UV print has totally revolutionized how you can design your cassette releases. You no longer need to limit yourself to one or two colours, you have the entire CMYK spectrum to choose from when designing your masterpiece. Even better, with Full Body UV print you can design artwork on the raised edges and bottom hub area of the cassette shell, doing away with the constraints found in sticker labels and pad print! Our template includes knockout layers for the hubs and window, that way ink will not seep inside of the shell.
What makes UV print pop on cassette is the white base coating applied before your artwork, which stops the ink from being absorbed by the plastic shell, especially with darker shell colours. However, when you don’t apply the white base, you instead get a semi-transparent effect, wherein you can see the artwork but light can still shine through with transparent shells – very similar to stained glass!
With transparent shells you can sidestep the white base coating to also achieve a visible reverse print. Here’s an example by Monster Piece, released by Sly Vinyl Records, where you can see the reverse image of the Side B artwork by looking through Side A. This gives a sense of perspective and distance, as if the moon is in the background and the howling werewolf in the foreground. The B-side will show the artwork in its correct orientation as provided by the artist.
Omitting the white base coating for a stained glass effect or reverse print is available by request! Just add UV Full Body print to your cassette order and let us know your desired effect in the ‘notes’ section of your order.
When you put in a cassette order you want the finished product to look its absolute best. Following these steps not only makes our job easier, but it will ensure that your pad print will look just as gorgeous as intended. First you’ll need to place your order on our cassette duplication calculator, then we can get started!
DESIGNING YOUR ARTWORK
1) Download our latest template
There are a few things to consider when designing pad print artwork for your order. First, what kind of shell have you chosen? Our templates have layers for opaque tapes, clear/windowless, and shells with square hub windows.
Each template has useful information about designing artwork that is unique to each type of cassette shell chosen, so be sure to check if we have updated templates available with every order and follow the directions contained in the file!
2) Applications
First and foremost, we highly recommend you send us vector artwork, so you should be using applications such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw to design vector logos and line text. Graphic design applications such as Adobe Photoshop or GiMP can be used, but bitmapped images will be subject to additional fees.
MEET THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
1) Vector Artwork
We now require vector artwork for pad print. It helps us achieve finer lines with a fraction of the platemaking time. It’s best to create artwork as a vector image, but we recognize that sometimes images are sourced from bitmap files or hand drawings. Outside of CorelDraw and Illustrator, there are freeware websites that allow you to upload your image and they will trace the outlines to convert to a vector file. The results will vary and often depend on the complexity and quality of your source material. Some websites have more options than others, so be prepared for trial and error tweaking until you’re satisfied. Further tweaking can be done in programs like Illustrator, PhotoPea, or even Photoshop.
Difference in quality between bitmap (left) and vector (right)
If you cannot retrace your images or convert to vector, we will be able to do it for a small fee. Bitmap images are also subject to a fee as they can take up to 20x as long to print the plate.
2) Grayscale
Regardless of your chosen ink colour, make sure your artwork is done in black. If you requested 2-colour pad print you’ll need to have each colour artwork in its own layer. The layers should be properly titled with their colour name (ex. one layer would be titled ‘Red’ and the other ‘Blue’). Again, regardless of the desired ink colour, each layer artwork must appear black.
3) Resolution
A low resolution can cause the finished product to look pixelated and of poor quality. If you are using Photoshop or your own template, ensure the dimensions and resolution are 4331 x 4331 pixels wide at 1000 ppi. Please note that resolution isn’t applicable when working with vector art.
4) Creating Outlines for Text
Often times we will receive a file with missing fonts, which means your meticulously curated typeface design will revert to a basic font style when we open the artwork file. But there’s an easy solution to this– simply Create Outlines for your text!
All you need to do is select your text, then navigate to the Type menu and select Create Outlines. The same can be done in Photoshop by selecting your text with the Direct Selection Tool and clicking on Convert to Shape in the Type menu. Avoid using faux font styling as it may not convert properly.
5) Line Thickness
When you’re designing your artwork, you’ll want to keep an eye on line thickness. In order to ensure that your art will be visible when printed you’ll want your artwork lines to be at least 0.15 points thick. This is about the equivalent thickness of very fine hair. Anything less than 0.15 points risks not being visible on the final printed cassette. This applies to text as well.
