The process of duplicating a CD is to take the information from your master CD and copy all of the files into a CD duplication tower. The duplication tower has a hard drive for storing the information. Once the information is in the duplication process is ready to begin. The more CD duplication towers you have the faster the job will be completed. Each CD will have the information written onto a CD-R.
When you are doing CD duplication you have two choices of printing directly on the CD. You can use a silver inkjet printable disc or a white flood disc. The printer can print in four colors and if your design requires any white in the printing then you must go with a white flood disc. If you are looking for a gloss coat finish, there are manufactures that have inkjet printable disc in a gloss coat but you will pay more for the disc
Once the duplication process is complete you now are off to packaging. There are many choices of packaging from a jewel case, slim line case, amaray case or trim pack. All of these cases require different types of packaging material. So depending on how you are designing your CD for resale will depend on what type of case you are using. Once packaging is complete you will want to have your final product shrink wrapped to give it that retail ready look.