Ubuntu Wiki

Design Requirements

The CDs we give out (burned, labeled with sharpie) look reasonable, but having a more professional package would provide more validity for a lot of people. Having a printed CD sleeve would also allow us to give the end user more information than simply "Ubuntu, 8.04, i386", and provide them with instructions, additional resources, and the like.

These sleeves should be easy to create, provide a large amount of external surface area for information, and be simple for other teams to edit and use as their own.

We are looking for anyone and everyone to contribute their designs. If you don't feel comfortable creating artwork yourself, feel free to just post ideas in textual form. We are hoping to create three designs in total,

• Full color - (with background color; to be printed on fancy laser printers, etc)
• Half-color - (no background color, and limited color use elsewhere; this will allow us to print reasonably decent images on home printers without the pages getting soggy or running out of ink)
• Black/White - (no color at all, whether grayscale, or line-art; to be printed on even more printers)

These aren't set in stone. Feel free to argue the need and/or propose new ideas (or to argue against these). These three seem like a good gradient to start with.

These sleeves should be flavor and version agnostic, meaning that the same sleeve can be used for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, as well as a variety of versions (perhaps 8.04 through 9.10? maybe through 10.04? (which is the next LTS)), architectures and CD type may be good as well (i386/AMD64, Desktop/Alternate). These should be visible externally so we don't have to open up the case to see what's inside, perhaps in checkbox form, or some other easy-to-notate manner.

We hope to allow these sleeves to be used by other LoCos without too much modification. So please refrain from using tiny California states in the background (or something similar).

Current implementation

The CD sleeves we're currently using are now located in a bzr branch attached to the LoCo's Launchpad team. You can get PDF and SVG files for everything using the Terminal command bzr branch lp:~ubuntu-california/+junk/sleeves, or by downloading from the web interface linked in the list below. License information is available in the COPYING file in each directory. To download a file from the web interface, click the icon at the end of each line.

• Hardy-cycle CD sleeves

• SCaLE 8x CD sleeves (8.10 replaced with 10.04 in version list; other layout changes)

• Current branding version

Printing and Folding Instructions

This design prints on a single sided page, and has a fair amount of surface area for information. If you have a better scheme for folding paper into a sleeve (preferrably one that requires no tape or glue), we're all ears.

Printing

Print it on your favorite printer, on standard letter size paper. It's fine if some is cut off on the edges (don't shrink the image to fit the printable area)

Folding

See the folding instructions for more details, which you can get by clicking the icon next to folding.svg or folding.pdf on the trunk page.

1. Start with the printed side facing towards you and the top of the page (with the diagonals) facing up.
   • all the folds for the entire sleeve are "away" from you
   • the printed side of the page is always on the outside of the fold (you'll be able to see the dotted line)
2. Fold the bottom two horizontal folds (there are three total, and two vertical ones, and two diagonal ones).
3. Fold the two vertical folds.
4. Fold the last horizontal fold and the two diagonal folds (these can be done in any order).
5. Unfold the pointed flap slightly in order to slide the CD in to the pocket, slide it all the way down.
6. Refold the top flap, fold it over again, and tuck it into the bottom part.

Blank Sleeve Dimensions

PDF, Inkscape (svg), and GIMP (xcf) versions of the blank sleeve are available in the bzr repository.

If you're looking to create the frame in another program, here are the endpoints of the lines for two different coordinate systems, in centimeters (8.5x11 paper is 21.59x27.94cm)

Origin Top Left (like in GIMP)

Origin Bottom Left (like in Inkscape)

They are symmetrical, so if your system uses a right corner instead of a left, it won't matter.

Ubuntu Artwork

Some pages that might be a useful source for Ubuntu artwork for sleeves: Artwork/Official, DIYMarketing, CaliforniaTeam/Projects/Logo (feel free to add more)

Ideas

Use this area to post and discuss your ideas please sign your edits! -- Best to use @SIG@, and it will expand automatically like this when you save (not preview): -- NealBussett 2008-06-06 22:43:24

I found this alternative folding method from AthensMusician.net. Most people who I have asked when shown both methods say that this is a nicer design. It has larger surface areas, and does not require complete unfolding to get the disc out. With practice this method requires nothing other than a blank piece of paper and the CD itself for measuring where to fold. -- Grantbow 2009-04-05 09:42:47

First, the reception during the session we were both in about Marketing was positive about the current CD Sleeve attached here. Lots of people offered praise about the sleeve we have given to literally hundreds of peole in California.

I have a few (hopefully quick) requests Delete this paragraph when you can address them. First, it would be great to understand the license under which these content is released with. Second, many people will also benefit greatly from posting this old (currently good and usable) design to spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org Third, some information on this wiki page regarding the outstanding (copyright?) issues and status of the newer version of this sleeve would be extremely helpful. Thanks for considering these! -- Grantbow 2009-11-17 07:41:47