When it comes to Compact Discs, there is no shortage of options for packaging. In fact, there is an almost endless selection of packaging choices - from the most cost-effective sleeves to those elaborate custom cases and designs that can really make your CD project stand out from the crowd. CD sleeves and cases are available in a wide variety of materials and configurations such as plastic, polypropelene, cardboard, tyvec, paper and even metal! This website brings together as many of these packaging choices as possible in one convenient place, making it easier (much easier) to choose the perfect packaging style for your CD project. Where possible, we provide images and details and information on where to find the packaging. Whether you are searching for the perfect CD album package for your band’s CD, or if you’re scouring the web for a unique solution for your next trade show or event, chances are you’ll find what you are looking for at cdpackagingchoices.com. Contents: CD Jewel Cases Multi-disc Jewel Cases Slipcases and O-Cases for Jewel Boxes CD Digipaks CD Euro-Packs Cardboard Sleeves for CDs Enviro Friendly CD Packaging Poly Case Options (polypropelene or PP cases) Paper and Tyvek Sleeves for CDs Vinyl Sleeves for CDs Unique CD Packaging Choices - metal tins, custom packaging, holographic paper What is a Spindle, Cake Box, and what is “bulk” wrapping? Table 1: CD Jewel Case Front Insert Styles   Jewel Case Front Insert   Folding Style   Picture   1 panel (also called 2 pg or 2pp) No Folds – single sheet 2 panel (also called 4 pg or 4pp) Folds once 3 panel (also called 6 pg or 6pp) Roll Fold (folds twice) 4 panel (also called 8 pg or 8pp) Accordion Fold 4 panel (also called 8 pg or 8pp) Double Parallel Fold 4 panel (also called 8 pg or 8pp) Gate Fold 4 panel (also called 8 pg or 8pp) Roll Fold 4 panel (also called 8 pg or 8pp) Poster Fold 5 panel (also called 10 pg or 10pp) Wraparound Fold 5 panel (also called 10 pg or 10pp) Accordian Fold 5 panel (also called 10 pg or 10pp) Gate Fold 5 panel (also called 10 pg or 10pp) Roll Fold 6 panel (also called 12 pg or 12pp) Roll Fold 6 panel (also called 12 pg or 12pp) Accordion Fold 6 panel (also called 12 pg or 12pp) Poster Fold 8 panel (also called 16 pg or 16pp) Poster Fold 8 panel (also called 16 pg or 16pp) Poster Fold 9 panel (also called 18 pg or 18pp) Poster Fold 12 panel (also called 24pg or 24pp) Poster Fold 12 panel (also called 24pg or 24pp) Poster Fold 8-page Booklet Saddle-Stitched 12-page Booklet Saddle-Stitched 16-page Booklet Saddle-Stitched 20-page Booklet Saddle-Stitched 24-page Booklet Saddle-Stitched 28-page Booklet Saddle-Stitched Table 2: CD Digipaks   Digi-pak Style   Digi-pak Picture   4-Panel Digipak Styles– hold 1 disc 4-Panel Digipak – holds 2 discs 6-Panel Digipak – holds 1 disc 6-Panel Digipaks that hold 2 discs 6-Panel Digipak that hold 3 discs! 8-Panel Digi paks! Our Sponsors: CD Packaging Options We offer custom solutions and Carry hundreds of CD cases www.microforum.ca Packaging for CDs Jewel Cases, Sleeves, Unique and specialty items www.mediars.com Digital Music Download Cards A new way to sell Music! Physical card with Your Music! www.isongcard.com CD Jewel Cases      CD Jewel Cases sometimes referred to as CD Jewelry boxes or Jewel outer box, and the tray. The outer box is always clear and manufactured out of a hard plastic resin. The inner tray can be purchased in a variety of colors, with the most common options being black, white and clear.      The standard jewel case is 5 9/16” wide, 4 7/8” tall and has a spine width of 3/8”. The jewel case is designed to hold a front insert (which can have multiple configurations as outlined in the next section) and a traycard (the insert that sits underneath the tray in the case and wraps around to both spines). The standard jewel case can be easily adapted to hold 2 discs by replacing the standard single tray with a swing-tray that holds one disc on the front and a second disc on the back.      The front insert of the jewel box can be designed to a number of standard styles / templates. The following table will break this down for you, complete with industry standard terminology and a picture (see Table 1: CD Jewel Case Front Insert Styles)      The traycard (sometimes called a Tray Liner, or Tray insert) is inserted under neath the tray that holds the CD. It can be printed one side (if using a black or white tray) or it can be clear (if printing on both sides of the traycard). The traycard looks like the picture in FIGURE A. Because the traycard sits below the CD, the Consumer typically never handles it. It is essentially trapped under the tray. This tray can be removed by gently bending the corners of the jewel case (if the traycard needs to be removed). Figure A: Traycard Back to top Multi-disc Jewel Cases      To Accommodate multi-disc sets, jewel cases are available in Multi-disc formats (also known as Quad Cases, or Fat Packs). Multi-disc Jewel Cases can accommodate anywhere from 2 discs to 6 discs per case (i.e. up to 7.5 hours of music in one fat pack jewel case!). These multi-disc jewel cases are just under 1” thick, so they are approx 2.5 times the width of a standard regular jewel case.      