Minor update: CD Label Designer 5.0.1

Happy New Year!

Today we have released a minor update with French and Polish  translations updated – thank you David and Maciej! We are still waiting for someone who’s willing to update German and Italian, or at least start working on any other currently unsupported language (such are Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, …).

In addition, we have fixed few bugs in the translation part and in Get From Print Layout option.

Download latest version

 

Major release: CD Label Designer 5.0

We are happy to inform you that new major update of CD Label Designer, our popular CD/DVD label and cover maker software, is out. We hope that you’ll find that these additions will make your designing experience even more enjoyable and labels even more eye-catching than before.

Most important changes

  • Windows 8 compatibility
  • CD/DVD Sleeve (envelope) support
  • More editing flexibility, like moving objects outside label boundaries
  • Stretch text to the box
  • Shape Edit window
  • Other less important fixes and improvements

See more details

Discount offers

This is a major update, so all current customers can buy an upgrade for 50% of the full price, and customers who bought after Aug 1st, 2012 can get it for free. To take an advantage of this offer, just type your original registration key into Promotional code field in the order form (see instructions here), or contact us if you have any problems.

How to get CD Label Designer for free?

If you purchased after Aug 1st 2012, you already qualify for free upgrade. If not, there are still other possibilities for discount up to 100%.

Links

CD Label Designer website
What’s New and upgrade offer
Get it for free

CD Label Designer 4.0: Just In Time For Holidays

We are happy to inform you that new major update of CD Label Designer, our popular CD/DVD label and cover maker software, is out. We hope that you’ll find that these additions will make your designing experience even more enjoyable and labels even more eye-catching than before.

Most important changes

  • LightScribe™ support
  • Special effects (shadow and transparency)
  • New and improved shapes
  • Custom fields
  • Embedded Image Browser
  • Improved Print Layout window
  • Other less important fixes and improvements

See more details

Discount offers

All current customers of any of our software (including Agenda At Once and Web Log Storming) can buy an upgrade for 50% of the full price. No. Scratch that. To reward quickest of you, in next several days price will be even lower: a discount of 67% brings an upgrade price down to the unbelievable $9.98 for Personal and to $13.32 for Business edition. It’s really a no-brainer now, so hurry up before this early-bird offer expires and we set the price back to 50% ($14.97 / $19.97)!

Note that, if you bought CD Label Designer after September 1st, 2009, you get an upgrade for free.

To take an advantage of this offer, just type your original registration key into Promotional code field in the order form (see instructions here), or contact us if you have any problems.

How to get CD Label Designer for free?

Well, if you purchased after Sep 1st, you already qualify for free upgrade. If not, there are still other possibilities. The new one on the list is the opportunity to send us print layout that you use, if it’s not already included in the default installation. Just use print layout export option to send us .XML file and we’ll send you a free key.

Links

CD Label Designer website
What’s New and upgrade offer
Get it for free

What to do if you don’t get response from us

If you are in hurry, read at least last paragraph of this post.

E-mailBecause of serious amount of spam messages circling around on the global net, e-mail servers and spam filters become more and more rigorous during the time. This could really be a problem as legitimate e-mails often don’t get through. There are also other reasons for similar problems (for example, typo in the e-mail address), but this one is most probable.

It’s a really unpleasant situation for us: time after time we receive angry e-mails from our customers because they feel that we are ignoring their support requests, which is quite understandable and justified. In some cases we are forced to reply with several different options (SMTP servers) hoping that at least one of them will succeed, but if any of users don’t confirm the reception, there’s a living suspicion in the back of our minds.

So, here’s a firm statement: We don’t leave any of support requests unanswered intentionally. Yes, sometimes, if problem cannot be easily resolved, it could take some time, but even then we will send a notification that you have been heard and that we will get back to you eventually.

Is there really a solution?

Although not perfect, best bet would be to use our Support Ticket System instead of simple e-mail. In this case, you can be sure that we will get the message, and, what’s more important, there would be an always accessible web copy of the conversation.

IMPORTANT: When you submit a ticket, you should receive an e-mail informing you about it, among with direct web link to this copy. If you don’t receive this e-mail in few minutes, that’s a good signal that something is wrong, probably in server-server relation. In this case, please save direct link presented in the web browser after submitting ticket, so you can use it later to check if your request has been answered.

Beware of “OEM deals”

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) “… can be used as an adjective to describe software licensed only for a particular system. OEM software is purchased alongside a system or hardware parts.” (source: Wikipedia).

Broken CDRecently I come across number of websites that advertise so-called “OEM deals”, where you can buy cheap software. They offer popular titles for about half of the price, claiming that you’ll receive perfectly legal and working copies.

Allow me to explain why this is not true.

