Verbatim Intros New Disc Labels

Charlotte, N.C. — LightScribe ink, CD and DVD discs developed by Verbatim and Hewlett-Packard will be sold in the United States early in 2005. When combined with a LightScribe-enabled drive, consumers can use the same laser that burned data to the disc to make a distinctive-looking label for the other side of the disc.

Currently, disc content descriptions can only be written directly on the disc by hand with a marker, and artwork can only be printed onto labels and then affixed to the discs or printed directly onto the discs with specialized disc printers.

Verbatim's LightScribe discs are compatible with the LightScribe-enabled drives made by HP. Although LightScribe features have been added, the discs also are compatible with all current CD and DVD standards.

With LightScribe-enabled CD and DVD drives, titles and artwork can be printed directly on Verbatim LightScribe CD and DVD discs with the drive's laser pickup.

First-generation discs will be monochrome, while second generation will be able to accept multicolor printing.

Verbatim is shipping 1x to 16x speed DVD+R media. The write-once media can be used at all recording speeds between 1x and 16x.

The company also is shipping its digital CD photo album, a new all-in-one digital photo kit that includes everything consumers need to import digital photos, create slide shows, burn them to CDs, produce label artwork and store the CDs in an album. The album includes software for organizing and burning slide shows. It also includes a 10-pack spindle of Verbatim 2x to 4x rewritable CD-RW discs, the Touchless label kit and 20 labels, as well as a photo album that stores up to 40 recorded discs.