CD-R

Compact disc-recordable
Media typeOptical disc
EncodingVarious
CapacityTypically up to 700 MB (up to 80 minutes audio)
Read mechanism600-780 nm wavelength (infrared and red edge) semiconductor laser, 1200 Kbit/s (1×) to 100 Mb/s (56x)
Write mechanism780 nm wavelength (infrared and red edge) semiconductor laser
StandardRainbow Books
Developed byPhilips, Sony
UsageAudio and data storage
Extended fromRecordable LaserDisc
CD-ROM
Extended toCD-RW
DVD-R
Released1988; 36 years ago (1988)[citation needed]

CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can only be written once and read arbitrarily many times.

CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the introduction of CD-R, unlike CD-RW discs.