Create CD or DVD labels easily using Photoshop and ready-to-print PDF templates
Table of Contents
Replicating the design across multiple labels
Once your design is finalized, it’s time to duplicate it across all the labels on the sheet. Photoshop makes that task easy.
- In the Layers palette, select all layers except Trim. To select sequential layers, click on the first and then, while holding the Shift key, click on the last layer. Hold CMD (CTRL on Windows) while clicking to select or deselect layers nonsequentially.
- From the fly-out menu in the top-right corner of the Layers palette, choose New Group From Layers. In the New Group From Layers dialog box, name the group Upper Label. Optionally, set a color for the group, and leave Mode and Opacity at their defaults—Pass Through and 100%, respectively. Click OK, and all selected layers will be collected in a new layer group.
- Among other things, layer groups allow you to manipulate several layers at once. With the Upper Label group still selected on the Layers palette, return to that palette’s fly-out menu and choose Duplicate Group. Name this one Lower Label and click OK.
- With the Lower Label group selected on the Layers palette, switch to the Move Tool by press V on your keyboard. On the Options bar at the top of the screen, check Auto Select Groups (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: The Auto Select Groups checkbox on the Options bar.
- Using the Move Tool, click on the label artwork itself and drag downward while holding the SHIFT key to constrain the motion to a straight line (90-degress in this case). Because you selected a layer group instead of a single layer, all the components of this complete label will move simultaneously. Align the design to the bottom CD/DVD donut. If you can’t get it exact, use the arrow keys on your keyboard for fine-tuning.
- Lastly—and this is important—hide the Trim layer by clicking the eyeball icon beside on the Layers palette. Failing to hide it now means you or someone could inadvertently include it in the print output, resulting in the possibility that those lines would appear on your labels themselves.
Note: If your project is not CD/DVD labels but something like address or diskette labels that are more numerous than just two on a page, run through steps 3-5 above for each additional label.
