Artwork Specifications

Please note: this page is outdated. We no longer print “on demand” CDs for new releases. If you wish to read more about Kunaki, read this article.

This page contains information relevant to artists designing cover art for Ektoplazm. Not only do we publish music online, but every official release on our label is also available on CD. Instead of having glass-mastered CDs printed up in lots of 500 or 1,000, we use a revolutionary “on demand” CD manufacturing service, Kunaki, in order to make our releases available to physical media buyers. CD sales account for an extremely small proportion of overall “sales” (something like 0.05%) but we continue to design to the specifications provided by Kunaki, available here. Most of what you will need to know is listed below:

Front Cover & Inside Panel

Height: 1411px
Width: 1423px

CD Face

Height: 1394px
Width: 1394px

The printing process used for the CD face does not handle dark tones very well. I highly recommend making a very bright CD face. Update: Kunaki’s printing process has improved and CD face printing is now very close to the source. Also note that the printing process goes all the way to the inner rim; it is a “full face” printing process. Example:

Back Tray

Height: 1385px
Width: 1772px

Each spine is roughly 74 pixels in width but don’t use it as an exact value; some shifting will occur. In practical terms, don’t make a boxy area to define the spine–just let it fade out of the rest of the back tray image, and be cautious in your placement of spine text as some shifting may occur. Absolutely avoid making a different background (i.e. solid colour) for the spine area as it will look terrible when printed.

In the end you’ll have something like this (front, inside, CD, and back tray):

CD Template

Designing to Kunaki standards? Try this PSD template.

Logo and Text

Ektoplazm logos can be downloaded here. Use this version (EPS) and customize it to fit the look of the artwork.

There is also some standard text you will probably want to have. This statement appears on all our releases:

Licensed under the Creative Commons for noncommercial usage. You are encouraged to share, copy, broadcast, and perform this release! Some rights reserved; see web site for full details: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/

And the credits typically come in a standard form as well:

All tracks written and produced by (artist name) [artist web site]
Mastered by (studio wizard) at (whatever studio) [web site]
Artwork by (artist) [web site]
Released in (year) by (label) [label.com]

Vary it to suit your design.

If you aren’t sure of anything just download an official Ektoplazm release and have a look at the artwork.

The final product should consist of FOUR images: front, back, inside, and disc print. Please provide PSD or JPEG files at maximum quality (12) in RGB with NO BLEED or crop marks.