Custom cover art for Blu-ray printing thread

[bpmford]

This thread is for everyone who owns Blu-rays that they want to use custom covers for.

EDIT: Thread updated on February 17 2012. My original method of printing has been changed to a much easier method of just using Photoshop!

I will use this thread to give a clear presentation of how I have printed all my covers.

1. The first thing you will want to know is that you need the high quality version of the cover that someone has made on this site or any other sites that provide covers. Some of the other popular ones I use are:

AVS Forums - Blu Ray Custom Covers Thread
Customaniacs - Low priced paid subscription to download
HiResCovers - Great covers, high quality material for making your own
This Site - Blu-Ray custom cover art thread

* Note that Both this site and AVS are provided free, so any covers that members are posting they are doing so without any compensation, so please respect their work and understand if mistakes are made or requests aren't fulfilled right away.
* Please never post covers you got on any site on other as your own, respect the hard work of the creator.

2. Wherever or however you print, ALWAYS make sure your printer is not set to scale the image, or it will not fit properly.

3. Covers are generally sized around 10.3933" x 5.8267". This means that they will fit on a standard 8.5x11 paper, albeit closely fit. If your printer doesn't have a great printing area, it may cut off your cover. For this reason you may want to use legal 11x14 paper if you can to be safe.

4. Now, all computers have a problem printing JPG covers, because they want to re-size the image to fit the page, and never really allow you to choose the size. So, unless you have Adobe Creative Suite, you will need a program like UndercoverXP. This program sizes them properly and other users seem to think it is the best one to use (I don't use it myself tho, because I don't need to!).

5. For those of you that do have Adobe's programs (specifically Photoshop), you can use them to print covers at their actual size.

6. After printing, you will want to use something to cut it, probably not scissors by hand. My recommendation would be a paper cutter if you have access to one, or even a cutting board, exacto knife and ruler if need be. When cutting, make sure you have an empty Blu-ray case with you to put the cover in and make sure it fits properly (it should, the size stated above is slightly smaller than the space in the case for a bit of leeway).

Hope this helps!

I have about 300 custom covers and they all look great, the process isn't hard and well worth it.

Please use this thread to state some of your own methods or ask any questions.

Thank you!

[Beta Man]

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=5822

[Beta Man]

Re-opened.

[Mr. J]

I wish there was a Kinko's in my area!

[jamclaur]

I did all of this when I made a custom CD cover for my Michael Jackson CD and they told me that they couldn't print it since it had a copy-written picture on it. I explained to them that it was for personal use, and that I had taken copy-written pictures and edited them in such a way that it created a new piece of artwork and thus is ok to print.

Anyway, my question is, how do you get them to print your covers? What do you tell them? Or do they just do it because they aren't stupid?

[bpmford]

My InSource (Kinkos) is self-serve, so they aren't sure what I print. Also, the two guys who are always there are pretty cool and don't mind. I have printed hundreds, so I guess it's just a matter of where you go. You aren't the first person to have this problem!

bpm

Originally Posted by jamclaur

I did all of this when I made a custom CD cover for my Michael Jackson CD and they told me that they couldn't print it since it had a copy-written picture on it. I explained to them that it was for personal use, and that I had taken copy-written pictures and edited them in such a way that it created a new piece of artwork and thus is ok to print.

Anyway, my question is, how do you get them to print your covers? What do you tell them? Or do they just do it because they aren't stupid?

[Trip]

I sent a cover via email to Costco and they wouldn't do it... The girl said it was because it had a Blu-Ray logo on it. I tried to tell her that it was a custom cover and she still refused. I took it to Sam's on my USB and the guy did it with no problem, of course, it was too small and wouldn't fit.

Bottom line on printers, YMMV. Some may take issue with it, while others won't. I know that's obvious, but just wanted to pipe in with my .02 on the topic.

[mtugodfath3r]

I have just recently began doing custom covers for all of my blu-rays. I came across a site called 9 Covers (http://www.9covers.com). It costs $20 for a year but there are lots of members who do covers and for me, $20 was well worth it. The site admin personally examines all the covers that are uploaded to make sure they are high quality and meet site specs. Every single cover I have downloaded has looked amazing and they have a great selection. If they don't have what you are looking for, cover requests seem to get filled very quickly as well.

I then realized I had no good way of printing these off however. The printer I have is not good enough to print high quality images and I didn't feel like going out and buying a $200-300 printer and the cost of ink. I searched online for sites like Office Max, Staples and Kinkos but the cost was around $1.00 a page for glossy paper. I then came across a site called http://www.moxicopy.com. When making my order, the copies came out to $0.20 a piece on 80# glossy paper. I did a test batch through them of 5 covers and they came out looking great! I just recently made an order for the 110 covers I had collected for all of my blu-rays and with shipping it was only $22. Their customer service was also very good. On my most recent order, I had forgotten to include 6 covers in the original file I uploaded so I emailed them and was able to get them added with no problem. Lastly, I also requested for them to cut the covers for me and they did that at no additional charge and I couldn't even tell that they had been cut from a full 8.5x11 sheet.

