Hewlett-Packard (HP) is unveiling LightScribe, a new technology that could change the way you label CDs and DVDs. The laser in a LightScribe-enabled CD/DVD disc drive reproduces text, photos, and artwork on the faces of specially coated CDs and DVDs. After burning one of these discs, you use LightScribe-enabled label-making software to do your design work. Then you remove your disc from the drive, flip it over to the label side, and reinsert it. The LightScribe-enabled drive pumps laser light energy into a thin dye coating on your LightScribe media as it spins in the drive. The resulting chemical reactions produce visible points on the disc. You end up with a grayscale, silkscreen-quality label that is a precise, high-resolution reproduction of your design.

HP first announced the LightScribe technology in January of 2004 and it is being featured at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month. LightScribe is already available in the HP Pavilion a820n Desktop PC and the HP Pavilion a830n Desktop PC. Peripheral and plug-in LightScribe-enabled drives should be available for purchase later in 2005.

The hope is that with its low cost LightScribe will soon be ubiquitous. It has been estimated that LightScribe-enabled disc drives will add about $10 to the cost of a computer system. LightScribe will add only pennies to the price of disc media.