B&W or Color?
- Thread starter Ashy
- Start date
Turanil
First Post
Ashy said:Please tell me what you think!
For a printed book, I prefer full color if same price and quality content. However, I prefer black and White for a PDF, since it must thereafter be printed. So in this case I prefer a printer friendly (not too much dark gray shading that consume ink) B&W version.
Astraldrake
First Post
I think B&W is generally cheaper if you are looking to have something printed. Some artists also work well with pen and ink or pencil sketch. If you're printing your first ever product or pdf, as several people have pointed out, your best bet is B&W, soft cover (or pdf) with a few illustrations on regular paper. It's not flashy, but hopefully the substance will get you noticed.
Thinking back to the roots of rpg gaming, you were lucky to get a color cover on the book. Heck, most of my early D&D books disintegrated from heavy use. I still have modules and supplements that have ended up in binders or plastic bags to keep them all together.
Hypocritically speaking, I voted color based on the price and style. Hey, if the B&W was cheaper, I'd do it. If they're the same price, take the color. Either the color was cheaper (doubtful) or the B&W price was artificially inflated.
Just my opinion.
Thinking back to the roots of rpg gaming, you were lucky to get a color cover on the book. Heck, most of my early D&D books disintegrated from heavy use. I still have modules and supplements that have ended up in binders or plastic bags to keep them all together.
Hypocritically speaking, I voted color based on the price and style. Hey, if the B&W was cheaper, I'd do it. If they're the same price, take the color. Either the color was cheaper (doubtful) or the B&W price was artificially inflated.
Just my opinion.
Color generally doesn't matter for text. It only matters for artwork & maps & diagrams.
Generally, maps & diagrams are more important to me in a roleplaying product than artwork.
Generally, color on maps & diagrams isn't used to make them more readable/usable, although it could be.
So I voted B&W.
The real answer, though, is that color should be used when it serves a purpose. Thus, mostly B&W with color where appropriate.
Generally, maps & diagrams are more important to me in a roleplaying product than artwork.
Generally, color on maps & diagrams isn't used to make them more readable/usable, although it could be.
So I voted B&W.
The real answer, though, is that color should be used when it serves a purpose. Thus, mostly B&W with color where appropriate.
I'd still select a colour version before the black and white, even if it meant paying more - well, $5-7 more. Though I don't purchase products on the basis of the interior and exterior artwork - content is far and away the most important consideration - artwork does help with visualisations, especially monsters. While certain campaigns which I run demand ambiguity to highten tension and fear (Cthulhu and Ravenloft come to mind), in the generic campaigns (standard sword 'n' sorcery stuff) I prefer to be unambiguous unless the plot demands otherwise. Colour artwork, at least for me, offers the best visualisations.
That being said, WW's Arthaus line of Ravenloft products does a wonderful job with B&W artwork, and the colour artwork Monte Cook's d20 Cthulhu is, I think, excellent.
That being said, WW's Arthaus line of Ravenloft products does a wonderful job with B&W artwork, and the colour artwork Monte Cook's d20 Cthulhu is, I think, excellent.
I am geniunely baffled that ANYBODY would choose B&W under the parameters of same cost, much less that several folks here did so! I guess I could at least understand it if it was a cost increase, but even then, I would choose Color. Books with beautiful production values like the Dragonomicon are clearly enhanced by their color illustrations.