Moreover, the knockout, gaps, or empty space between artwork also has to be a minimum of 0.5 points thick to properly print, otherwise there is the risk of ink running and filling up the empty space. Please make sure all empty space is at least 0.5 points thick to avoid spreading ink.
Zooming in shows that the select horizontal area is 0.1 points thick.
An illustrated breakdown of line thickness.
6) Mind the Gap
Depending on the type of shell you have chosen, there are areas you cannot print on. For example, there are two holes in every cassette shell which obviously cannot be printed on! Solid coloured shells, certain select clear shells, and square window shells have a recessed window in the center which can distort artwork, especially text. If you are uncertain about the type of shell you have chosen for your artwork, contact your sales representative!
An example of areas where the artwork will not print.
7) Tell Your Sales Representative
Make sure that your sales representative knows exactly what your order needs, as there may be a price difference. If you want the A and B sides printed, it is “pad print two sides” on the cassette duplication calculator. If you just want the A side printed, it is “pad print one side.” If you’d like the exact same art on both sides, it is “pad print same art both sides.“
Once your artwork is complete and uploaded, let your sales representative know! They will double check your artwork to make sure it is compatible before sending it through to our pad print department. If you have any questions, be sure to reach out to them! They are happy to help!
Who can forget the feeling of walking through the video store, strolling from aisle to aisle, trying to find the perfect VHS tape to watch that night? Sure, streaming services offer us thousands of options, but gone is the ritual of popping in a physically tactile VHS, an object which gives a film respect and purpose not unlike what an audio cassette or vinyl does for music.At Duplication.ca you can get your film or video project duplicated on VHS with full packaging, thus giving your work the attention it deserves!
Modern VHS releases are a wonderful medium because they aren’t just limited to feature-length releases, but a whole gamut of audio/visual projects. Music video compilations, short films, vaporwave visuals, live gigs, just to name a few. As a filmmaker or a musician you can sell your work online or at the merch table at a screening or performance, rather than navigate the film festival or streaming distribution circuit.
Not only do our dubbed VHS tapes look excellent, our print and packaging are of superb quality. Printed cardboard sleeves are in full colour CMYK with your choice of digital or offset press. The sleeves snuggly fit the video cassette without being too tight or loose. You can even add glossy AQ coating for an additional fee if you want it to feel silky smooth and shine against the light.
Another packaging option are our clear plastic library cases, which contain an overlay film so you can add a printed wraparound sheet for artwork. Since the cases are clear, you can even request double-sided printing for extra artwork or notes! Sticker face labels and spine labels can be added to both the library cases and printed cardboard sleeves.
Do you have the equipment to duplicate your own VHS tapes? Then we have everything you need to DIY analog style! We received a restock of blank VHS tapes, with a wide variety of lengths and brands to fit your needs, including some superb quality S-VHS tapes and economy one-pass tapes. You can also find blank labels, library cases, and custom-printed products in the online store.
We’ve been pad printing cassette shells since the 1990s, so we know the ins and outs of providing a quality print job just like you intended in your design. We use opaque ink for pad print, unlike offset pad printers which use a type of paste that is thinner and appears more transparent. Our pad print jobs are done individually by hand, allowing us to see the result of every print. This gives us a huge advantage in maintaining great quality assurance. Check out our pad print machine in action on YouTube.
Our selection of pad print colours
That said, certain ink colours look better on certain shells. Black or dark ink will appear striking and vibrant on white or lighter colour shells, while the inverse not so much. The ink is opaque, but the plastic shell will still absorb some of the colouring. Take a look at this colour mixing diagram:
Notice the color changes on the overlapped sections. Blue ink on a red shell may appear more purple, and will thus be a bit more difficult to read. Similarly, yellow is a lighter colour than red, so it may be absorbed by the red shell and appear more orange. It’ll look cool, but not exactly what you had in mind when designing.
If you insist on continuing with unconventional colour schemes like blue on red, there are a few solutions—
Request double-hit with your pad print. This will give your colour a little extra oomph and emphasis against a darker shell colour. It may not solve the problem of a particularly light ink colour against a dark shell, but it will certainly look better than single-hit pad print.
Upgrade to 2-colour pad print and use the bottom layer as a white base. Locking the shell into place for two separate ink stamps is extremely difficult and won’t always work, so you will want to make the white base larger than your design (like a stroke or outline filter), or slightly smaller than your design, that way it’s not off-register.
Request a custom colour ink. We can add white ink to an ink colour for an extra fee to make it a bit more vibrant when placed against a darker colour shell.