The way I upload all of my covers is using UnderCoverXP which was mentioned in the OP and print to a PDF. I then use a PDF merger and merge all of my covers into one PDF file. The file I uploaded for my large order was over 80 MB but their site had no problem accepting it.

This is all just my own experience and the way I plan on doing custom covers for now on but I feel it is a very easy and cheap way of doing it. I recommend either of these two sites to anyone who is looking to do custom covers.

[gentrycoach]

Anybody know what I could use to print a 25mm 6 disc case cover? I usually use UnderCoverXP but it only has standard blu size. Thanks.

[DrrnHarr]

Does anyone know the dimensions for a 5-disc cover (based on the size of the original "Blade Runner" case).

Thanks.

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by DrrnHarr

Does anyone know the dimensions for a 5-disc cover (based on the size of the original "Blade Runner" case).

Thanks.

I'm not familiar with the case used for that, but the 5-disc Vortex gets pretty close. Its 3300 x 1760 pixels (11" x 5 & 7/8").

[Torgon]

This thread doesn't see much action but thought I'd ask. For printing at home, what is the best paper to use? Would brochure paper work? I've seen it, but it's 48lb, so I don't know. It is the same as premium photo paper by the sounds of it. Any suggestions?

[StevenHostel]

Originally Posted by gentrycoach

Anybody know what I could use to print a 25mm 6 disc case cover? I usually use UnderCoverXP but it only has standard blu size. Thanks.

This is the same problem I have, undercoverxp won't print this size and I wanted to print a Planet of The Apes cover.

[K i r a]

I want to print Custom Criterion covers, and got the measurements needed for a custom profile in Undercover XP.

However, the preview is always distorted, or not scaled to the size and all.

Any solution, or a better program to print them on?

[Moviefan2k4]

I'd actually recommend using legal paper, instead of letter; most printers at FedEx or Kinko's won't do borderless printing. Also, JPEGs can be very tricky, depending on what software the store is using. Mine kept being auto-resized, so I switched to PDFs.

[Mrlovkim]

Originally Posted by Moviefan2k4

I'd actually recommend using legal paper, instead of letter; most printers at FedEx or Kinko's won't do borderless printing. Also, JPEGs can be very tricky, depending on what software the store is using. Mine kept being auto-resized, so I switched to PDFs.

How do you make the jpeg into PDF's?

[bpmford]

Originally Posted by Mrlovkim

How do you make the jpeg into PDF's?

Turning a JPG into a PDF will not retain the JPG quality without more settings. You would need Adobe Acrobat Pro for that.

If you are using UndercoverXP or have Photoshop, a JPG will not try to re-size, it is Windows program that does that.

What do you use to print?

[Mrlovkim]

Originally Posted by bpmford

Turning a JPG into a PDF will not retain the JPG quality without more settings. You would need Adobe Acrobat Pro for that.

If you are using UndercoverXP or have Photoshop, a JPG will not try to re-size, it is Windows program that does that.

What do you use to print?

At my parents for now and they use a Epson workforce 500. I might goto a Kinkos but never used them before.

[alexstone]

Originally Posted by mtugodfath3r

I have just recently began doing custom covers for all of my blu-rays. I came across a site called 9 Covers (http://www.9covers.com). It costs $20 for a year but there are lots of members who do covers and for me, $20 was well worth it. The site admin personally examines all the covers that are uploaded to make sure they are high quality and meet site specs. Every single cover I have downloaded has looked amazing and they have a great selection. If they don't have what you are looking for, cover requests seem to get filled very quickly as well.

I then realized I had no good way of printing these off however. The printer I have is not good enough to print high quality images and I didn't feel like going out and buying a $200-300 printer and the cost of ink. I searched online for sites like Office Max, Staples and Kinkos but the cost was around $1.00 a page for glossy paper. I then came across a site called http://www.moxicopy.com. When making my order, the copies came out to $0.20 a piece on 80# glossy paper. I did a test batch through them of 5 covers and they came out looking great! I just recently made an order for the 110 covers I had collected for all of my blu-rays and with shipping it was only $22. Their customer service was also very good. On my most recent order, I had forgotten to include 6 covers in the original file I uploaded so I emailed them and was able to get them added with no problem. Lastly, I also requested for them to cut the covers for me and they did that at no additional charge and I couldn't even tell that they had been cut from a full 8.5x11 sheet.

The way I upload all of my covers is using UnderCoverXP which was mentioned in the OP and print to a PDF. I then use a PDF merger and merge all of my covers into one PDF file. The file I uploaded for my large order was over 80 MB but their site had no problem accepting it.

This is all just my own experience and the way I plan on doing custom covers for now on but I feel it is a very easy and cheap way of doing it. I recommend either of these two sites to anyone who is looking to do custom covers.

Coverxp is good. Today we can find different label software for different tastes. Lightscribe, expressit, dvd label software. Also cool design could be created in photoshop, but the main disadvantage it`s too expensive, You also could use trial version but only for 20 days

[A Sith Lord?]

Anyone know what's the "best" paper to use for printing? I'm making custom criterion covers so I want the paper quality to be nice, but at the same time not be outrageously expensive.