1CDLABELGEN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation CDLABELGEN(1)
2
6 cdlabelgen - CD/DVD labels, jewel case inserts, and envelopes creator.
7 Generates frontcards and traycards for CD cases, single-cd envelopes,
8 DVD case inserts, as well as output suitable for direct printing on
9 CD/DVD.
10
12 cdlabelgen [ -c <category> -s <subcategory> -i <item1%item2%etc> -f
13 <itemsfile> -v <num_items_cover> -e <cover_epsfile> -S
14 <cover_eps_scaleratio>[,<image_x_offset>,<image_y_offset_inches>] -E
15 <tray_epsfile> -T
16 <tray_eps_scaleratio>[,<image_x_offset>,<image_y_offset_inches>] -d
17 <date> -D -o <outputfile> -t <template> -b -C -w -h -m -M -O -p -y
18 <page_offset_inches> -l <line_width_points>] --create-dvd-inside
19 --create-dvd-outside --slim-double-case --double-case --create-cdlabel
20 --rotate-endcaps --plaque-color <r,g,b> --category-color <r,g,b>
21 --subcategory-color <r,g,b> --text-color <r,g,b> -n <volume/number in
22 set> --rows-columns <row_count_for_items,column_count_for_items>
23 --tray-overlay <overlay_epsfile> --tray-overlay-scaleratio
24 <tray_overlay_image_scaleratio>[,<image_x_offset>,<image_y_offset_inches>]
25
27 Version 4.2.0, April 2012
28
30 cdlabelgen's purpose in life is twofold:
31 · To be run automatically and swiftly from a shell script and
33 automatically generate a frontcard and a traycard for a cd--usually
34 data archive cd's. The traycard (which goes behind the CD itself)
35 is U-shaped and the ends of the CD case bear the label of what the
36 CD is. Inside inserts for DVDs are also supported.
37 · To have a minimum of dependencies--cdlabelgen only requires perl.
39 cdlabelgen was designed to simplify the process of generating labels
41 for CD's. It originated as a program to allow auto generation of
42 frontcards and traycards for CD's burned via an automated mechanism
43 (specifically for archiving data), but has now become popular for
44 labelling CD compilations of mp3's, and copies of CDs. Note that
45 cdlabelgen does not actually print anything--it just spits out
46 postscript, which you can then do with as you please. It can also be
47 combined with output from other programs such as "barcodegen" - to
48 print a barcode as a tray overlay image.
49 The latest version of cdlabelgen as well as this document can be found
51 at http://www.aczoom.com/tools/cdinsert/. The software package includes
52 CGI scripts that can be used to serve cdlabelgen over the internet. An
53 older version may be available at:
54 http://www.red-bean.com/~bwf/software/cdlabelgen/.
55 cdlabelgen comes with several eps images for you to use on your labels.
57 These images can be found in /usr/local/lib/cdlabelgen or
58 /usr/share/cdlabelgen or /opt/lib/cdlabelgen/ or
59 /usr/local/share/cdlabelgen, depending on your installation. Included
60 are a Recycling icon, an mp3 icon, the Compact Disc icon (with and
61 without 'Digital' on it), Tux the penguin, and the new Debian 'swirl'
62 logo. Two color background images called Music Notes are also
63 available.
64 CDs: cdlabelgen prints a 'tongue' as part of the traycard. This folds
66 around and is viewable from the front in jewel boxes that are entirely
67 clear (CD holder piece is not opaque). If you do not have a clear CD
68 holder in your jewel box, you may find it easier to just cut the
69 'tongue' off--it's a bit easier to fold without it.
70 Paper Sizes: Normal CD cases, Slim CD cases, DVD inside inserts can be
72 printed on a letter or A4 sized page. CD/DVD Envelopes and DVD outside
73 inserts will not fit on a letter sized paper, a larger paper size will
74 be needed to make it fit.
75 cdlabelgen requires Perl Version 5.003 or greater. Ghostscript is not
77 required, but is recommended so that you can test out your labels
78 without wasting paper.
