Open CD Cover I: Cardboard CD/DVD Case

A card CD case for home or industrial production. By Zero-waste Design.
Creative Commons ShareAlike-Atrribution license 2.5 applies.

A template is provided to aid construction and artwork design.

Once you've added your own artwork, print onto A3 card, preferably 280 gsm. Here I just printed the template onto paper to demonstrate construction. Score all folds carefully with a blunt instrument. A double scored line for folds that will have to go back 180 degrees on themselves is recommended.

As per the template, glue the tabs back on themselves. These are just spacers to make space edpth-wise for the Cd when it is slid in. They also hold it in place to a certain extent.

You then have to glue the backs of the tabs that you just glued down. Turn the whole piece over and fold back the end with the tabs. They are fixed in the centre of the net, making a parellelogram-shaped loop. Press down thoroughly and allow to dry.

Finally, glue the other end back on itself as shown. This feature adds stiffness and means that you only have to print on one side of the card.

This is where Kreyszig comes in handy. I used it as a weight and leave it on top of the constructed CD cover so the glue dries nice and tight. I would leave it for several hours or overnight.

This is what you get. From the front, closed, it looks like the first picture.

Second picture:
When you open the front like a book, the back changes shape to reveal the CD inserted in the slot. I write the tracklistings on the right-hand panel which appears on the back of the cover when closed, and next to the CD when open, as shown here.

The third picture shows how the CD slides in and out.

The fourth picture shows a variation I did for a double CD compilation - I made an extra slot and changed the glueing pattern accordingly in step 4 to accomodate another CD beneath the first.