The last desktop PC I bought had a LightScribe CD/DVD writer. This is really a neat idea. I was never really one for printing labels for CDs and just wrote on them with a permanent marker pen. A colleague who used to print labels for backup CDs eventually gave up when the labels begun peeling off after several months. Since I’ve had this LightScribe writer I’ve printed a number of labels.

The way LightScribe works is that instead of having to print paper labels for your CDs or DVDs, once you have burned the CD or DVD, you just turn the disk over, pop it back into the writer and burn a label on the special surface area on the label side of the disk. Of course, you need special LightScribe writable media to do this, as well as a LightScribe compatible writer. The CD and DVD media have been coming down in price and are often on sale.

If you do not have a LightScribe Writer, internal or external ones are easy to come by, like the internal LG Electronics LG 20X DVDR DVD Burner with LightScribe or the External LaCie d2 External Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer with LightScribe.