Recently, I asked the following question of Charles Ryan:
Do "Lords of Madness" and "Races of Eberron" use a different paper type than previous 3e books? It feels somewhat softer than what I've been used to - somewhat like the paper in the Special Edition PHB.
Any insights as to the change?
Charles Ryan's response:
So, like any company (or individual for that matter), we occasionally reexamine the deals we have with vendors that provide us with ongoing services. We recently went through that process with our printer, and we ended up changing printers. The factors that went into the decision were manyfold: cost, certainly, but also quality, scheduling capabilities, shipping issues, and so on.
We did not change the specifications of our books. In other words, we required the new vendor to meet the exact same specifications as the old printer, and that includes paper specs. However, the new vendor probably gets their paper from a different supplier, and that can lead to minor differences in the "feel" of the paper.
The long and short of it: The paper in our newer books isn't any thinner than the paper in our older titles, even though it may have a slightly different surface characteristic.
For those not yet convinced, here's a simple test: Lay Lords of Madness down on your dining-room table. Lay an older 224-page D&D book (Unearthed Arcana, for example) down next to it, spine-against-spine. You'll see that they're exactly the same thickness. If one of the books had thinner paper, there'd be a quite noticeable difference in their thicknesses.
Hope that clears things up!
( http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=6044248#post6044248 )
Do "Lords of Madness" and "Races of Eberron" use a different paper type than previous 3e books? It feels somewhat softer than what I've been used to - somewhat like the paper in the Special Edition PHB.
Any insights as to the change?
Charles Ryan's response:
So, like any company (or individual for that matter), we occasionally reexamine the deals we have with vendors that provide us with ongoing services. We recently went through that process with our printer, and we ended up changing printers. The factors that went into the decision were manyfold: cost, certainly, but also quality, scheduling capabilities, shipping issues, and so on.
We did not change the specifications of our books. In other words, we required the new vendor to meet the exact same specifications as the old printer, and that includes paper specs. However, the new vendor probably gets their paper from a different supplier, and that can lead to minor differences in the "feel" of the paper.
The long and short of it: The paper in our newer books isn't any thinner than the paper in our older titles, even though it may have a slightly different surface characteristic.
For those not yet convinced, here's a simple test: Lay Lords of Madness down on your dining-room table. Lay an older 224-page D&D book (Unearthed Arcana, for example) down next to it, spine-against-spine. You'll see that they're exactly the same thickness. If one of the books had thinner paper, there'd be a quite noticeable difference in their thicknesses.
Hope that clears things up!
( http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=6044248#post6044248 )
