[OSRIC] v1.01 release date

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Concerning a dial-up verison, I'm on dial-up (crappy dial-up, at that) and the standard 1.0 file poses no problems for me.

Sure, the issue is that v1.01 is (a) 50% larger by word count, (b) contains many more images, and (c) the images are at 300 DPI ready for print -- in .png format, which is what we found printed best, but it's a memory-hog!

The source file is going to be hundreds of megabytes in size as a necessary precondition of making it look good in print.

Basically, the low-bandwidth download is going to use similar techniques to OSRIC v1.00 and I may strip out the images completely (rather than have them not looking so good, which is unfair on the artists imo).

 

[jgbrowning]

Hi Suzi!

When's Witch Head due out? I'm looking forward to that!

Nearing completion. Probably out next week.

joe "speaking for the suzi" b.

 

[xrpsuzi]

OSRIC Adventures Coming in Stores

Joe will probably make a more complete announcement next week, but there is more exciting news for OSRIC in March.

Advanced Adventures #1: Pod Cavern of the Sinster Shroom is hitting shelves at FLGS in March!

-Suzi

 

[jdrakeh]

The source file is going to be hundreds of megabytes in size as a necessary precondition of making it look good in print.

This isn't as necessary as a lot of people like to think, which was actually the point I was trying to make. Honestly. For example, you don't see too many (if any) PDF files from professional publishers that are hundreds of megabytes in size. As I mention, you can compress the art with little (i.e., unnoticeable) or no reduction in quality (I know, because I do this regularly when I archive my PDF files for printing). I really think that you should look into this before you dismiss it as impossible/not practical.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

As I mention, you can compress the art with little (i.e., unnoticeable) or no reduction in quality (I know, because I do this regularly when I archive my PDF files for printing). I really think that you should look into this before you dismiss it as impossible/not practical.

I'm certainly not too proud to take advice!

I'll be using lulu as the print source.
This is what lulu has to say about how to format a book for their particular printing technique; and I had planned to follow their advice precisely, using techniques and procedures developed in formatting Monsters of Myth (which printed wrong about twice before we got the specifications down pat).

I'd welcome input from anyone who's used Lulu to make the images print crisply without a huge file size!

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Two pieces of outstandingly good news from Expeditious Retreat up there, incidentally.

I'm personally looking forward to Witch Head because I enjoyed Red Mausoleum (by the same author) immensely. On a OSRIC-promoting level, I am (if possible) even more excited to hear about Pod Caverns in the shops!

 

[jgbrowning]

I'd welcome input from anyone who's used Lulu to make the images print crisply without a huge file size!

I'd just follow their advice. Although there's lots of ways to make a file size smaller, if you do what they want you'll probably get a better product.

That said, as to making PDF versions, our PDFs are done at 125dpi which is actually a bit more than what one really needs for a screen/print at home version. Screen version is usually 72dpi and that's usually enough for a home printer as well. If you want to be cautious use 96dpi and if you want to be extravagant like us use 125.

joe b.

 

[jgbrowning]

Two pieces of outstandingly good news from Expeditious Retreat up there, incidentally.

I'm personally looking forward to Witch Head because I enjoyed Red Mausoleum (by the same author) immensely. On a OSRIC-promoting level, I am (if possible) even more excited to hear about Pod Caverns in the shops!

Pod-Caverns in March, The Red Mausoleum in May, The Curse of the Witch Head in July, and (if I get it finished and tested in time) The Lost Keys to Solitude in September. After that, I have a trio of adventures being written right now and will hopefully have them prepared for November, December, January.

Old-School gaming is back in distribution for the stores who wish to carry it.

joe b.

 

[T. Foster]

Pod-Caverns in March, The Red Mausoleum in May, The Curse of the Witch Head in July, and (if I get it finished and tested in time) The Lost Keys to Solitude in September. After that, I have a trio of adventures being written right now and will hopefully have them prepared for November, December, January.

Old-School gaming is back in distribution for the stores who wish to carry it.

joe b.

This is absolutely fantastic news! Now I just have to hope one or more of my local stores are among those "who wish to carry it"...

 

[jdrakeh]

I'm certainly not too proud to take advice!

I'll be using lulu as the print source.
This is what lulu has to say about how to format a book for their particular printing technique; and I had planned to follow their advice precisely, using techniques and procedures developed in formatting Monsters of Myth (which printed wrong about twice before we got the specifications down pat).

I'd welcome input from anyone who's used Lulu to make the images print crisply without a huge file size!

That looks right. They leave out some potentially important stuff, though. . .

First, for the best possible print quality pictures, you should use TIFs on the front end. Not JPEG, not GIFs, not anything other than TIFs. The TIF is the standard file format used in for-print layout by magazine publishers for a few reasons but most importantly, a TIF file is far less susceptible to image degredation when re-sized than other image types are. That is, you can compress the hell out of a TIF before any degradation shows up.

Though they mention compression of individual art pieces as an option to reduce file size, they don't specifically mention compression of the finished product (which is what I was talking about). GSView, for example, uses art-friendly flate compression (text is compressed while art retains its original compression ratio, thus preventing image degradation). You can also use LZW compression before hand, but as Lulu notes, that can be problematic (though isn't necessarily -- print a test page at home and see if any white lines show up on the artwork that was compressed).

Fiddle with GSView's "convert" function, select the device as "pdfwrite" and set it for about 300 dpi (600 dpi if you want photo-realistic prints). Then enable the "compress pages" and "use flate compression" options as "true". I think that you'll be surprised how good the output it, provided that you're starting with TIF images. Tweak the other options as necessary (you'll want to embed fonts, for example). Further, if your images are fully rasterized, there are additional options for downsampling. For a free program, it's an amazing tool.

[Note: Joe beat me to it -- 125 dpi is plenty high for most home printers. I output most of my own PDF files at 300-600 dpi because I have them printed on a commercial press (yes, for personal use), often with glossy pages and the like. Now you know why I also have money issues If you want samples, my Teutini preview at CnCPlayer.net is, IIRC, a 600 dpi output PDF and the revised edition of Bronze (see the Free Games section of my personal site by clicking on the link in my .sig) is a 300 dpi output PDF (again, IIRC).]