79
81 -c, --category <category>
82 Set the category (title) for the CD
83 -s, --subcategory <subcategory>
85 Set the subcategory (subtitle) for the CD
86 -i, --items <items>
88 'items' should be a '%' separated list of items to print on the
89 traycard of the CD. Note that if the number of items are too many
90 to fit on the tray card, cdlabelgen will leave out some items at
91 the end. cdlabelgen automatically flows the items into 2, 3, 4, or
92 5 columns and scales the fontsize accordingly, unless the "-P"
93 option is used. You can insert blank lines by inserting 2 percent
94 signs in a row into the items list.
95 -f, --items-from-file <filename>
97 Get item names from file named filename. Each item should be on its
98 own line separated by carriage returns. cdlabelgen automatically
99 flows the items into 2, 3, 4, or 5 columns and scales the fontsize
100 or clips the items as needed. You can insert blank lines by
101 placing blank lines between items in this file.
102 Special commands can be embedded in the file, all of these commands
104 should be present starting at the first column of the line. The
105 codes are used to change the font for an item, the code itself is
106 not printed in the output.
107 {#BI} - make the item bold and italic
109 {#I} - make the item italic
110 {#B} - make the item bold
111 {#M} - make the item mono-spaced (Courier font)
112 {#MB} - make the item monospaced and bold (Courier-Bold font)
113 Example:
115 {#MB} Text 1 Item
117 would print the line " Text 1 Item" in a monospaced bold font.
118 -v, --cover-items <number_of_items_for_cover>
120 Normally, all the items are printed on the tray card. But if you
121 have a large number of items, you may wish to print some items on
122 the cover, and rest on the tray card. This option provides a way
123 of specifying how many items should be printed on the cover.
124 Default is 0 (i.e., print no item on the cover, print all items on
125 the tray). The items to be printed on the cover are taken from the
126 list of items, from the top of the list. Note that if the number
127 of items is too many to fit on the cover, it will result in items
128 being dropped. As of Jan 2002, around 250-300 items can be fitted
129 on the cover or the tray, depending on whether a
130 title/subtitle/date is used or not.
131 -d, --date <date>
133 Set the date to be used as 'date' if not set or not overridden with
134 the -D flag, today's date will be used (default is today's date).
135 Use this option if you don't like cdlabelgen's default format of
136 YYCC-MM-YY, for example.
137 -D, --no-date
139 Do not print any date (overrides -d as well)
140 -e, --cover-image <cover_epsfile>
142 Filename of eps file to print on cover. Note that cdlabelgen
143 requires that the eps file contain a proper '%%BoundingBox LLx LLy
144 URx URy' declaration according to the PostScript Document
145 Structuring Conventions. cdlabelgen uses this line to determine the
146 dimensions of the eps graphic so that it can position it
147 appropriately on the cover. Note that cdlabelgen first looks for
148 this file in your working directory. If it doesn't find it there,
149 it will look in the list of directories where the default eps files
150 are stored (see @where_is_the_template). This makes it easy to use
151 the images shipped with cdlabgelgen without typing miles of
152 pathnames.
153 -S, --cover-image-scaleratio <cover_eps_scaleratio
155 [,image_x_offset,image_y_offset_inches]>
156 The ratio by which you want to scale the epsfile that appears on
157 the cover. If you omit this flag, cdlabelgen assumes a scaleratio
158 of 1.0. This flag allows you to squeeze larger graphics into the
159 cover or expand smaller graphics to fill the cover. Scaleratio must
160 be a number (int or float).
161 If the scale value passed is 0 (or 0.0), then the logo is used as a
163 background image - it will be scaled as required to fit the entire
164 cover.
165 The -S option also takes optional translate arguments. Normally
167 images are printed on the cover and the tray so that the bottom-
168 right of the image is anchored to the bottom-right of the cover or
169 tray. To move the images away from the bottom and right borders,
170 use this option. For example, to leave two inches of gap between
171 the image and the bottom border, and 0.5 inches from the left
172 border, and use 1.0 scaleratio, use this: -S 1.0,-2,0.5
173 This offset only applies when the image is being used as a logo -
175 i.e., image is not being used as background to fill the entire
176 cover or tray.