IMPORTANT! Fat Pack (multi-disc) jewel cases are designed to accommodate 2 traycards (see Figure A) – one traycard acts as the front of the package and the second traycard becomes the back of the package! An additional insert or booklet can be included, but this additional insert must be inserted inside the case and will not be visible from the outside of the case.      Typical Configurations for the “Fat Pack” Multi-CD Jewel Cases Holds 2 discs – Has 2 standard trays only to hold 2 discs Holds 3 discs – Has 2 standard trays PLUS one disc in the Center Piece Holds 4 discs – Has 2 standard trays PLUS two discs in the Center Piece (one on each side) Holds 5 discs – Has 1 Swing tray (2 CDs), 1 Standard Tray plus two discs in the Center Piece Holds 6 discs – Has 2 swing trays (2 CDs ea. times 2) and 2 discs in the Center Piece. Back to top Slipcases and O-Cards for Jewel Boxes      To add additional marketing appeal to your CD project, you can use Cardboard cases which can slip over your jewel case. These slip cases can also be made to fit multiple jewel cases to produce a “box set” or can be designed to fit over a multi-disc jewel case. Cardboard Slipcases and O-cards can be used to make your CD stand out from the crowd.      An O-Card (sometimes called an O-case, or O-slip case) gets its name from its top profile. It is open like a tube and the jewel case would slide right into the opening, covering the front, the back and the spines of the cases. The O-Case would be open on the top and on the bottom, so the jewel case can slide in and out. A Slip Case is similar to an O-Case, except at least one of the two ends of the case is closed with a flap.      Slipcases and O-Cards are typically made of Cardboard that is coated on one side (i.e. the side being printed on). The Cardboard allows more creative leverage to add elements to the design that would otherwise not be possible, such as Embossing, Foil Stamping, and High UV Glosses to achieve a unique product look. Primarily though, these cases are used for Box-sets and Special Musical Compilations that contain multiple discs. Back to top CD Digipaks      Digipaks (also known as Digi-packs, Digipacks, or Digi-Paks) have gained popularity in the past several years. The audio business was once a jewel-case-dominated industry, but the digipak has become a competitive option to the common jewel case. Digipaks were historically more expensive than jewel cases. However, with advances in equipment and automation technologies, that price gap has been bridged considerably. Digipaks are now priced much more competitively with jewel case products. A CD Digipak is the same overall size as a standard CD jewel case, except it is made mostly from printed Cardboard with a plastic tray glued to the inside of the case to hold a CD. Digipaks are considered to be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases (since jewel cases are made entirely from plastic, where Digipaks use far less of the resource).      Digipaks are available in a variety of different configurations, including multi-disc varieties and multi-panel. There are also Digipaks with pockets to hold additional printed inserts inside. Most Digipaks have a clear tray (also known as a CD Digitray or CD Digi-tray) that is glued to the cardboard artwork to maximize the print area by allowing the print underneath the tray to be visible, but the digitrays are also available in a variety of colors (black trays and white trays being the most prevalent and common colored trays, after the clear tray). Back to top Europaks      There is one distinct esthetic drawback with the Digipack that some artists found to be limiting… The inside of the digipack, due to design limitations, cannot be designed with one large image that spanned all the panels. The reason is primarily because a digipak’s panels are folded down and glued, which creates interruptions (white gaps) between the panels. A 4-panel digipack has 1 white gap between the 2 inside panels, a 6-panel digipak has 2 white gaps between the inside panels, etc, etc. Although some designers have tried to mitigate this issue by printing on the reverse side of the board, it is virtually impossible to get the artwork to align and match.      This is where the Europak comes in! (It is also known as the Europack, Euro-pack or Euro-pak.) The Europak is very similar to the Digipak in the overall look, but the board is printed on both sides and does not contain gaps in the design. This allows an artist to print a continuous image along the inside panels without any interruptions.      The other main difference between the Digipak and the Europak is the stock used. Since the panels in a digipak are folded down and glued to each other, the Digipak is commonly manufactured with a 15pt thickness stock (when the 2 panels are glued together, each panel will have the look and feel equivalent to 30pt). The Europak’s does not have double-thick panels like a Digipak, hence a 24pt stock is usually used for Europak manufacturing. Back to top Table 3: Cardboard Sleeves   Cardboard Style   Picture   2-Panel Cardboard Sleeves that hold 1 disc 4-Panel Cardboard Sleeves that hold 1 disc 4-Panel Cardboard Sleeves that hold 2 discs 6-Panel Cardboard Sleeves that hold 1 disc 6-Panel Cardboard Sleeves that hold 2 discs 6-Panel Cardboard Sleeves that hold 3 discs 8-panel Cardboard Sleeves Specialty