Frostburn in PDF @ drivethrurpg!

[Papewaio]

That's not completely true, as of yet there's no method available that keeps the text copyable and readable.

Yes, there is.

1.) The file becomes far bigger (expect the 6MB file to be around 90MB when converted).

Depends on many factors, image quality being one of them. The non-DRM file will be bigger in most instances, but multiplying sice by a factor of 15 is not a good conversion. Two or three times the initial size is more like it.

2.) While you can select and copy the text in any pdf reader, but when you actually paste the text in any text editor you'll notice that the text is nothing more then a string of symbols. The conversion process changed the text characters in a bunch of symbols.

There are quite a few methods to get the full text. Any and all of them just a simple and fast as the one you used.

I will not go into details as, from what I know, it could arguably be considered illegal in some countries.

Papewaio

 

[sckeener]

saving time

Would i buy it at $35? Possibly, $35 is around 30 euro, that would be around two hours of paid work for me. If the book contained material that i would want to use in my campaign (as a player), spells for in my spellbook for example, and the time it would take me to extract the text from a physical copy (through typing it in or OCRing it) would be two hours or greater then i would buy it at $35. I find typing over text or OCRing it extremely boring work, working two (theoretical) hours extra would be far more interesting and would pay for the electronic book. I will still buy the physical book.

exactly. I already use the SRD to save time over typing/ocr, so I would buy it at $35 (I did buy it) because it is going to save me even more time.

I also like a previous post that said it is easier to backup. I've got deities and demigods 1st ed that have wax stains from playing at a campsite when I was a kid. I've had books stolen when I was a kid (person sold them for drugs) I've had a cat decide my gaming bag was a litter box.

It would have been nice to have a backup and backups are easy to do with pdfs. I would still own the hardcover books, but at least I wouldn't have to guess what the text is through the stain.

 

[Staffan]

1.) The file becomes far bigger (expect the 6MB file to be around 90MB when converted).

Exalted DRM file from Drivethru: 7448007 bytes.
Exalted after I'm done with it: 12546237 bytes.

Bigger, yes, but not that much bigger.

2.) While you can select and copy the text in any pdf reader, but when you actually paste the text in any text editor you'll notice that the text is nothing more then a string of symbols. The conversion process changed the text characters in a bunch of symbols.

This is the world of Exalted.
At the center of the world lies the Blessed Isle, and at the center of the Blessed
Isle lies the Elemental Pole of Earth, the axis of creation and the stable center of
reality. The Isle is the stronghold of the Realm, the decadent empire whose rulers,
the Dynasty, have held the world in their thrall for almost seven centuries.
Directly copy/pasted from the non-DRM file I made from the DRM file.

Your tools are obviously not the best ones for the job.

 

[Cergorach]

Your tools are obviously not the best ones for the job.

Educate me: cergorach AT thehelix dot nl
If your able to do what you claim i'm very interested how, from both a technical perspective as wel as a practical perspective.

 

[Voadam]

sckeener-

Hey, there! I am glad that you posted about this, because I am curious of the opinion of a true pdf fan: do you think that pricing the electronic document the same as the MSRP for the hardback volume is reasonable? Will you buy it at that price?

I ask, because it makes absolutely no sense to me that a product with zero printing and minimal distribution costs would be priced the same as one with both of those embedded costs. This is not even including discounting, which is common in the industry. Perhaps I am just missing a fundamental advantage to the electronic version since I have not used pdfs extensively?

Big pdf fan, I have over 80 d20 pdfs.

Pricing at the print cost means it will only be for a select few target consumers.

1 those who can use the DRM pdfs but cannot get a physical copy.

2 Those willing to put up with the DRM, and high price (in contrast to other pdfs and the physical books) so that they can have the advantages of an electronic book left after adding the DRM technology as applied to this specific book.

I don't get DRM pdfs.

I get most every pdf dirt cheap on big time sales or that are already dirt cheap.

I will not be getting Frostburn at drive thru, although I expect to continue to get WotC non-DRM pdfs of older edition products for $5 at www.rpgnow.com I wish they would start selling older 3e products in Non-DRM formats cheaply there too.

 

[Leopold]

I will not buy a $35 PDF. That's insane. I bought a $15 PDF and that's my max spending. Anything more and it better come with a print copy shipped to my house. Hell it doesn't have to be a NICE copy, just as long as I got it in print.

 

[Conaill]

Educate me: cergorach AT thehelix dot nl
If your able to do what you claim i'm very interested how, from both a technical perspective as wel as a practical perspective.

Do let us know what you think of it, Cergorach. There's been so much naysaying about this point that it'd be nice to know for sure...

 

[Cergorach]

Do let us know what you think of it, Cergorach. There's been so much naysaying about this point that it'd be nice to know for sure...

I just got an instruction that looks promosing, i'll have to try it before i can say that it works or not, but for now it requires more brain power then i have available (i'm tired).

 

[Great Mastiff Corp.]

I have been tempted to have the company issue the "Acrohelion Campaign Setting" as a PDF, because of the extremely high printing/distributing/etc. costs of the actual printed books. As a publisher, I can tell you that the electronic format is extremely tempting, because it offers more that a few dollars of profit per copy. However, I and those who advise me also feel that there is a HUGE risk of destroying sales of the print product, because once the PDF is purchased, it can be multiplied endlessly, put up on pirate websites, etc. etc. It is true that someone could scan the book in page by page and do much the same, but why do the work for them?

So I think that Wizards is trying to protect themselves. They put a high price on it so that a deliberately small number of people will purchase the book. These people will be a 'control group' to see how honest the purchasers of PDF products are, and whether it's worth it to put more books online. Personally, I think they're sticking their necks out seriously, because the PDF medium has colossal potential for abuse, especially for a major book which requires so many resources to produce to begin with. But they may also have other reasons -- perhaps compelling ones -- to take the risk.

(There is another reason for WotC's high MSRP on print books, by the way, but since I'm not certain about the confidentiality of the issue, I will not repeat it here. Before I got into the publishing end of the industry, I always used to fume about Wizards' expensive books. Now that I know some more, I actually sympathize with them ... they aren't seeing very much of that Frostburn price actually coming in to pay the salaries, I can tell you that much.)

 

[Roudi]

This arguement has been repeated so many times that restating it might be a tad redundant. Nonetheless, here it goes.

Having a product in a format like PDF that is relatively easy to pirate might hurt sales. But you really have to ask yourselves - the people unwilling to pay for a product, and who actively go and pirate the book, what makes you think they would have bought it if that was their only option? "Piracy" of a product might run rampant, but can you actually say that all those with pirated copies of your book would have bought the book if it wasn't available to download?

Publishers have got to stop seeing every pirated copy of their book as a lost sale. As far as I'm concerned, the sale was never there to be made. You are dealing with primarily with freeloaders who are only acquiring what they can easily download. They never would bother to buy the book at all.

This is not to say that every pirater of PDFs is like this. I'm sure there are at least a few sales lost to piracy. There's also the arguement that a downloadable PDF version might actually promote the product and inspire further sales. Regardless, I feel that being of the opinion that releasing a product to PDF is inviting the ravenous pirating dogs to descend upon you and steal away all profit, is to fall victim to popular misconception. I see it in the above poster, and I see it as well in WotC's marketing department.