177 -E, --tray-image <tray_epsfile>
179 Filename of eps file to print on traycard. Note that cdlabelgen
180 requires that the eps file contain a proper '%%BoundingBox LLx LLy
181 URx URy' declaration according to the PostScript Document
182 Structuring Conventions. cdlabelgen uses this line to determine the
183 dimensions of the eps graphic so that it can position it
184 appropriately on the cover. Note that cdlabelgen first looks for
185 this file in your working directory. If it doesn't find it there,
186 it will look in the list of directories where the default eps files
187 are stored (see @where_is_the_template). This makes it easy to use
188 the images shipped with cdlabgelgen without typing miles of
189 pathnames.
190 -T, --tray-image-scaleratio <tray_eps_scaleratio
192 [,image_x_offset,image_y_offset_inches]>
193 The ratio by which you want to scale the epsfile that appears on
194 the traycard. If you omit this flag, cdlabelgen assumes a
195 scaleratio of 1. This flag allows you to squeeze larger graphics
196 into the traycard or expand smaller graphics to fill the traycard.
197 Scaleratio must be a positive number (int or float) specifying the
198 scale.
199 If the scale value passed is the word fill1, then the image is used
201 as a background - it is scaled so that it completely fills the
202 interior tray card region. The value 0 (or 0.0) works same as the
203 fill1 argument.
204 If the value passed is the word fill2, then the image is used as a
206 background to fill more than just the tray. For normal CD cases,
207 the image is scaled so that it completely fills both the tray card
208 region, and the two endcaps (but not the extreme right-hand
209 'tongue-cap') for normal cd cases. For Slim CD cases or DVD
210 Inside/Outside covers, the tray image will fill both the tray and
211 cover regions (including any spines). For directly printing on a
212 CD (--create-cdlabel), fill2 option works like the fill1 option.
213 The -T option also takes optional translate arguments. Normally
215 images are printed on the cover and the tray so that the bottom-
216 right of the image is anchored to the bottom-right of the cover or
217 tray. To move the images away from the bottom and right borders,
218 use this option. For example, to leave two inches of gap between
219 the image and the bottom border, and 0.5 inches from the left
220 border, and use 1.0 scaleratio, use this: -T 1.0,-2,0.5
221 This offset only applies when the image is being used as a logo -
223 i.e., image is not being used as background to fill the entire
224 cover or tray.
225 -o, --output-file <outputfile>
227 If the -o flag is used, cdlabelgen prints to outputfile instead of
228 STDOUT.
229 -t, --template <template>
231 Specify explicitly which template to use. This is useful if you
232 need to debug the PostScript code in the template, use a different
233 template, or if you have created your own template to use in lieu
234 of the one provided with cdlabelgen.
235 -b, --no-tray-plaque
237 Suppresses printing of the Plaque on the traycard, thus allowing
238 you to either fit even more items on the traycard, or to use a
239 slightly larger font size for the items.
240 -C, --no-cover-plaque
242 Suppresses printing of the plaque on the front cover, thus allowing
243 a cover image that fills the front cover, but still displaying
244 category and sub-category information in the other usual places.
245 -h, --help
247 print out the usage message
248 -w, --tray-word-wrap
250 Enables word wrapping of the items that print on the traycard. Note
251 that this is *not* extensively tested and may be buggy! Make sure
252 that you preview your label before printing it if you use this
253 flag.
254 If there is a problem with "-w", the best option right now is to
256 split lines in the input itself, and to omit the "-w" option.
257 -m, --slim-case
259 Creates covers suitable for use in slim cd-cases, this means no
260 tray card (the tray card is now the inside front cover). This
261 creates a two page, folding cover insert. This could also be used
262 in normal cd cases as an inside insert.
263 Slim case option can be used with outside dvd inserts (
265 --create-dvd-outside ) also - in which case the outside insert is
266 created for half-height DVD case.
