Can i label my cds with an ordinary pen instead of a cd/dvd specific marker?

Question

I have been doing it for ages but are they actually damaging my cds in any way?

Answer 1

use thick pencil
use sticker
marker
jel pen

Answer 2

You should not use Ordinary Pen for marking your CD's and DVD's. There would be a thin metal foil on the top surface of the CD that would reflect the CD Readers laser back.

So if you write using any Sharp Pointed Objects then the thin metal foil gets damaged and your CD's will not be read by Drives.

You can use soft pens like Sketches, White Board Markers, highlighters, permanent markets with soft nibs.

Any further clarification please get back to me.

Answer 3

CD/DVD specific markers are designed not to eat away at the top coating of a DVD/CD, which contains the reflective layer that encodes the information. It is that top layer, not the clear bottom layer, that is actually more important to the long life of a CD/DVD. You can actually cause more data loss by scratching the top layer than the bottom.

Do not, by any means, use disk labels. The adhesive on the labels will eventually pull away bits & pieces of that top layer, making the disk unreadable.

Answer 4

Use any marker that you have but not a ball point pen

Answer 5

Pens and pencils. Because I always like to write things down before I go to bed so I won't forget them. And I also use pencils a lot because I draw.

Answer 6

dont use a pen, a sharpie will work fine. you don't need a special marker.

Answer 7

how can dey damage cd???
But u should use a marker,, cd marker,,, but dont use... pen...

Answer 8

use a permanent marker instead

Answer 9

I use Sharpies all the time on CDs. Ink doesn't seep through the material that CDs are made of (super durable plastic? super flexible metal?), and the laser that reads the disk doesn't care what's on top, because it reads from underneath the disk.

Answer 10

its fine, or put a lable on them if your that unsure.