Developers use knowledge, time, patience and fingertips to create software. Customers decide that they need (want, like, …) the software and use money to buy a licence. If software is good, more customers buy it to make a better compensation for developer’s work, and everyone is happy, supposedly.

Then there are Hackers, who use their special kind of knowledge and some time to release a crack, patch or keymaker. Developers fix the leak, but hackers always can find another one (it’s common knowledge that every software can be cracked). This is a closed circle, almost some kind of a “mental game”.

Then Pirates use hacked software for free, risking getting a virus, trojan or worse. 🙂 That’s their decision – I’m sure they think they have perfectly normal reasons to do this (although there are often legal alternatives).

It’s always been like this, and that’s something every software company should count on.

What bothers me much more is new category of people, who think that they are smarter than all groups mentioned above: OEM Dealers. They decide to use cracked versions of software (combined developer’s work and hacker’s special knowledge) and other people money and trust to sell software in half of the price.

Except them, everyone else is betrayed:

  • developers lose money
  • hackers feel that someone else is making a profit on their “job”
  • and honest people think that they have purchased legal licences, while they are actually becomming pirates, getting all risks that come in the package, including possible legal consequences

Speaking as a founder of software company, we can take losing some money. No problem with that. And I personally don’t care about hacker’s feelings. But I do care about honest and innocent people thinking that they found a “great deal”, just to realize what’s behind it first time they contact technical support.

As OEM means buying software in package with some other product, these websites are obviously a fraud. So take our advice: don’t take the bait! Software companies sometimes run promotional deals (I know we do), so if you are desperate, ask and thou may receive. 🙂

Free or cheap: CD Label Designer

CD Label Designer infoCD label makers are used by wide range of people: hobbyists and professionals, students and business people, musicians and developers, teens, parents and grandparents. Everyone must make a CD or DVD at least once in a lifetime. Still, it’s quite understandable that not everybody has same pocket depth. And what’s more important, not everybody earns money by making CDs.

That’s why we have decided to, at least for a while, offer number of options so you can get your own copy of CD Label Designer for free or with a significant discount. It’s totally legal and supported by officials, of course. 🙂

In return, we need a small favor from you. Lot of time has been spent to create this software, and giving it away just like that wouldn’t be so smart (regardless what some people tend to think). Instead, you can make a small effort and give us something in return.

Currently available options:

  1. Free: TrialPay
  2. Free: Blog or a website review
  3. 50% off: Forum post
  4. 50% off: Download.com comment
  5. 10%-50% off: Tell a friend
  6. 30% off: Competitive upgrade

See details for these offers

If you have another idea, we will be glad to hear it. Feel free to contact us with a suggestion.

“Scam” is a right word for this

While small independent software companies are trying hard to raise a trust with potential customers, some of their partners (payment processors) are undermining these efforts.

Second time in recent history it happens that some of payment processors, on its own, without actual vendor consent and knowledge, are charging extra ~$10 each month from MicroISV customers for something they call a “discount scheme for future purchases”. This fact is hard to notice new item in credit card statement shows up. Oh yes, customers should “just call” to cancel this payments, but damage is already done.

Incidentally, both payment processors, as significant number of others, are owned by same large corporation. It’s not clear if this politics is something their owners require or they are just doing on their own. Just in case, our main payment processor (Plimus, Inc.) is independent company that so far understands that most important recipe for success is to satisfy both sides: customers and vendors.

That said, we can never know what and when will our partners decide to do, so if you notice any sign of dishonesty related to our web site or purchasing our products, please let us know immediately so we can react accordingly. Thank you in advance!

TrialPay available for CD Label Designer

We have decided to offer TrialPay checkout method for CD Label Designer.

For all those who are unfamiliar with TrialPay concept: instead of paying for license, you are now able to choose and complete one of offers presented. Offers include, but not limited to: joining various networks, subscribing to different newsletters or purchasing from some other company. Some offers are free, some are not, so check terms for each one.

Upon successful completion, TrialPay will inform us and we will send you free registration key for CD Label Designer.

Currently, you can choose from more than 100 offers. You can be sure that you will find something that you need!

To take an advantage, go to CD Label Designer purchase page and choose “Free with TrialPay” link.

CD Label Designer 3.5

CD Label Designer 3.5

CD Label Designer 3.5 is available for download. Update contains several minor improvements and bug fixes. Upgrade is highly recommended and free for existing users. Just download new version and install it over the existing one.

CD Label Designer is application that will help you to design and print CD jewel case and DVD box labels, booklets, round and business card disk labels. It supports images, RTF, circled texts and shapes allowing you to arrange, change size, angle and transparency of objects. You can read directory and file structure, CDDB audio CD database or define own lists to include them on labels, and you can customize printout positions.