There are a number of ways to simulate a vinyl LP or single. Here are few examples:

The playing surface of an LP or 45' has two distinct looks. There's the shiny black of the lead-in, lead-out, and between songs. This part is easily simulated by coating those parts of the disc with 100% black ink, and nothing else. On a CD or DVD, a large area with a 100% black ink looks shiny all by itself.

The songs themselves have two things going on. You have the grooves, which of course is what the stylus travels in, and you have the wiggles of the groove walls. Both of these break up the light by reflecting it in lots of different directions—very similar to the effect of halftones on a disc. So, how about photographing a real 45 rpm single and printing that in all halftones?

You can even allow a hint of the CD or DVD silver to show through the halftone, to add that rainbow effect to the mix. Rather than have a full white flood under your ink, you can instruct us to use spot white instead, under the "label"

Another way to get a more stylized LP look is to try a spot matte varnish over the areas that represent the "songs". The spot matte varnish can also be used if you don't want your label to look shiny at all

Did you ever wonder how they made those albums in the 60's? They look different than the typical cd jackets we have these days. They were heavier, and something else. The key is Book Binding Construction.

For Book Binding Construction, we use a very heavy, thick stock on the inside called chipboard, or greyboard. This is very thick material, exactly the same as what's used in a hardbound book. The material is then wrapped with a 4C printed paper (thinner stock, about 10 gsm) which is glued to the material. This gives you the hardbound book style platform. Notice the thin border around the LP. Just like authentic albums, and the reason is the method of construction…the book binding!

An alternate construction is to use the traditional cd jacket approach with an outward pocket.

We have a special page on LP packaging that you will want to check out!

This LP has two pockets; one used for the disc and one used for the booklet. The pockets are definitely an integral part of the construction method. Should you wish to do this as a double album with a cd in each side, it is exactly the same die.

Instead of being the typical rectangular shape that cd jackets are normally in, we can make the albums the same dimension as the full 12inch size larger ones. We have a number of dies that we use, or we can create custom size for you.

We can make these specially sized to fit your LP. Paper stock choices include white, uncoated matte or coated, off white, kraft, black, etc. Sometimes, depending on the type and size of the LP, it is better to create the background color with ink. besides the solid colors, you can also make them with 1C or 4C printing.

Need to go smaller than the typical 5inch/12cm disc? Ah, how about a mini CD? And yes, we can especially sized small jackets and booklets. They are cute,wee little things sized 3inch/8cm. Perfect for a single.

We don't do the vinyl record pressing , only optical discs (cds & dvds) and usb media, so we can't help with actual 12inch record pressing. However, if you need us to make just the album covers, we might be able to do that for. Our preference is for jobs with discs, but we'll see if we can help you out. Should you want to release a cd in the 12inch record covers, we can probably make a special inner sleeve.