Core Books [3.5] - Background Lines

[Ravellion]

Another one for the pro lines front!

Rav

 

[smetzger]

I vote kill the lines. They are harder on my eyes. Whenever I open the Psi handbook aftre looking at the PHB I think, wow it looks so crisp.

I had thought they had inluded them to make it more difficult on the pirates who were trying to OCR it.

 

[reiella]

Never really noticed until it was pointed out.

I do happen to agree with Dinkeldog however, they work like serifs on text (Damn you Tech Writing). Some areas truly benefit from them, notably text blocks, as Wizards, imo, overuses serif fonts in section headers.

Does explain why I kept thinking the PsiHB was 'blander' than the PHB though now that I've noticed it.

 

[nikolai]

I love the lines!

I think the lines, which - I think - are called incunabula, really add to the books. They're a great addition to their graphic look and I also think they also make reading pretty small and dense text easier. I'd also like to put in a vote for the "rough edged" font they used and the tome-like cover design (particularly with the DMG).

Have you seen background line in any book published after the 3 cores ? Do you think if there was no background lines in the Psionics Handbook, the Monster Compendium (Monsters of Faerûn), the Manual of the Planes, Deities & Demigods, Monster Manual 2, Oriental Adventure, Book of Vile Darkness, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Tome & Blood and other splatbooks, etc., it was only as a gimmick to differentiate them from core rulebooks and not because complaining about these rules started on Day 1 of availability of the PH ?

I think the reason the lines were dropped was because of the varying font sizes in the other books. Sizes differ between the add-on books and the "core 3" - as well as between different parts of the add-on books. This would have just made using the line graphic impossible without redrawing it lots of different times at different sizes from scratch. I also think a different text font is also used in the Psionics Handbook, Manual of the Planes etc. I think this technical reason - it would be a lot of effort to use them - must be the real cause of the change.

As an OCR protection device I don't think they really work as they'd be easy to filter out with almost any decent graphics package. Combined with Wizards sticking the main rules on the net in the SRD, and not protecting other non-SRD books - I think it's a hard to make they case they're just there to thwart people's scanners. I think they were put there as a graphic design decision, and it was a very good decison at that.

I hope they keep the lines and the font. They both really add to the books. The add-on books look much, much blander because of the changes.

nikolai.

 

[francisca]

Thumbs down on the lines from the axe-wielding Frank.

Perhaps if they were thinner and a light gray, they might have been better. But I very much prefer the look of the lineless books to the original 3 core volumes.

 

[Silver Griffon]

Lines Good!!

I loved the lines. Made it easier on the eyes IMHO. It never seemed to obscure the text to me (unlike the chapter page art that is almost impossible to read through without eye strain).

 

[coyote6]

Wow! Its been unanimous for the lines. How much is it going to cost me to pay you guys off to vote the other way?

$148.69

The lines were fine with me, but I don't think I'll miss them. As long as the tables have some sort of shading or something, of course . . .

 

[EricNoah]

Ah don't love 'em, ah don't hate 'em -- ah don't really even notice 'em!

 

[cildarith]

Hated the lines. Found them very distracting, probably because they were more interesting than the text I was trying to read.

 

[Marius Delphus]

I liked the lines when I first saw them but have gotten tired of them, esp. after seeing reams of pages that have the "no lines" version of the same design. Plus I theorize that without the lines layout is a bit easier... for a lot of little reasons. (Did I see somewhere that they use Quark XPress?)

You can have your two cents back...