The title pretty much sums up the question.
CD Label Maker by Shortcut Software ($10?) is worth it.
I can’t help you with a free one, but I have the CD Stomper. It was around $30 CDN, and came with a lot of labels. I really like it.
My advice is not to put labels on CDs at all. You run a risk of getting the label off-center and tearing up the mechanism in your (or even worse, someone else’s) CD-ROM drive. I remember having troubles with the Baldur’s Gate Disc 3 CD-ROM because the off-center silk-screened printing was enough to keep my drive (and a lot of other people’s, too) from reading the disc because of the wobble. Just label them with a felt tip pen and be done with it.
If you have a real need for a professional-grade label, I have owned and heartily recommend a Fargo/Primera SignatureII CD printer (~$900). It requires special CDs but they weren’t terribly expensive. It is an inkjet, so ink prices are not very high. There are also autofeeding mechanisms available for these printers for high volume use.
I believe that if you buy Avery-brand labels, it comes with a free, Windows-only “Avery Media” CD. It works kind of okay-ish once you figure out how to move around. Too bad I have to use Windows for it to work, though
I was in a hurry when I posted the OP and I guess I used the wrong term. :o
I don’t want to put labels on the CD itself, I want to make the paper covers that go in the CD box. You know, front back and the tiny strips on the sides.
Thanks for the sugestions so far though, I’ll keep them in mind if I ever need labels for the CD itself.
I use CD Cover Pro, it can resize any image to the right sizes for the front and back of cd cases. Its shareware, and I’m pretty sure its around 10$ - 20$ for the full version.
Oh, you mean jewel case inserts. Different matter altogether. When I was working for a startup software developer, we used the Neato (that was the name brand) inserts we got at Office Depot and downloaded the software from their site. It was, of course, already formatted to use their inserts and worked pretty well for a free program.