Cardboard Sleeves Cardboard Sleeves for CDs      The Jewel Case, the Digipak, and the Europak all use plastic in their designs. In an attempt to reduce plastic polycarbonate use in packaging, several manufacturers offer cardboard-only designs. These cardboard designs hold the discs in cardboard pockets instead of using plastic trays. Popular for some time for use in Corporate CDs and Album singles, these cardboard sleeves have also been used more frequently for full album releases as an environmentally conscious choice. Cardboard sleeves come in a variety of styles and are most commonly manufactured with a 15pt cardboard stock thickness (although other thicknesses such as 10pt, 12pt and 14pt can also be used to manufacture these sleeves). Back to top Enviro Friendly CD Packaging      There is no shortage of Environmentally-friendly packaging for CDs and DVDs (also known as enviro-packaging, enviropacks, ecopacks, ecopaks and enviropaks) Environmentally-friendly packaging should offer less plastic, and should use paper or cardboard that comes from either recycled sources or from certified forest-managed cources. At the minimum, Enviro Packaging should provide at least three (preferably more) of the following advantages: 1. A reduction in the amount of non-recyclable waste that ends up in land fills. 2. An increase in the amount of recycled content used in manufacturing the package 3. A reduction in production waste (also known as run-up, running-up, or press setup) during the print process setup. 4. A reduction in toxins and chemicals used in the printing/manufacturing process, particularly toxins that are known or suspected to accumulate in the environment. 5. A reduction in energy used during the manufacturing process (such as an energy efficient press).      You can ask your CD manufacturer about their manufacturing process to find out how much of the above criteria they can meet.      Topping the list of the MOST enviro-friendly packaging for CDs is the all-cardboard sleeve which contains no plastic parts, printed on 100% PCW (post consumer waste) cardstock. After this, the digipak (or europak) would be the next best choice (printed on 100% PCW stock) because it does contain some plastic in the CD tray. The jewel case (still the most widely used packaging option for CDs) is, unfortunately, the least enviro-friendly choice comprised entirely of plastic. Back to top Poly Case Options (polypropelene or PP cases)      A major drawback in the use of jewel cases for distribution is that these cases are made of hard brittle plastic that could break with an impact. Jewel Cases tend to break or crack particularly at certain weak points, like the hinges and the disc holding mechanism. Cases made of polypropelene (also known as poly cases, or PP cases) are made of a soft plastic which is similar to the type of plastic used in dvd movie case manufacturing. These cd-sized poly cases are alternatives to the jewel case which are less prone to cracking during shipping and distribution. The poly cases typically accommodate a wraparound slip sheet for the cover art, and can accommodate printed inserts inside the case as well. Back to top Paper and Tyvek Sleeves for CDs      Paper and tyvek sleeves are some of the most cost-effective packaging options for CDs. These are typically generic sleeves with a clear cellophane window (to allow the disc face to be seen when the disc is inserted) and a flap. They come in a variety of colours, but white is the most popular and widely used. Back to top Vinyl Sleeves for CDs      Vinyl sleeves are typically made of clear or frosted vinyl and come in a variety of styles, including sleeves that fit in binders, peel-and-stick sleeves, and standard pocket sleeves available with or without a flap. Back to top Unique CD Packaging Choices - metal tins, custom packaging, holographic paper      There are many options available to help make your CD project stand out. There is an infinite selection of custom paper and cardboard stocks to give your CD a unique look – such as Kraft board, holographic stock, and linen papers to name a few. You can choose custom paper or custom board for your jewel case inserts, digipaks, europaks or cardboard sleeves. However, choosing a non-standard stock can run up your project cost significantly. If cost is not a concern, it is even possible to create a custom, unique packaging style out of cardboard. A custom template can be created to bring just about any vision to reality (but be prepared for custom template and dieline fees if you choose this route!).      Other unique options, such as metal CD containers (also called CD Tins), can even be printed with a logo or message to add additional sophistication to your CD project. Back to top What is a Spindle, Cake Box, and what is “bulk” wrapping?      A spindle is allot like a skewer that holds CDs, typically in lots of 50 or 100. A Cake box is the same as a spindle, but with the addition of a protective outer cover which locks into the base to provide added protection. “Bulk” wrapping refers to a particular type of CD packaging in cartons where the CDs are shrink-wrapped in bundles of 100 and placed in cartons for shipping (without sleeves or cases). Back to top Copyright ® 2010 cdpackagingchoices.com. All Rights Reserved.