One Column vs Two Columns and other questions

[Psion]

I HATE one column -- scanning to the end of the line is just not the way my eyes are trained to read.

I only hate landscape slightly less. Back before the days I had a scroll wheel, I might have cared more. But I find that landscape doesn't help that much anyways; the monitor to my laptop is wider than the assumed landscape, and if I minimize the screen, landscapes scroll off the side. Up-and-down scrolling I can hande. My scroll wheel doesn't move sideways.

I'm glad that most PDF RPG publishers seem to be ignoring the advice of this so called PDF bible you speak of.

 

[jgbrowning]

That is actually a good idea, and it makes better sense, but would this make a sourcebook look clunky? This is a fairly huge pdf, 256 pager 7.3 mb so I'm just wondering here

Hrm. Personally with a work this large I'd go with the traditional 8.5x11inch page double-columned.

Why?

To be honest, you're going to have the vast majority of the readers printing it out and that's the best version for that. For those few that do extendedly read it on-line, they'll adjust, especially if you make sure there are plenty of bookmarks.

joe b.

 

[philreed]

I only hate landscape slightly less. Back before the days I had a scroll wheel, I might have cared more. But I find that landscape doesn't help that much anyways; the monitor to my laptop is wider than the assumed landscape, and if I minimize the screen, landscapes scroll off the side. Up-and-down scrolling I can hande. My scroll wheel doesn't move sideways.

I used to use landscape a lot but discussions proved that the people who hate landscape format really[/url] hate it while those who liked landscape format are just as happy with portrait. So I changed formats.

 

[maransreth]

The main reason I prefer 2 columns over 1, is for speed reading. You can read a 2 column page quicker than you can when it is one column. Also with 1 column you can lose your place easily.

Even though you are making it a pdf for online viewing, if your product is so large, do you expect your buyers to only ever read it online, even in the middle of a game?

The suggestion of 2 files - 1 landscape for online viewing and 1 portrait for printing, does make sense, and that way you can have the creepy black and white cover art for printing, and have the colour cover for landscape.

In my reviews I always try to mention the preference for reading online versions in landscape, so that I dont have to scroll up and down all the time, whereas if I will use the product, I want to be able to print it out in portrait style.

 

[mythusmage]

When dealing with 8.5 by 11 sheets of paper how many columns are right depends on the font and point size. A large font such as palatino or courier at 12 points works best in 2 columns. A smaller font such as geneva or times may require three columns.

At the same time a smaller point size will call for more columns. 10 point courier, three columns. 10 point geneva, 4 columns. For something really small such as 6 point times or chicago you'll want 6 columns.

The last time I was putting together a document I was using 8 point palatino in 4 columns. (Why palatino? Because my PDF distiller is a printer utility that substitutes its fonts for yours, and I like palatino.)

 

[nightprowler4321]

One column or two

First let me clear the air,someone said something about the pdf bible. Its no secret that when you sign up, paying your 40 bucks to rpgnow they send you three pdfs and a bunch of other stuff like anime srd, I think a superhero srd guideline, then the pdf creator "the bible" it is supposded to be called and I can't think of the other two right now. It is/supposed to give you guidelines to making a pdf. I'm not knocking it, as some of the stuff is very good. The 40 bucks covers bandwidth so its not just your 40 buck to what alot we already know. The bottom line is for 40 bucks you should be able to get on their site, despite their quality assurance program in some way, but lessons learned. Enough said.

I think as much as I and about 50 playtesters, which is small, hate the two column, I geuss you can only go so far against tradition, before tradition locks you out (Shakes head and mumbles the 1st amendment is not what it used to be). The landscaping while a good idea would prob frustrate actual online players, especially DM's going from side to side, but I think we will release a two column to said company to bring us into the fold. Keep the one column optional for those who want it and experiment on the landscape.

Thanks for the help everyone, I find it amazing taht people I don't even know, will prob never meet even at gen con can give me good advice, and yet from our workbench site, when I posed this question to over 35 members I got one response. Only half of them are contracted with us, its almost like if they speak up, their afraid I will reprimand them and to tell the truth, thier contracts give them alot more power to act upon such things as this.

Now I having a hard time convincing the reviewer that we did switch up thumbnails. We went from the glossy black and white http://groups.msn.com/BlackDaggerGameDesigns/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=23 to this one to this one http://groups.msn.com/BlackDaggerGameDesigns/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=24 (the links should take it out of thumbnail to about 1/3 of its original size). The reviewer says they are both one and the same to him.
I agree that maybe the title needs beefed up alittle. My question is how can I convince him nicely that they are different. We will not be putting a race or monster or adding anything to the pic. It may not be fantasy, but it is a high quality art, and I have seen much much worse there. Doing so would make people think it is a class book, monster book or race book even if we clearly defined it as something else, because the public perception would take it as that. For the second, it is a sourcebook of the wilds.
Perhaps this should be under another category, we have done the nice letter, thank you yada yada quite a few times before the frustrations. I just want to know what approaches have worked best for you in convincing the reviewer you had made changes to your thumbnail/product.

 

[arwink]

Is the first image the same file you uploaded to rpgnow as your thumbnail? If so, you might want to try raising the resolution to 300 dpi, reducing the size so it's only 200 pixils high instead of wide.

I'd also suggest playing with the title - the red doesn't really sit clearly on the black and white background, and its not large enough to read. At the moment the thumbnail is dominated by the d20 logo, rather than calling attention to the art of the name of the product.

 

[Elephant]

I HATE one column -- scanning to the end of the line is just not the way my eyes are trained to read.

I only hate landscape slightly less. Back before the days I had a scroll wheel, I might have cared more. But I find that landscape doesn't help that much anyways; the monitor to my laptop is wider than the assumed landscape, and if I minimize the screen, landscapes scroll off the side. Up-and-down scrolling I can hande. My scroll wheel doesn't move sideways.

I'm glad that most PDF RPG publishers seem to be ignoring the advice of this so called PDF bible you speak of.

Errhm, you can change the zoom level of the pdfs. Side-scrolling is never an issue in them.

 

[philreed]

Now I having a hard time convincing the reviewer that we did switch up thumbnails. We went from the glossy black and white http://groups.msn.com/BlackDaggerGameDesigns/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=23 to this one to this one http://groups.msn.com/BlackDaggerGameDesigns/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=24 (the links should take it out of thumbnail to about 1/3 of its original size). The reviewer says they are both one and the same to him.

Okay, if I was in charge of quality control at RPGNow I'd bump both of those. They're amateur designs that aren't attractive or functional (if they at least filled one of those criteria they'd probably be fine). From here it looks as if the primary problem you're having is a lack of experience and, most importantly, a deficiency in design asthetics. Those thumbnails scream inexperienced amateurs (which isn't bad, we all started somewhere).

I think one of the smartest things for you to do is to examine book covers, magazine covers, CD covers, cereal boxes -- just look at everything out there. Get a feel for what works and what doesn't.

As it is, I assume that your interior pages also feature amateur design. I recommend seeking outside opinions -- and by outside I don't mean your friends (real or net).

 

[arwink]

Errhm, you can change the zoom level of the pdfs. Side-scrolling is never an issue in them.

Although there is a point where reducing the size of a PDF makes them effectively unreadable on a small monitor, which leads back to the side-scroll issue.