I will try to post useful info here from time to time and here's this morning's nugget.
As you know, graphical and printing tasks are always a challenge for us blind folks 'grin'.
Well, with the help of a client and dear sighted friend, i have figured out a simple way to make simple lightscribe labels.
Ok for one thing, forget window-eyes, for the most part, it won't speak in this particular lightscribe app.
Nvda is your friend here. You can find nvda at http://www.nvda-project.org/ Jaws will work too, but nvda seems to work the best. You can find some nice free tools at lightscribe.org The one we are talking about here is lightscribe simple labeler.You will need to download and install the lightscribe system software which is like driver software if you don't already have it.
I will put up a zip file with several lightscribe tools and the latest system software for everybody to grab for convenience.
When you install simple labeler, dismiss the first screen as nvda doesn't say anything, there's a check box to not show this again you can see, i forget what she told me that screen said, I think maybe something about making sure you put a lightscribe disk upside down in your drive, or some such.
Ok, on the second screen you have what amounts to two different edit boxes. This is where you have to be careful.Because with the default font, you can only have 102 characters including spaces, and it's easy to over-write and then your text will be run together.
I didn't get as far as exploring other fonts, but you can put 102 characters in either box, or split them to 51 a piece, enough to identify and put enough important info for promo cds, and such.
Just as long as the total doesn't exceed 102 characters.Mind you there are much more complex lightscribe tools where you can put much more info on the disk, but this is a start for us to be independant.
I like to put my text in to notepad and count up the characters for top and bottom text, make sure you don't have any line feeds.
then I copy and paste it in to the respective edit fields.The tex will go in a circle the top edit field will go from 9 oclock to 3 oclock on top, going clockwise and the bottom text will go from 9 oclock back to 3 oclock going counter clock wise on bottom, back the other way.
If you only use the top box, it'll just keep going around.Me thinks maybe with smaller fonts, we should be able to put more, because you can put more text in the box and it'll read with nvda, but it'll run over but since there is room in the edit boxes, it's possible that other fonts will yield different results.
I'll see if I can prevail on Robin's kindness to help me somemore, she's really sweet that way, and a smaller font will enable us to get track titles and such all on the disk if we can use a smaller font.
So you choose a border and a font, I leave the default font on mine which is ms shell something or other and I make the border blank,
you've got stuf like ink-cart, paw prints, and other stuff but i use blank for my border.
You can pick your drive, and how many copies too.the good thing about this particular tool is that it doesn't take a long time to write the lightscribe, but still looks good.
About 2 at most 5 minutes.if you ramp up the contrast, and put lots of graphics and more printing and you are using the fancier tools like sure thing, or narrow cover designer, it can take up to 30 or 40 minutes, which is still ok for short runs and a lot easier on the wallet than spending 15 bills for a thermal printer, or paying through the nose for consumables for an inkjet, and this stuff is durable, won't smudge, and is still very professional looking accordin to my client.
Ok, next screen is your preview and burn button, and you'll hear nvda go beep beep while it's doing it's thing.
Poor old window-eyes won't see a thing. I've let them know about it, maybe they can make it work.Nvda will tell you when it's done and your lightscribe disk will pop out, ready for your sighted clients to know what's on that magic disk you worked your but off to make for them 'grin'.
Ok, enjoy and here's the link for the lightscribe tools I've gathered and they should all be up to date.
www.affordablestudioservices.com/uploads/ls.zip One final note.The dropix labeler is the most friendly to window-eyes but also the most unstable.
It kept crashing on me big time. YOu guys see how your mileage varies.Hp has kind of dropped the ball on lightscribe according to some, but other third party vendors including bluray new drives are including lightscribe, so i think it's here to stay for a while.
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