Pink Floyd — Wish You Were Here: How to Identify a First Pressing

• Cover: The original pressing shrink-wrapped the entire album in opaque black plastic, deliberately 'hiding' the cover art itself, echoing the 'absent presence' design concept.
• Insert: A sticker with a mechanical handshake logo, designed by George Hardie, was affixed to the outside of the opaque black shrink-wrap; the same handshake image also appears on the record label (black background with a blue-tinted image).
• Inner sleeve: The inner-sleeve artwork includes a photo of a veiled nude woman in a Norfolk woodland setting and a photo of a diver at Mono Lake with no splash visible.
• Insert: Some vinyl editions came with an insert postcard printed with related imagery.

• The original 1970s vinyl pressing used black shrink-wrap packaging, while the 1980s European CD editions and the 2010s vinyl/CD reissues switched to a slipcase and no longer use the black shrink-wrap — an important clue for distinguishing the original from later reissues based on packaging.

The user's specific point of interest — the black-shrink-wrap-plus-sticker packaging — has been confirmed with a clear verbatim source on Wikipedia and is well covered.

• Read the runout (the smooth area between the last groove and the label) with the disc tilted under a lamp: matrix numbers, stamper codes and mastering initials are the strongest evidence.
• Label details change between pressing plants and years: rim text, logo style, address, "Manufactured by" wording.
• Cover printing shows the plant and era: printer credit, catalog number position, barcode presence.
• Match all three. A first-press disc in a later cover, or the reverse, is common.

Shoot the label straight on in even light, then the runout with the disc tilted so the etched text catches the light (a phone torch from the side works). Add the front and back cover, the spine, and any inner sleeve or insert. The app reads the label and cover; the runout photo is what confirms the pressing.