PDF Crits and Suggestions

[HinterWelt]

Hello all,
I am looking at selling PDFs shortly and I was wondering if I could get opinions on the layout, amount of art, and bookmarks for this free download I have. Based on the free downloads I will then add the same ideas into the larger project I will be doing for sale on RPGNow.

Elven History of Narheim (615K PDF)

Any suggestions are most welcome. Thanks for your time.

Bill

 

[jgbrowning]

It's a little text heavy to me. Generally I'd recommend around 10% art or about 1/4 piece every 2.5 pages. Maps count as art.

The bookmarks are great.

Glad to see you trying it out.

joe b.

 

[d20Dwarf]

I'd also suggest double columning the text, as single column on an 8 inch page is a little disconcerting to my eyes.

 

[HinterWelt]

I'd also suggest double columning the text, as single column on an 8 inch page is a little disconcerting to my eyes.

hmm, see this is the tough part. I have seen other reports of it being easier to handle landscape layout for reading online. Here, it seems like a good compormise. You do not have a lot of scrolling but you do have a longer line to read. It seems like it would still be better than landscape though, which would be an even longer line to read. hmm, something to think about though. Thanks.

Joe- I am very surprised. I am coming from the print world and that is all about more art = better. I had read that PDF has a much lower ratio of art but I though I would be taken to task for lack of art, not told that there is too much art.

Thanks for the input. Much appreciated. Please, keep it coming.

Bill

 

[jmucchiello]

Ditch the round logo on the bottom of each page. It does funny things to the text around it, especially on page 12 when it messes up the headers.

Also, what size is the text font? It looks large. I use 9-point for my main text font, 10-point is also good. Anything larger and it begins to look like it was printed with a typewriter. In PDFs fewer pages is almost always best.

And two columns is also a must. It can also shorten your page count. RPG writing tends to have a lot short lines and two columns minimizes the white space next to those lines. Structured text like spells and monsters demonstrate this best. It's why the spell section of the PHB is 3 column instead of 2 for the rest of the book.

Finally, joe b called your book text heavy, not art heavy.

 

[HinterWelt]

Ditch the round logo on the bottom of each page. It does funny things to the text around it, especially on page 12 when it messes up the headers.

Also, what size is the text font? It looks large. I use 9-point for my main text font, 10-point is also good. Anything larger and it begins to look like it was printed with a typewriter. In PDFs fewer pages is almost always best.

And two columns is also a must. It can also shorten your page count. RPG writing tends to have a lot short lines and two columns minimizes the white space next to those lines. Structured text like spells and monsters demonstrate this best. It's why the spell section of the PHB is 3 column instead of 2 for the rest of the book.

Finally, joe b called your book text heavy, not art heavy.

It is 10 point but Albertus Medium can look big. I might take it down a notch. hmm, dual column a must. Wow. Honestly, it can get kind of confusing reading all the opinions on the subject. I prefer two columns but it almost seems like there is a lot of division on the point.

As for the logo, I was trying for branding here. This is a sore point with me, I really get disappointed when it is not clear what company made the piece. We as an industry really need to do a better job at branding. That said, some restraint is in order. I will see if I can reduce it some or water mark it so as not screw with the text too much.

As for the not enough art, I just misunderstood. Thanks for the clarification.

Bill

 

[maransreth]

I read a lot of pdfs and have to say that I prefer to 2 columns and hopefully they are justified, even in landscape view. Just makes it easier on the eyes.

 

[HinterWelt]

Here is a double column version with more art, smaller font and logo, and double column.

Elven history - Version 2

Thanks,
bill

 

[HinterWelt]

I read a lot of pdfs and have to say that I prefer to 2 columns and hopefully they are justified, even in landscape view. Just makes it easier on the eyes.

A justified Version...

Elven History Justified Version 3

 

[Nellisir]

A justified Version...

Elven History Justified Version 3

I like it. But drop the page number down, away from the main body of the text. It looks like it's starting some kind of probe.

NICE art, btw, and cool maps. Where're they from?

I agree about branding. Branding is good for games.

Cheers
Nell.