Thanks to the kind folks at Dymo, they sent along a Dymo DiscPainter for review. I decided to take my time, get to know the printer, compare it to my other disc labeling hardware like my internal LightScribe drive in PC, Avery Ink Jet disc labels, and of course my all-time favorite disc labeling “tool”… my trusty Sharpie permanent marker that I’ve been using for years.

After over a week of rigorously using the Dymo DiscPainter… I have a new favorite.

Enter the Dymo DiscPainter. It’s no bigger than a small shoebox; with a higher back part that conceals ink cartridge. In fact, I’ll have to admit it sorta looks like a mixture of the Atari Jaguar CD and a toilet stool.

Ok, bad jokes aside. Inside the box, you’ll find the typical things… USB connector, power supply, software, a few blank printable CD-R’s, a Dymo ink jet cartridge and a “Quick Start” pamphlet. I started this install originally in Vista then moved over to my aging Mac. Both systems installed in a relatively quick time, prompted me to register on the first start up of the software; I was up and running from disc install to print in less than 10 minutes.

Things could have gone a tad bit faster if I had realized that I had to add the printer to list of installed printers on the machine before trying to print a disc. That small part should be common sense; however it is a very small omission from the instructions that might confuse a few if they don’t logically think things through.

So manually flip open the bottom part of the printer, the part with the clear acrylic window, and pop in a printable CD face up, data side down and then open up the Discus application in order to start the printing process. The application, on both Vista and Mac looks surprisingly the same.

Open up the application (here’s the fullsized image from above), choose a template or create your own from your own images: jpg, png, bmp, among a few others. In this example, I used a 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels at 72dpi Photoshop document that I had created a while back for a calendar image, exported out to *.png.

The Discus for Dymo application also includes the ability to add filenames via iTunes, (Mac) Toast, Dragon Burn or even adding/synchronizing via tab delimited files. On Vista, it picked up my iTunes application, and offered to import filenames from iTunes or a tab delimited file to allow printing of those aforementioned filenames on the face of the CD.

In goes a blank white, printable CD-R and the process is surprisingly fast. If you’re a LightScribe user, you know that once you up the quality to high, and just use text and perhaps a high-contrast image, it can take upwardly to 18 minutes just to “print” using LightScribe and that’s not including burning the disc. By average, a picture via the Dymo DiscPainter at the best quality took about 3 minutes, tops. Seriously… 3 minutes. And it’s totally dry, huggable touchable once you take it out.

So… remember that trusty ol’ Sharpie permanent pen that you probably are still using like I used to?

Perfect each time too. Much unlike the messy Avery labels that require that applicator that haphazardly presses a disc down onto a label that sometimes might leave unsightly bubbles under the label - no matter how hard you press down, you still might get a bubble or two. And in a slot loaded drive, that’s something that might get stuck on entry or ejection. And the labels sometimes separate from the disc even while laying around… creating a sticky, nasty mess. Needless to say, printing directly onto a disc alleviates the fear of label separation.

The cons? There’s always a few.

The printer capacity is only one disc at a time. There is no stack loading, no way to just print and forget about it. If you’re used to burning discs in your internal drives, this is not any different. Another minus would be the fact that you’re likely going to be buying more cartridges very soon, and they’re not normally in your Walmart or the such. But the cartridges are at your favorite online places like Amazon and B&H Photo, as well as the Dymo website among others.

The fact that the drive is not internal could be seen as a negative as well. And it will add another USB and plug-in to the wall socket as well. So if you’re a geek like me - printer, VoIP phone, printer, iPhone and charger, external USB hard drives (three of them), and a charger for my OQO 01+… not including the charger for the rechargeable batteries for my mouse… no wonder my electric bill stays high! - you get the point. Just keep that in mind if you have a cluttered desk already.

All in all, the Dymo DiscPainter is worth every penny for a printer only. There’s no optical burner; however this is a full-color printer mind you. No longer do I have to try to read my horrible writing (see image above) and my discs are nice and labeled.

Despite the one at a time method attached to the Dymo DiscPainter, it’s a recommended buy if you’re a disc backing up fool like I am. Perhaps for once I can locate a disc by sight alone now. And with the software abilities to add filenames from other 3rd party applications like iTunes and other applications, that level of integration makes even my rigorous backup routine fun, colorful and easy to sort out at a later date. Check out the Dymo website for more information.

Recommended.