If you’re not sure if a colour combination will be as vibrant as your design, ask your sales rep for their thoughts, we’ve seen it all over the years! You can add pad print to your cassette package through our cassette duplication calculator and receive free shipping to the United States and Canada.
The cassette duplication calculator is an incredibly handy order form that allows you to customize your cassette packages while updating you on the price in real-time. However, as our option list grows, we understand newcomers may feel the calculator is a bit overwhelming. We’re always here to help, but this step-by-step guide should answer any questions you may have!
A Step-By-Step Guide to the Cassette Duplication Order Form
Duplication Speed
The duplication speed determines the recording quality of your cassette. Real-time is recorded at, well, real-time speed with your master. This is the higher quality option, with a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. Even so, high-speed duplication sounds wonderful, capable of audio from 20Hz to 17kHz.
Length Per Side
Length per side is for you to let us know the length of the longest side of your master. So that is to say that if your sequence of tracks has a total length of 14:28 for side A, and 15:30 for side B, you’d round up to 16 minutes for the length per side.
But don’t fret, we won’t be adding 30 seconds of silence to Side B, we’ll actually be loading the cassette exactly to the length of your master (with a few additional seconds of lead-in time to avoid cutoffs.)
Copy
Let us know if there’s different audio on each side of the tape, audio on side A only, or if both sides have identical audio.
Tape Type
Like ‘Duplication Speed’, the tape type determines the quality of your audio. Our standard is super-ferro normal bias, which has excellent volume and fidelity. However, if you want even crisper bass and louder volume, our high-bias Maxell XLII-S is the choice for audiophiles. BASF 120 is needed for cassettes that are 120 minutes or longer in total length. Maxell XLII-S and BASF 120 are only available with real-time duplication.
Cassette Colour
Now we’re getting to the fun parts. We have dozens of shell colours for you to choose from, so you’re faced with the decision on which colour suits your music and artwork best. This list is divided into five sections: opaque, metallic foil, tinted and transparent, glitter shells, and chrome cassettes to pair with Maxell XLII-S tape.
If you want to quickly run through all our cassette shell options, pull up the cassette selection guide to see what we currently have in stock!
Packaging
Here you can choose the type and colour of your cassette case. We have tons of Norelco cassette case colours in stock, so you can match them with your cassette shell colour if you so desire. We can also add special packaging to your Norelco cases, such as laser engraving designs to the case, or an outer O-Card which wraps around the cassette case, giving you an extra layer of artwork.
If you’re searching for deluxe packages, check out our cassette vinyl albums. They open like an audio book with enough additional space for a booklet, pins, or patches.
Cover Type
Here is where you’ll choose the format for your printed artwork. JP0 J-cards are standard three panels (front, spine, back), and you can add additional panels for liner notes, lyrics, or artwork. You may also choose between single or double-sided printing.
You can also choose your printed trapsheet artwork for cassette vinyl albums. 4/0 refers to single-sided printing, and 4/4 would be double-sided printing, though you’d want to combine the 4/4 trapsheets with our transparent cassette vinyl albums for the sake of visibility. You can add panel foldovers as inserts for your trapsheets as well.
Label Type
Now we’re at the customization stage! The label type is how you’d like to decorate the cassette itself. Paper labels are printed stickers that we place on the cassette, whereas pad print is an ink design that we stamp directly to the cassette and cannot be peeled off. Finally, laser etching is a laser-created engraving to the face of the cassette, permanently carving in your design. You can choose to have these label types on either one side or both sides of the cassette.
Pad print will ask you which colour you’d like. Pad print is one colour only, though by special request we can print up to two colours on the cassette. ‘Pad print type’ depends on the size of your artwork. For simple text and a small logo choose ‘standard design’, but for halftone artwork, large solid areas, or extended print areas, choose ‘floods or halftones’. Finally, ‘single or double hit’ depends on how vibrant you’d like your pad print. If you’re printing a black image on a white shell, single hit will do. However, if you’re printing a light colour on a dark shell (such as yellow ink on a black cassette), we highly recommend double hit.
Download Codes
Download codes are absolutely essential for when you want the benefits and tangibility of physical media and not lose the convenience of digital files. We can host the album for you (max 250MB) and print digital download codes. Alternatively, you can supply us with codes to print if you have your own hosting, or even a list of Bandcamp download codes!
