How do you use PDFs?

[pogre]

Like most here I read them on screen and print out the parts I think I will use in my game. Some things, like adventures, I just print out before I even read them so I can make notes directly on the paper.

 

[Algolei]

I don't have a laptop, and my printer won't take much more abuse. So I sit here and read my PDFs and wish I could use them somehow.

This is one of the reasons why I set fires.

 

[Yair]

While I voted "I print most of them out and use them more often from the printer material", that's not entirely accurate. I purchase quite a bit of pdfs, and most of them don't see my printer. But those that I actually use do, and this goes especially for adventures (I've gotten to the point where I don't like non-pdf adventures, pdf is just waaay more comfortable). Even then, for big books I usually don't print everything, and I often work from my computer even though I have a printed copy.

 

[MonsterMash]

I print them out always to use them - I don't like to use a computer at the table and after all it means trees dying! MWAHAHAHA.

 

[AOS]

Usually I read all pdfs though and if it's something I'm interested in then I print it.
I don't worry about printer abuse as I print them out at work

 

[Pinotage]

Just use them on my PC. Since I don't play over the table games, I don't really need to and since most pdfs are short, I can just read the bits on the screen.

Pinotage

 

[tensen]

Do you print them or use them from a computer?

Can I answer:

I print them out... and for a majority of them use them to wipe when I run out of toilet paper?

(Humor responce. I had to. No company name attached.. The views of this post are opinions of the poster only.)

 

[Ravellion]

Most of my PDFs are adventures, which I prefer to print out and scribble in the margins during a session.

Rav

 

[Dextra]

While Hound has been at school with a rather large print spool (oooooh, baby), he's printed a bunch of PDFs- none of which we've used.
On the other hand, we've used a bunch of PDFs on screen either on his laptop at the table, or his PC right next to it. I use PDFs when writing, and prefer the convenience of bookmarks and search features to find what I need.

 

[arwink]

Depends entirely on the PDF and how much use I think I'll get out of it. Like most of my gaming materials, PDF's get a work-out in the preplanning rather than the actual game. By and large, a lot of information tends to get cut-n-pasted into adventure notes if I think it's going to be relevant, or printed and stored in a binder if it's going to be pertinent to one of the players. I don't like looking through a dozen books to find one peice of information in the middle of a game, regardless of whether they're electronic or not

(Incidently, that's one of the reasons why I've started cutting and pasting relevant rules such as weather conditions and the effects of extreme temperature into an appendix for some of the more recent CGW products - if the pagecount isn't a big deal for a PDF, why not have the information handy so people don't have to go searching for the rulebooks to crosscheck stuff).

That being said, there are about a half-dozen full PDF's in a folder on my game desk (the malhavoc psychic stuff, Enpub's Everybody Else and Liber Equitas I and II, as well as the full version of Tornaments Fairs and Taverns) and at least half a dozen PDF's that get their own folders or are spiral bound - Cry havoc is the only real d20 product there, but there's a bunch of mini-systems like Motocaust and Cat among them.