I record a lot of music at sessions and store it all on CDs. I use the ZEN software to make my CD covers but it’s very basic and offers just one type of cover design. I want to be a little more creative with my covers and am wondering does anyone know the best site that offers free CD cover design downloads. Thanks for any help on this.
I’m not sure I understand, lilt. Do you want to make CD labels to stick to the CDs, or CD covers (what I, a Yank, take to mean the jewel-case or a sleeve). And I’m afraid I’m not familiar with ZEN software, but a quick search turns up a program intended to aid the sight impaired. Is this a requirement? Are you looking for templates to download and modify?
Adobe Photoshop is a great Mac-based graphic program for creating any kind of art, including typography and photography. I don’t know but there is probably a cross-platform version for PCs, certainly a PC analog. I make a lot of home-made CD covers, the standard jewel-case size is 4.75 inches / 120mm square.
http://www.coverxp.com/main.asp
is handy for designing CD/DVD covers. Pop in an image and it will resize it as required. Plenty of templates available. Free version is fine
MMcC
Sorry for not clarifying. It’s the jewel-case cover I’m after, not the CD label. The ZEN software I referred to is the software that came with the Creative ZEN mp3 player/recorder I use. I also record with the Fostex MR8-HD. Thanks for all the help you guys have given me so far. I’m off to check out those sites now. Míle buíochas!
I’ve used the website that is listed on the paper I buy, Avery is the brand name.
CorelDraw. It’s a graphics package. It doesn’t do CD covers especially, but I use it do do so. The cheapest option for the application is Corel Essentials, which is CorelDraw & CorelPaint. CorelPaint is a bit like PaintShop. CorelDraw is for graphics and technical drawing. One of the “Pencil” options is for measured lines, so you can draw a line and make sure it is exactly the right length. I use this to create a template of exactly the right size for a Jewel Box, import an image, if I want, and format the lettering. Corel comes with five hundred fonts, which you don’t have to install unless you want them all. It also has half a dozen music fonts, and it’s a good way of setting up sheet music, although it can be tedious. The free version of Finalé won’t do all the thing I want it to. One day I might pay money for it, but in the meantime I can format my sheet music exactly how I want.
A word of caution - a couple of years ago I was looking for exactly this function, and loaded a new bit of software for it. It b*ggered up my existing installs so that the CD creator software stopped working 🙁 Had to uninstall it, uninstall the original software package then reinstall what I had in the first place.
And I also had Avery’s “CD label creator pro supreme, top notch, my we’re the best programmers we know”, or some such excessively self praising title. It was the worst piece of sh*t software I had ever seen. It came free with the labels, and wasn’t worth it even at that price.
Eno
Sorry, got carried away a bit there…