just make sure they are symmetrical and you should be okay. that goes for the ink distribution on the label too. like ibliss said, balance is the key. watch out for the ones with pegs... they can be a problem.

Stay away from the rectangular ones. They are only held at the center by a slightly raised curved surface on part of the bottom. The ones with the curved ends stay in place much better. The disadvantage is that there is less printable area and they don't look as much like a business card as the rectangular ones. However, how impressed is a prospective client going to be if your business card gets jammed in his computer?

John

I am amazed people are actually distributing these things. In my business, I put together demo Reels on CD. I admit the business cards shapes may be cute and convenient, but is it really worth the risk? I don't think I'd want to risk taking the chance that someone might not read the instructions and slip it into a slot loading CDRom, a vertically mounted drive, or Home DVD player by accident.

Its a hard enough battle right now trying to maintain a reliable hybrid format that works correctly with a PC, MAC, & DVD players, that to add another weak link, not to mention the potential liability from any damaged it may cause, in my mind, does not justify its cosmetic advantages.

I really think that these Video/Multimedia CDROM based formats are going to become very popular. They are much easier & quicker to author than DVDs. They are less than 1/10 the price. You CAN put labels on them, and they have a compatibility much greater than any DVD format.

Add the fact that many people already have all the equipment necessary to create them and don't even know it. DV Camcorder, CD Burner, Home DVD Player and some very simple software that is either free, already installed, or under $50.00

The point I'm trying to make is, that the CDROM based format has a strong potential for growth, so do you really want to take a chance and sour the market by distributing the business card shaped CDRoms. I'm just waiting for a article to be written scaring potential users that those shapes could do damage to their cdrom drive and you can consider those neat shapes history.

If anyone has ever had the chance to see a CDROM spinning at 20-40x it's truely scarry. Remember those portable audio cd players, where you could see it spinning. Now muliply that speed by 40 times!!

jeffy82@aol.com

>>>not to mention the potential liability from any damaged it may cause, in my mind, does not justify its cosmetic advantages.

are they really that scary? I mean they sell collectable pokemon games on those biz card CD's at SAMs. I don't think they're going to injure the multimedia CD-ROM industry.

Like I said, use the ones with the curved ends not the rectangular ones.

Thanks all for your posts last week (I've been away since then). I appreciate the advice and different points of view. If I do go ahead with them, I will steer my clients to the round (hockey rink) style, based on the comments here.