Introduction

This LaTEX class grew out of my frustration with software for CD covers. My list of requirements includes eternal durability of covers (I do not want to throw away my precious covers because of an upgrade), easy batch printing with crop marks, full typographical control, extended foreign language support, fully open text-based format for easy copy-and-modify operations, and so on.

As usual, the package is provided by means of a .dtx source that a .ins driver will convert into a class (.cls) file. Of course, compiling the .dtx source will generate the documentation. For your convenience, the class file is directly available, but the full archive contains also documentation and siaple driver files.

Usage

Full documentation is provided with the package; normal usage requires creating a simple data file for each cover, much as in the following example: 

 \covertext{
 The Artist\\
 \bfseries The Title
 }

 \leftspine{THE ARTIST}
 \centerspine{THE TITLE}

 \lefttracklist{
 \track Song 1
 \track Song 2
 \track Song 3
 }

 \leftinfo{Words and Music by The Artist}

Then, by using the provided driver files you can easily generate one or more covers. Note that the class uses heavily the rotating package, so you must convert the resulting dvi file into PostScript®, or use directly pdflatex. The result could look as follows:

CD cover (first sheet)CD cover (second sheet)

Since version 1.1, the class supports slim covers:

Slim CD cover

If you're really lazy…

… here is a Ruby script that, provided with information from freedb.org, will generate automatically a data file. For instance, 

wget -O- http://www.freedb.org/freedb/jazz/380a0a05 | ./parsecd.rb
will generate a cover for Monk's “Brilliant Corners”. You can search for your record on freedb.org, and then simply use the links provided under the label "ids".