Expert: Glen Demers - 11/15/2011

Question
QUESTION: I create my own music CDs and then bring them to a duplicating company. The company has templates on their website but unfortunately I have been using the wrong program in preparing the text for the CD labels and jacket, so the stuff I bring in has been unusable. Photoshop is too expensive for me and I use an iMac, system 10.6.4. I am assuming (maybe incorrectly?) that I cannot
paste my computer stuff directly into those templates. Is there a program out there that I could use to enable me to input into those templates?

ANSWER: Hi David,

It all depends on the templates, you should be able to paste text from TextEdit into them if they are online templates as well as upload images into them. Without knowing what website you're dealing with I'd only be guessing.

Photoshop is primarily for image manipulation. For creating a professional CD jacket you should use a page layout or drawing program such as InDesign, QuarkXpress, Illustrator, FreeHand, Xara Designer Pro or Serif PagePlus.

Hope this helps,

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Maybe this might help - here is the website for the templates I am referring to:
http://www.hollywooddisc.com/templates.php

Again, what I am trying to figure out is - what program do I need (other than Photoshop) to input into those templates. It seems that I cannot just input from my computer without a special program.
Or, if Photoshop is the only solution, can I just get parts of the Photoshop program? Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi David,

The templates are Photoshop documents but you can open them in Preview or any other photo manipulation program or they can be placed as guides in InDesign or Quark.

You can buy Photoshop Elements but the printer asks for CMYK files and I don't think Elements can handle that. Any program that allows you to export the file as a pdf, jpg or tiff file will work, just use their template as a guide and hide or delete it before exporting.

Hope this helps,

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I'm really not understanding this. I was able to save one of the templates as a PDF but there is no way to input information into that PDF. Also not able to input into the template itself, which is a .psd document. I'm having trouble understanding your statement "Any program that allows you to export the file as a pdf, jpg or tiff file will work, just use their template as a guide and hide or delete it before exporting." When you say "use their template as a guide" what does that mean if I can't input anything?

Answer
Their template is only a guide to use when creating the CD cover. You have to use another program to create your art. If you have Pages on your iMac you can use that or any of the programs I mentioned.
The template only shows you what size to make your file, where to extend the bleeds to and where to keep your "live" matter. The template is not made to input anything to and should not be part of the final art submitted to the printer.