Pls share your opinions on artwork for professional CD pressing?

[bassmothership]

Hi 

I'm learning Gimp working through the manual about 6 hours per day for a week now. My first goal is to be able to design a look for my music work online, and if possible, to be printed on paper as well.

I'm planning to press domestically my first album to CD (here in Japan) and I see that all companies have their own unique templates that only use Adobe programs. I understand this is serious professional work and Adobe is the industry standard but... still, I'd like to ask you guys:

Is there's any remote chance that one can have some autonomy and being able to do this kind of work in Gimp dealing with CD pressing companies requirements without using Adobe programs? 

OR, either you'll have to become an Adobe software user or you'll have to pay for the pressing company to design everything for you, which will increase the costs a lot for sure. 
Is this correct?

Please let me know what you guys think.
I need some reality check.

[rich2005]

(08-22-2025, 06:34 AM)bassmothership Wrote: .....snip.....
Is there's any remote chance that one can have some autonomy and being able to do this kind of work in Gimp dealing with CD pressing companies requirements without using Adobe programs? 
....snip....

As with most graphics, possibly or probably, it all depends....

Do your research and find out the requirements for the image. Size will come from the template but you need to know format - jpg / tiff / psd and colour space - RGB or CMYK which Gimp can produce. If Adobe Illustrator or Indesign  .ai then not possible in Gimp.  When a CMYK image is required, find out the color profile, something.icc used.

A simple template might look like this and downloads as a PDF. Gimp opens @ 300 ppi by default, if say 600 ppi is required then up to you to set that when opening the PDF.

   

That template is very simple - a single layer and the blurb from the company says:

Artwork Template Downloads
Please ensure that all artwork is at least 300dpi resolution (all of our templates should already be set to 300/600dpi), using a CMYK colour scheme (if your software doesn’t allow CMYK colours and you have to use RGB then we will convert to CMYK for you before printing) and then please ideally send us back either PDF artwork files, maximum quality JPEG images (with any guidelines hidden) or layered PSD (Photoshop files).

Which is very fair, That company will take RGB jpegs psd pdf, (not all do) which Gimp exports.  If you want CMYK also Gimp jpg & psd but for CMYK pdf then the freeware Scribus DTP is the tool to use.

My advice, add to the template with guides and a layer mask to make life easier. Keep your work as a Gimp .xcf image which keeps all layers etc.  For exporting as a CMYK add a soft-proofing profile in Image -> Color Management -> Soft-proof Profile.

   

[bassmothership]

(08-22-2025, 08:56 AM)rich2005 Wrote:

(08-22-2025, 06:34 AM)bassmothership Wrote: .....snip.....
Is there's any remote chance that one can have some autonomy and being able to do this kind of work in Gimp dealing with CD pressing companies requirements without using Adobe programs? 
....snip....

As with most graphics, possibly or probably, it all depends....

Do your research and find out the requirements for the image. Size will come from the template but you need to know format - jpg / tiff / psd and colour space - RGB or CMYK which Gimp can produce. If Adobe Illustrator or Indesign  .ai then not possible in Gimp.  When a CMYK image is required, find out the color profile, something.icc used.

A simple template might look like this and downloads as a PDF. Gimp opens @ 300 ppi by default, if say 600 ppi is required then up to you to set that when opening the PDF.



That template is very simple - a single layer and the blurb from the company says:

Artwork Template Downloads
Please ensure that all artwork is at least 300dpi resolution (all of our templates should already be set to 300/600dpi), using a CMYK colour scheme (if your software doesn’t allow CMYK colours and you have to use RGB then we will convert to CMYK for you before printing) and then please ideally send us back either PDF artwork files, maximum quality JPEG images (with any guidelines hidden) or layered PSD (Photoshop files).

Which is very fair, That company will take RGB jpegs psd pdf, (not all do) which Gimp exports.  If you want CMYK also Gimp jpg & psd but for CMYK pdf then the freeware Scribus DTP is the tool to use.

My advice, add to the template with guides and a layer mask to make life easier. Keep your work as a Gimp .xcf image which keeps all layers etc.  For exporting as a CMYK add a soft-proofing profile in Image -> Color Management -> Soft-proof Profile.

Thanks a lot for the examples!


So no deal for me then. All companies I've seen so far have templates only in ".ai". I'll better focus on getting the basics right for now.
 
 If there's any literature you'd suggest about working with templates for CD printing, pls let me know. This topic seems to be super deep.