B&W or Color?

[Mr. Lobo]

I picked black and white.

Maybe because most of the illos in the books and modules from my first D&D experiences were all B&W and I've been programmed.

I like my comics in B&W too. Just leaves more to the imagination. Or maybe it just seems more like fantasy with B&W.

Sometimes color is helpful for contrast with a complex drawing. There are some B&W illos that I almost have to trace the lines to figure out what the dang picture is. But I prefer simple B&W just to get across or enhance a textual point.

Mr. Lobo

 

[jinx crossbow]

I think I would mostly prefer Color

But:
I've got some PDFs from RPGnow an there I mostly prefer the BW versions.
The reason is i've only a BW printer at home because i don't need often color.

The best RPG books I have are BW not Color.

So I think I should think my answer over, should I

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I voted color, because I was assuming a print book.

Like many have said, well-done B&W line art is preferable in pdfs.

 

[Li Shenron]

It doesn't matter very much to me, as long as the artwork is nice. I slightly prefer the colour artwork over B&W, but it really depends on the palette (WotC books are fine, others are awful) which if it is too funky it can be very bad. And in general, I prefer to have a few good pictures rather than a lot but half of which are poor.

 

[Arnwyn]

I voted 'color', but that's only because the poll puts everything else as equal. If there were even a dollar difference in cost, I'd go for the B&W. I really don't see color to be anything worth paying for.

My main concern is that the artwork is used sparingly and is understated. I'm buying a rulebook, not a coffe-table art book. Art is almost optional.

Ditto. That whole entire quote is a big "ditto" for me.

 

[Napftor]

I picked B&W. I like color as much as the next guy, but some artists just don't work well with it. There are some products (I won't go into specifics) where the color artwork was just god-awful but would have been passable with black and white. So I'm erring on the side of caution. My imagination is good enough for B&W.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

I think B&W gives a certain mood to artwork. I think of the B&W Tim Bradstreet pictures in the Vampire books and I know I'd rather not have them in color even if presented a choice.

 

[GrayPumpkin]

Well it depends, if the artwork is done in color but just printed in B&W then I go color. However if you’re talking about a pen and ink black and white drawing vs. a color drawing then I would say B&W.
Perhaps it’s the grognard in me but there is something appealing about B&W pen and ink drawings, especially when it comes to depicting monsters. I find the B & W work in the Creature Collections and Tome of Horrors books much more evocative than the color monster from WotC.

 

[Conaill]

Depends on the quality. I've seen a lot more crappy color art than crappy B/W art. Of course, a grayscale version of a color painiting can sometimes give you the *worst* of both worlds, but I really appreciate a well-inked B/W drawing.

 

[drakhe]

In one particular case I prefer B&W!

I did vote for color, but I have to add, there's one particular instance where color is not the first choice: Warhammer. Though there's some great color work in the Warhammer world (both mini's and RPG) what I have allways liked the most is the fantastic pencil drawings in their books!