267 -O, --outside-foldout
269 Output slim cd cover cases (or dvd inserts) with the order of the
270 pages switched so the folding line lies on the outside of a normal
271 case. Can be used when printing either the slim-cd-case or dvd-
272 inside inserts.
273 This option is best used along with option -m (--slim-case) or
275 --create-dvd-inside.
276 --rotate-endcaps
278 Endcap text is rotated by 180 degrees, to flip the text around.
279 -M, --create-envelope
281 Creates covers suitable for use as envelopes for a CD. Guide lines
282 are printed, to aid in folding the printout correctly.
283 --create-dvd-inside
285 Creates inserts suitable for use as inside insert for a normal DVD
286 case. Guide lines are printed, to aid in folding the printout
287 correctly. Note: DVD inserts may not print fully on Letter or A4
288 sized paper printers; it may require larger paper sizes.
289 --create-dvd-outside
291 Creates inserts suitable for use as outside cover inserts for a
292 normal DVD case. Guide lines are printed, to aid in folding the
293 printout correctly. Note: DVD inserts may not print fully on
294 Letter or A4 sized paper printers; it may require larger paper
295 sizes.
296 Slim case option ( --slim-case ) can be used with outside dvd
298 inserts also - in which case the outside insert is created for
299 half-height DVD case.
300 --double-case
302 Create covers for double-sided DVD cases that hold 6 DVDs. Only
303 double-width DVD cases are supported, double-width CD cases are not
304 supported. Therefore, using --double-case also implies the
305 --create-dvd-outside option. Note: DVD inserts may not print fully
306 on Letter or A4 sized paper printers; it may require larger paper
307 sizes.
308 --slim-double-case
310 Create covers for double-sided DVD cases that hold 6 DVDs in boxes
311 1.5 times the depth of normal dvd cases. Only DVD cases are
312 supported with this option, slim-double-width CD cases are not
313 supported. Therefore, using --slim-double-case also implies the
314 --create-dvd-outside option. Note: DVD inserts may not print fully
315 on Letter or A4 sized paper printers; it may require larger paper
316 sizes.
317 --create-cdlabel
319 For directly printing on a CD or DVD. As of January 2005, there are
320 inkjets printers that can print on certain types of blank CD/DVD
321 discs. Only a small number of items can be printed on the CD, and
322 the number of characters in the title and subtitle is also limited.
323 Always check the output visually by using PostScript viewers or
324 printing on paper, before printing on the CD.
325 With this option, the top portion of the disc represents the
327 "cover" area - so arguments related to the cover: title
328 (--category), subtitle (--subcategory), --no-cover-plaque,
329 --cover-items, --cover-image, etc all apply to the top area. The
330 bottom portion of the disc represents the "tray" area, so arguments
331 related to the tray: --no-tray-plaque, --tray-image, etc all apply
332 to the bottom area. The date (--date) string, if present, is
333 printed along the bottom curved edge of the disc.
334 Background images can be specified using the --cover-image option,
336 modified as need by the --cover-image-scaleratio. If --tray-image
337 is also specified, note that the cover image is printed first, then
338 the tray image overwrites the cover image. The title/items text is
339 then finally printed over all the images.
340 The --no-tray-plaque and/or --no-cover-plaque (along with
342 --cover-items) option is also recommended with --create-cdlabel,
343 otherwise there may be no space for any items to be printed on the
344 disc.
345 The --clip-items option is also recommended.
347 -p, --clip-items
349 Enables clipping of items; uses fixed font size for all items.
350 Normally, the template.ps used by cdlabelgen will try to fit an
351 item in a given column by reducing the font size if needed. This is
352 ok if done for one or two items, but if done too often, it makes
353 the tray card look ugly, with text of varying font sizes.
354 Use this option to use a fixed width font for all items. If the
356 item is too large to fit in a column, the text will be clipped
357 instead.
