GM's day sale! A Magical Medieval Society

[jgbrowning]

In celebration of GM's day, we here at Expeditious Retreat Press are happy to announce a sale on A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. The sale is good through March 4th.

Instead of ten big ones, it'll only cost you eight. That's right folks, you hear properly, only 8 dollars gets you the definitive fantasy world building guide.

Drop by, pick up a world.*

joe b.

*some assembly required. ok not some, a lot of assembly required. but you get worksheets!

 

[Dax Doomslayer]

*Sigh* . . . If only it was in print version . . .

 

[Rifter]

That's what printers are for. Turns a PDF into a print product. If you have not tried pdfs before, they are very convinenent. Especially if created correctly.

 

[Storminator]

That's what printers are for. Turns a PDF into a print product. If you have not tried pdfs before, they are very convinenent. Especially if created correctly.

This is particularly true of this pdf. Very printer friendly, all B&W, no art (I think).

I was rather astonished when it came in under 1 MB to download.

PS

 

[Piratecat]

How many pages is it, incidentally?

 

[jgbrowning]

How many pages is it, incidentally?

its 135, but that includes 2 covers, legal stuff, and about 6 pages of table of contents. so its around 125 or so pages of content. and no art on purpose, 'cause we knew people were going to be printing this one out.


joe b.

 

[mythusmage]

Suggestion: Do the worksheets as PDF (one sheet per PDF) and bundle them as a web enhancement. That way people can print out each sheet as needed, without having to muss with printer settings.

And some stray advice:

At the type size used three columns work better than two. Justifying the type is also a good idea. Overall the file is printer friendly, but the type is monitor friendly. Serif for print, sans serif for the screen. Makes for easier reading and less eye strain.

A couple of other things regarding print products (even if said printing occurs after said product is purchased):

Indent the first line of each paragraph, unless it's the first paragraph in a chapter or section. Single space between paragraphs. (That alone will save tons of space.)

I'll assume you used Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Distiller to make the file. Be that the case, keep on the lookout for plug-ins from a variety of third party companies. They make PDF distillation a lot easier.

Finally, get a layout program. Adobe Acrobat has trouble with the formatting of some word processors.

BTW, if you used a Mac I could show you where to find a few PDF utilities etc. Plus low cost layout software etc.

Hope the thing sells well.

 

[mythusmage]

Aargh, I Forgot Something!

The table of contents is a bit hard to read. For the next "printing" I recommend formatting it in two colums per page. This will make reading easier, and cut down on the number of pages the ToC uses.

Overall:

Cover: A fancier typeface for title and publisher. Convert to graphic using your favorite graphics program. It'll add to the file size, but it'll look so much better, and most folks like good cover graphics even when printing a PDF.

Title Page: If you can embed fonts in the PDF, switch to something a bit fancier. People like fancy fonts in their title pages.

Table of Contents: Serif font and two columns. Both will make the ToC easier to negotiate.

Contents themself: Serif font with the type in three columns, and justify. All this will make it easier to read.

Tables: Starting with the first give every other row a color background. Tighten up the cells (that is, bring the borders in), and eliminate the table borders. This will add to the file size, but it looks so much better, and make the table contents easier to read. Send me a plain text version of Table IV-9 and I can give you an example of what I mean. I wouldn't be surprised if I could get it down to about 80% of its present size.

Hell, if you had AppleWorks or Word Perfect I'd be able to format the whole thing for you and show you what I'm talking about. You'd even get some new fonts out of it.

In any case, I look forward to your next product. I might even get the print version of AMMS:WE when it comes out. Good luck.

 

[jgbrowning]

Mythusmage, i'm going to cobble both of your posts together for this post for some questions/answers.

Suggestion: Do the worksheets as PDF (one sheet per PDF) and bundle them as a web enhancement. That way people can print out each sheet as needed, without having to muss with printer settings.

I'm not sure i'm understanding what you mean by printer settings. I just hit print and select the page i want to print and it goes. Are you having some sort of printing problem?

Edit: Perhaps your talking about the filled out examples worksheet that we're planning to do as a web enhancement? If so, yep, we'll put them all together as only one file.

Indent the first line of each paragraph, unless it's the first paragraph in a chapter or section. Single space between paragraphs. (That alone will save tons of space.)

that was our first idea, but after we did it our pages looked really dense. The space between the chapters opened up the page a little and (for me at least) made it easier to find what i was looking for.

I'll assume you used Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Distiller to make the file. Be that the case, keep on the lookout for plug-ins from a variety of third party companies. They make PDF distillation a lot easier.

Finally, get a layout program. Adobe Acrobat has trouble with the formatting of some word processors.

We used pagemaker 7.0 for the layout and distilled via that software.

Hope the thing sells well.

Me too.

Table of Contents: Serif font and two columns. Both will make the ToC easier to negotiate.

Our revised edition (coming soon!) will do just that.

I noticed that a lot of your comments were about fonts and spacing issue. Are these just your preferences or are you having difficulty reading/printing the file? I don't have access to a Mac so i don't have a way to test our files on a Mac before we put them up. Could that be part of the problem or is it unrelated?

I wouldn't mind seeing your version of one of our tables. If it will help them be better than they already are, i'd be all for changing them.

In any case, I look forward to your next product. I might even get the print version of AMMS:WE when it comes out. Good luck.

Great! We're finishing the print layout and the revised PDF layout right now. Thanks for the suggestions, I'm always looking for imput on how to put out better stuff.

joe b.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'm not sure i'm understanding what you mean by printer settings. I just hit print and select the page i want to print and it goes. Are you having some sort of printing problem?

He means that now if he wants three different sheets he has to hit print, select page x, hit ok. Select print, select page y, hit ok. Select print, select page z, hit ok. If all of the blank sheets where together, one after another, he could select print, select pages x-z, hit ok and three pages would come out.

that was our first idea, but after we did it our pages looked really dense. The space between the chapters opened up the page a little and (for me at least) made it easier to find what i was looking for.

I noticed that a lot of your comments were about fonts and spacing issue.

I agree with every single thing he said about how to do the layout. In fact, I use just about everything he said in my stuff. (I also make headings in dark red so they stand out.)

His advice was just standard procedure for most text layout. You use serif fonts on paper because the serifs help the eye scan the line. You use san-serif on screen because there is not enough resolution to do the serifs right and you end up with a splotchy mess. (Although I still do serifs on screen. I'm bad.)

These are just typographic truisms. As cool as your book is, I haven't had the heart to print it so I could really read it because it looks like it came out of a typewriter. Justification is a definite plus.