Obi-Strips
Obi-strips follow the Japanese aesthetic of album packaging, adding a printed strip of artwork and text to your case. Traditionally these included album descriptions and prices, but it’s your design, you do whatever you want with it! Choose between vertical or horizontal obi-strip orientations.
Test Tape
We sent you a newsletter about test tapes just last week, but to summarize, if you want to approve the audio quality of your cassette before mass production then you can add a test tape to your order. Keep in mind that it does not include printing and packaging, and it adds another 1 to 2 weeks to your order turntime.
Overwrap
If you want your cassette to arrive in mint condition, or if you’re planning on selling them in-store, we suggest adding overwrap to your order. An alternative option is our resealable clear bags which have an adhesive strip for multi-use and keeping your cassette immaculate.
Rush
We recently reinstated rush options! Our turntime is currently 5 to 8 weeks, but if you need your album with the quickness you can turn your quote into a rush order. Please note rush orders are measured in business days.
Quantity
This one’s easy. How many copies do you want?
UPS Shipping Option
UPS Standard Shipping is FREE for orders shipping to the United States and Canada! If you need your album immediately, we’d recommend the 2-day or overnight shipping options.
UPS Signature Delivery
We highly recommend choosing this option. This will ensure that your package arrives not just to your door, but to your hands. That way no mail carrier will leave it on your front porch for it to be stolen, or hand it over to negligent neighbours who immediately leave for vacation.
And that’s it!
Oh my God, did you read all of that? Well if you did, by now you surely know your way around our cassette duplication order form. All you have to do is ready your audio and artwork for upload (artwork templates here!), and visualize which packaging combination will look best on your merch table and checkout page.
In the past couple of months we began experimenting with creating pad print plates using vector artwork. The results were astounding! Sharper text and images with an even quicker workflow. It’s time we got the word out— send us vector artwork for pad print!
How can you do that? When you’re designing pad print artwork in Photoshop or Illustrator and you’re entering a line of text, don’t rasterize said text, and don’t flatten the file. Turn the text and objects into work paths when using Photoshop, or turn them into outlines in Adobe Illustrator. This way when we print we won’t be using a bitmapped layer with resolution loss. Instead we’ll have sharp lines without the fuzziness you’d find in bitmap text. It will also help us print thinner lines that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, as our new laser engraver has 10x finer resolution, equal in quality to lithograph film.
If you don’t have the graphic design savvy to turn into work paths or outlines, another thing you could do is to keep the text layer as a text layer. That is to say do not rasterize the text, and do not flatten the file. We’ll do our best to turn the text into outlines on our end. Once you see the final results, you’ll be happy we did!
You can still submit the pad print files the old fashioned way, with rasterized text or bitmapped images. We have always prided ourselves in our excellent pad print quality, but that doesn’t mean we can’t strive for even greater resolution. Just make sure to supply using the proper template based on your cassette shell. Vector artwork should be submitted using PDF, whereas bitmapped resolution can be supplied in PSD, PDF, TIFF, or PNG.
Pad print is available using our cassette duplication quote calculator. This is where you get your fully packaged album on cassette in one simple order. You’ll receive an instant quote on the page, so you can play around with the print and packaging options until you find the perfect package at a great price. FREE SHIPPING is included on orders to the United States and Canada!
Looking to add some texture and style to your full-colour printed J-cards? We’ve added a new option to your cassette duplication orders that are sure to dazzle your fans: 100lb linen cover J-cards!
The difference in texture between these linen J-cards and our regular J-cards is immediately recognizable. Linen J-cards look and feel like an aged piece of art, appearing like dried paint on a canvas, while their uncoated finishing leaves them textured to the touch. Our linen J-cards are printed on “Solar White” cardstock. These have a brightness of 97% (read: blindingly bright) which makes all CMYK colours pop right off the page. They’re thicker than regular J-card stock, a whopping 11pt thickness as opposed to 7.5pt. We can print JP0s and JP1s using the linen stock.
You can add linen J-cards to your order by special request, just mention it in the ‘notes’ section of your cassette duplication order and we’ll hit you back with a modified quote.
We have other specialty J-card stock available by request. Mention them in the ‘notes’ section and we’ll revise your quote. If you’d like to order only printed J-cards using special paper, send us an email.