358 -y, --page-offset [<page_x_offset_inches,]<page_y_offset_inches
360 Use this to move the entire output up or down (y_offset), to make
361 the output fit on appropriate sized paper. For letter sized paper,
362 0.8 works well, and for A4 paper, 1.5 works well. The value is in
363 units of inches. An optional X-axis offset can also be specified.
364 Default values: 1 inch for X-axis, 0.8 inches for Y-axis.
365 -l, --line-width <line_width_points>
367 Specify size in points of the edge and interior lines of the cover
368 and tray card. If this is 0, then the lines are omitted for both
369 the cover and tray (but guide cut lines are still printed). The
370 size is specified in points (1 point is 1/72 inch).
371 --plaque-color <r,g,b>
373 Specify a color to fill plaque. Color must be specified using the
374 rgb components, each value should be between 0 and 255.
375 --category-color <r,g,b>
377 Specify a color for category. Color must be specified using the
378 rgb components, each value should be between 0 and 255.
379 --subcategory-color <r,g,b>
381 Specify a color for subcategory. Color must be specified using the
382 rgb components, each value should be between 0 and 255.
383 --text-color <r,g,b>
385 Specify a color for text - this is used for the list of items, and
386 the date display under the plaque and in the end-caps. Color must
387 be specified using the rgb components, each value should be between
388 0 and 255.
389 -n, --number-in-set <string>
391 Append volume information to the end of the date string. This
392 should be a single string. If used in conjuction with "-D", it
393 will be in place of the date; otherwise, it is appended to the date
394 as " - <number-in-set>"
395 --rows-columns <row_count_for_items,column_count_for_items>
397 The --rows-columns options forces the list of items to be printed
398 using that many rows, and that many columns. Both numbers have to
399 be provided, no spaces, for example: --rows-columns=11,3
400 The list of items is laid out in top-down, left-to-right fashion.
402 Use blank items in the input, to get appropriately aligned columns.
403 --rows-columns applies to the list of items wherever they are
405 printed - normally on the tray only, but may include cover, or the
406 top and bottom portions of the round printouts for direct CD label
407 printing. Same values apply to all these variations, so if you
408 need different number of rows/columns for cover vs tray, you can
409 use two different runs of cdlabelgen, to get two postscript files,
410 and pick the cover from one printout, and tray from the other.
411 This will work for jewel-case inserts, but may not work for direct
412 CD label printing.
413 --tray-overlay overlay_epsfile
415 Filename of eps file to print as overlay on traycard. This image is
416 printed over the background image (tray-image) as well as the list
417 of items. Therefore, this is useful for things like barcodes. In
418 terms of EPS file requirements, see the --tray-image option
419 description.
420 --tray-overlay-scaleratio
422 tray_overlay_image_scaleratio[,image_x_offset,image_y_offset_inches]
423 The ratio by which you want to scale the epsfile that is used with
424 the --tray-overlay option, and optionally to translate the overlay.
425 Normally overlay image is printed on the tray so that the bottom-
426 right of the image is anchored to the bottom-right of the tray. To
427 move the images away from the bottom and right borders, use this
428 option. For example, to leave 0.1 inches of gap between the image
429 and the bottom border, and 0.2 inches from the right border, and
430 use 1.0 scaleratio (no scaling), use this:
431 --tray-overlay-scaleratio 1.0,-0.2,0.1
432
434 cdlabelgen -c "My Filesystem"
435 -s "/usr/local/foo"
436 -e postscript/recycle.eps > foo.ps
437 cdlabelgen -c "title of cd"
439 -s "subtitle"
440 -i "Item 1%and Item 2%a third item here perhaps"
441 -e postscript/recycle.eps -o bar.ps
442 cdlabelgen -c "Fitz"
444 -s "home directory"
445 -o qux.ps
446 cdlabelgen -c "Backups"
449 -s "home directory"
450 -n "4 of 5"
451 Direct printing on a CD or DVD, if file "example5.txt" has list of items:
453 cdlabelgen --clip-items --no-tray-plaque --date "Jan 2005"
454 -c "Collections 12" -s "- english songs -"
455 --cover-image "music2.eps" --cover-image-scaleratio 0.0
456 --tray-image "mp3.eps" --tray-image-scaleratio 0.5,-0.5,2
457 --page-offset 0.5,0.5 -f example5.txt -o test.ps
458
460 cdlabelgen uses the Helvetica family of fonts for various text items,
461 using the default encoding of ISO-Latin1.
