribe media more expensive. The light from the laser causes a chemical change in the dye coating that shows up on the disc. With laser precision, the drive renders the text and images that you created for the label.

There are three different layout modes for burning labels:

• Full mode. Although it takes longer, this is the mode to used for a full-disc image.
• Content mode. Perfect for creating artful borders around the center of the disc.
• Title mode. Great for a small amount of text or graphics. This is the quickest mode.

LightScribe labels burn in concentric circles, moving outward from the center of the disc. Images with the largest diameters will take longest to burn.


If only I would have looked a little closer at burning times. Want to know why? Well, I don’t like waiting so when I saw that those 4 little pictures were going to take 15 minutes, let’s just say I wasn’t too happy but in the end, the wait was worth it.

The LightScribe website gives you some advice on the burning process; if you want the pictures to come out nice and dark, you’ll have to repeat the entire process. I suppose that the dye on the disc will color darker equal to the times you burn the picture(s) on it. The end result is a nice clean disc layout without stickers (that could cause vibrations) or sloppy handwriting. It is actually pretty impressive to see and you can make some interesting labels but it does take quite a bit of time and the media is more expensive.