LightScribe software and disc utilities may be found on a number of public websites.Īs of April 2018, the website returns a 404 error. Thank you for your interest in the LightScribe disc labeling technology. This has been replaced with the following message: As of 26 November 2013, HP's official LightScribe website has been removed. There has yet to be any development of LightScribe Blu-ray discs.Ĭompanies such as HP, Samsung, LaCie and LiteOn have discontinued or are phasing out LightScribe drives as of June 2013 with only LG continuing to manufacturing drives until the manufacturing of LG LightScribe drives was discontinued. Dual Layer DVD+Rs are currently the highest-capacity disc to support the technology. Various brands manufacture the required media. In 2005, LabelFlash became the main competitor for LightScribe. technology had been on the market since 2002, but allows users to burn only to the unused portion of the data side of the disc. It was the first direct to disc labeling technology that allowed users to laser etch images to the label side of a disc. Makarand Gore, and brought to market through the joint design efforts of HP's imaging and optical storage divisions in 2004. LightScribe was conceived by Hewlett-Packard engineer Daryl Anderson, and the coating's chemistry was developed by Dr. (see Thermal printing LightScribe uses a laser instead of a thermal printing head)
The drive's laser then burns the label side in such a way that an image is produced. Before or after burning data to the read-side of the disc, the user turns the disc over and inserts it with the label side down. Special discs and a compatible disc writer are required. The purpose of LightScribe is to allow users to create direct-to-disc labels (as opposed to stick-on labels), using their optical disc writer. In the beginning, the discs were available only in a sepia color but later became available in many monochromatic colors. The LightScribe method uses the laser in a way similar to when plain data are written to the disc a greyscale image of the label is etched (physically burned) onto the upper side of the disc using a laser. Although HP is no longer developing the technology, it is still maintained and supported by a number of independent enthusiasts. It uses specially coated recordable CD and DVD media to produce laser-etched labels with text or graphics, as opposed to stick-on labels and printable discs. LightScribe is an optical disc recording technology that was created by the Hewlett-Packard Company.
Printing technology that writes labels onto special optical discs