DVD Label Dimensions

I am now going to be doing some research on the dimensions of the DVD disc label. Doing this will allow me to know what the average size is of the label, allowing to see what kind of ideas I could work with in order to create my design. For instance it will allow me to see what kind of sized pictures I will be able to work with etc.

I have found an image on the internet about the dimensions of the DVD label. This image has just reminded me of things I must remember when creating and designing my DVD label; which is the dimensions of the stacking ring and the hub. So, when I am adding pictures onto the disc I have to remember that if this was to be printed out professionally then there will be a gap in the middle to make way for the dimensions of the stacking ring and hub. Meaning that I have to make sure that the parts I do not want will need to be placed there so that they can be removed and not the parts I wish to keep.

So, according to the image, I will need to create fours circle guides for my design. Each of these will be different sizes. The first two guides are to represents the sizes of the hub (which is the actual hole within the DVD/CD) and the stacking ring (which is a little piece of plastic thicker than the DVD/CD so that it stops two discs rubbing and scratching each other). The third guide is the actual ending size of the label is almost like the safety line and the fourth size acts like a bleed line for the design.

DVD Label Dimensions

Now I am going to be creating these measurements as guides for my design. So, to start I will open the program and create a new document by going to File > New. This will then bring up the new document menu. Here I am able to enter the size of the document I wish to create. At this point in time I will create a document which is 130 x 130mm tall and wide within the width and height boxes on the menu. I choose 130 because I felt that I did not really want to create a lot of work space which would be wasted later on. However, if I found that I need more space that I can adjust the size of the document later on in the course of creating the design. Next I went into the advance settings at the bottom of the menu by clicking on the little arrow next to advanced. I then changed the colour to mode to RBG. I changed it to RBG as mentioned previously in the blog post about the dimensions of the Amaray case because this is the colour mode which is used by monitors which is the reason why I am using it. Also, as mentioned before, if I was to get this printed out professionally the print companies would convert it for me to the CMYK colour mode for me. I have also changed the resolution settings to the highest in the Raster Effects. This will then allow me to have the highest resolution Illustrator has to offer.

New Document

 I then clicked OK and the document will be created and will look like this.

Blank Document Created

 Now my blank document has been created it is now time to add the guides onto the document. First of all I am going to adding Rulers to the document. To do this I went to View > Rulers > Show Rulers. This will show the rulers in view on the top of the documents and on the left hand side of the document, I had to change the units thought to the ones I am working with which is millimeters. To do this I right clicked on one of the rulers and selected Millimeters. Now the rulers are in place I can start.

To start this I wanted to create two guides. These guides will be straight lines, one horizontal and one vertical. These two lines will come in handy later on when creating the circle guides. But first of all, I want these guides to join directly in the middle and for that I need to create the two lines so that they are directly in the middle of the document. So, I dis this by dragging a guide from the rulers and putting them into place.

There are two ways in which I could do this. The first way was to open the Info panel to do this I went to Window > Info. Doing this will open a little window. The info window allows you to see where about you are going to be placing an object, such as how many units left, right, up and down you are. The only problem when using this is that you have to have a very steady hand and be very good at using the mouse for this.

The other way is to use the transform box which is located underneath the  navigation bar. This is the method I had used to re locate the guides, because it is more accurate than just using the mouse and the info box as a guide. All you have to do is enter the measurement of where you want the guide to be located and it is placed there automatically for you.

 After placing both guides and entering the X and Y axis of the guides here is the results so far.

Horizontal and Vertical Guides added to the Document

 Now to add the actual dimensions of the DVD label. I will start by selecting the Ellipse Tool this tool is located under the rectangle tool. I am using the ellipse tool because this tool will be able to help me get the perfect circle for the guide. So, here is where the vertical and horizontal line comes into play. If I hold down the Alt button on the keyboard and click on the center of the two lines it will come up a menu box (this is not what the lines are use for, I will explain in a minute). This menu box allows you to enter the dimensions of the ellipse, so, I will start with the first dimentions which will be the biggest. So, I entered into the box 125.mm x 125.5mm and clicked OK. The circle will now be drawn and centered, this is why I held down the alt key. This allowed me to make the circle so it goes out from the center of document.

Here is what it looks like so far.

Circle Drawn with Ellipse Tool

Now to make this circle as a guide. I did this by selecting the circle created and right clicked on it. I then moved em mouse over the to the option make guide. When I clicked this and then clicked of the circle it has made it into a guide, you can tell because it will be the same turquoise colour as the horizontal and vertical guides you created earlier.

Circle made into a Guide

I then repeated these steps for all of the other circular measurements till I have all the required measurements. You can delete the lines as they are no longer required, however, I have kept them in case I wanted something symetrical in my design, or I wanted something exactly half and half etc.

Here is the completed DVD label guide.

DVD label Guide Completed