462 To use other encodings, the "ogonkify" program can be used; this is a
464 package available at http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/ogonkify/
465 The output from cdlabelgen can be piped into ogonkify, example for
466 Latin2 encoding:
467 cdlabelgen <args> | ogonkify -H -eL2 > <outputfilename>
469 See the man page for ogonkify for other possible values for the
471 encoding.
472 Hint: if you always work with a particular encoding, you can just run
474 ogonkify on template.ps - and use the output as the new template.ps.
475 ogonkify -H -eL2 template.ps > template-enc.ps
477 This way ogonkify has to be run only once, cdlabelgen output will
479 contain the correctly encoded fonts from the modified template.ps. Use
480 the -t cdlabelgen option to specify the new template-enc.ps file, or
481 save the old template.ps and renmae template-enc.ps to template.ps.
482
484 When using tools such as Adobe Acrobat to print the .ps or a .pdf file,
485 make sure that "Fit To Paper" option is unchecked. Also uncheck any
486 option that will perform scaling up or down of the cdlabelgen output
487 file.
488 Failure to do so will result in incorrect size printouts.
490 Paper Sizes: Normal CD cases, Slim CD cases, DVD inside inserts can be
492 printed on a letter or A4 sized page. CD/DVD Envelopes and DVD outside
493 inserts will not fit on a letter sized paper, a larger paper size will
494 be needed to make it fit.
495 When using different sized paper, experimentation with the -y (also:
497 --page-offset) [<page_x_offset_inches,]<page_y_offset_inches> option
498 may be required to place the image in the printable region of the
499 paper.
500
502 Avinash Chopde <avinash@aczoom.com>
503 Original author: B. W. Fitzpatrick <fitz@red-bean.com>
505
507 - Karl Fogel, for general encouragement and that free software vibe
508 - Adam Di Carlo, for bug testing, help and making the .deb
509 - Greg Gallagher, for bug testing, coding, and tons of suggestions
510 - Goran Larsson, for feedback and date fixes
511 - Jens Claussen, for the patch to allow arbitrary ISO-Latin1 characters
512 - Bernard Quatermass, for contributing several excellent new features
513 - Sebastian Wenzler <sick@home.and.drunk.at> for reports, tests, RPM ['01]
514 - Peter Bieringer <pb@bieringer.de> for RPM .spec file ['02]
515 - Ronald Rael Harvest <number6@cox.net> for original envelope template ['02]
516 - Alessandro Dotti Contra <alessandro.dotti@libero.it> for color support,
517 man page and other improvements ['02]
518 Mathias Herberts
519 - Mathias Herberts <Mathias.Herberts@iroise.net>, for slim cdcase foldout
520 - Stephan Grund <Stephan.Grund@isst.fraunhofer.de>, for monospaced
521 font and for rotated-end-caps text support
522 - Dominique Dumont <dod@debian.org>
523 for half-height DVD case support
524 for slim-double depth DVD case support
525 (patches forwarded by Juan Manuel Garcia Molina <juanma@debian.org>)
526 - Peter Bieringer <pb@bieringer.de> for testing CD label printint ['05]
527 - Andras Salamon <asalamon@chello.hu> for double-width DVD support ['08]
528
530 ** Word wrap does not work well at all. It will clip lines, or it will
531 auto-reduce the font size, both of which option look bad.
532 ** Ability to change the text style on a given line:
534 {#B}Track# {#P}Title {#I} Text...
535 [Workaround available: just use multi columns input, use blank
536 lines to spread out input items into columns]
537 ** Ability to select or specify fonts for the text/items
539perl v5.10.0 2012-04-15 CDLABELGEN(1)