• 100lb smooth uncoated text
• 80lb White Enviro uncoated cover
• 12pt white C2S (coated both sides)
• 14pt white C2S (coated both sides )
• 100lb cover stock, smooth finish
• 20lb pink (photocopy paper)
• 20lb blue (photocopy paper)
We’re always looking to help and innovate, so if you have a particular paper stock in mind, or a wild packaging idea, just give us a shout and we’ll figure out the logistics with you!
Need ways to sell your art prints online or at the merch table? Calendar Cases are a unique solution to storing printed material, allowing you to sell your artwork in durable packaging!
Calendar Cases are the same size as a CD jewel case, with a slot which holds up to 12 cards or prints. The maximum dimensions for the insert cards are approximately 137mm x 121 mm (5.39″ x 4.73″). They aren’t only designed to hold art, but also to display art! Fold the front panel back to display the top card like a picture frame.
We’re fully equipped to print your artwork for you. We use a 12pt cardstock with digital print, so your artwork will feel durable and look vibrant. Calendar Cards are traditionally used for monthly calendars to be placed on your desk or in your office, so let us know if you need to help designing your inserts or are in need of a calendar template! They’re also great for storage of recipes, index cards, and more.
You no longer need to deal with the logistics of safely mailing art prints. Using our Calendar Cases avoids the risk of a postal sorting machine or mail carrier bending and tearing your work. Sending out your prints is now as easy as shipping a CD!
Silkscreen disc printing is not only the standard approach to CD graphics, but the best quality print you can get for your album. Compared to inkjet print you’ll see better colour accuracy, waterproof protection so the ink won’t run when wet, and no risk of bleeding or banding. At Duplication.ca we offer a number of silkscreen disc printing options, starting at 1-colour print all the way to full CMYK printing. Have trouble visualizing it? Let’s break it down for you!
1-Colour Silkscreen
The simplest and most affordable option, ideal for when you’re only interested in text (artist title, album title, tracklisting, whatever you have in mind!) We can print any colour on silver disc, or use a one-colour flood with a silver disc knockout like pictured above.
2-Colour Silkscreen
This is a good option if you want text or an illustration with a solid colour background. With 2-colour silkscreen you immediately see the advantage over inkjet printing. Solid colour floods without any streaks, and only for pennies more than 1-colour silkscreen. This is the best value silkscreen print option.
3-Colour Silkscreen
With 3-colour silkscreen you can begin designing much more complex images and illustrations for your CD artwork, without the bleeding you may find with inkjet print.
CMYK + White Silkscreen
If you want to print a photo image, CMYK is the way to go. First thing we do is add a white flood so every colour can pop off the disc. From there we have no limitations, we can print press photos or any design you’d like, just like a major label release.
Now that you know more about the silkscreen process, we leave the choice to you. No matter which option you choose you will receive professional quality silkscreen printing from our dedicated and eagle-eyed technicians. For designing tips you can check out our silkscreen tutorial page. If you have further questions simply email us, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
If you are an American artist or label ordering media from Duplication.ca, you need to know about Country of Origin regulations! It can save you a lot of time, stress, and even money.
In short, manufactured media and print exported to the United States need to have the Country of Origin clearly marked on the packaging. This covers cassettes, CDs, vinyl, books, and more. Duplication.ca is a Canadian manufacturer, thus we highly recommend that “Manufactured in Canada” or “Made in Canada” appear on the artwork.
Typically this is placed on the back of the package, but it can be anywhere on the case as long as it’s visible from the outside. Please note that the Country of Origin has to appear on each individual unit, not the shipping container or box.
The country of origin is required not only when we ship to you, it is also required when you ship to distributors, and especially if you try to cross a border with the product in your vehicle. If you don’t put the country of origin, your product could be stopped at the border and you would be responsible for all transport and labelling expenses to apply labels to the product.
One could make the argument with American customs that an order of 25 cassettes is not for resale. However, if you’re ordering hundreds of CDs or vinyl, we strongly urge you to add “Made in Canada” to the artwork. These are not shipping fees you will want to pay for twice.
We also offer “Manufactured in Canada” stickers to place on the cases.
The United Kingdom does not require a Country of Origin, but some countries other than the United States may. We recommend you do your research if you are ordering from overseas, and see what your country of residence requires when importing media and printed goods.
That’s all you need to do to make sure there are no surprises from the border. As always, shipping to the United States is FREE when you order cassette duplication. Click here for more info and an instant quote!
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Printed VHS sticker labels
