PDF Vs. Print [Slight Rant]

[Tsyr]

Why don't I like .pdfs?

1) I'm not really saving any money. I'm really not. When I figure the cost to replace cartriges for my printer, the cost of paper, the cost of binding... I might save a buck. Maybe two. That's not worth it to me.

2) And worse, the product I *do* have, regardless of what I do when I'm printing, is going to be subpar... ink that runs and smears, paper that is prone to picking up oil and grease, binding that is prone to tearing and freying, or ripping and so forth of spiral binding, sub-par graphics quality on the graphics, can't have "proper" borders because there is always that 1/8" "white space" that my printer can't print on, single sided printing (Unless I wan't to go to a *lot* of hassel to print double sided, or spend money to buy a printer attachment for my printer (nearly 100$) that will let it do double sided paper, etc.

3) And despite the cost and the overall worse quality, it's a lot of hassel to do.

4) I don't get anything for my money. This is one of the biggest one. I'm not getting a physical product for my money... no proof of "Yes, I bought something, darnit". At least when you buy a music CD or a computer game, you get the case, the disc, maybe a manual or booklet, etc. Nothing with a .pdf. For some people this might be a minor thing, but it really really irks me.

5) PDFs on the computer are, simply, a hassle. The entire page can't be viewed at once (Unless I shrink it to a point I can't read it), any art makes viewing them horribly laggy (press page down, watch the page jerk down all white, watch the text appear, watch the image appear, see that the page isn't what I need, repeat), and it's slower. Plus, I simply don't enjoy reading a book on a computer screen. I really really don't. And the ability to search the file is minor to me... I can skim-flip through a book so fast it's rarely relevent, and the index is fine when I can't.

 

[Ravellion]

Another thing that might be worth mentioning is that many European countries think of Credit Cards as an archaic and unsafe method of payment (though the internet is slowly persuading them back - exaclty because it doesn't have the safety features of the normal cirrus cards, which can neither be bypassed nor performed over the net) , but the problem being that it is the only thing you can use because for a pdf the direct bank transfer cost would be as big as the cost for the pdf, and the aforementioned average european cirrus/maestro card simply can not be used on the net.

The only pdfs I get are free. If it costs me anything, it is more hassle than traveling 45 minutes to the shop. If I don't get a product that I want that way... (shrugs)

I don't see why they have to be PDFs in the first place. As Tsyr mentioned, they are slow and cumbersome. I think I'd rather have RTF with a few added 1 page JPGs for illustration (which you can then choose to print out or not).

Rav

 

[Psion]

Whenever I see a print Vs. PDF topic come up, there's always someone that makes the statement that they prefer print (and are willing to pay good money for it) because they don't like reading PDF's. Well, here's a big shocker, PDF's aren't intended to be read on your computer screen!

They aren't? Could have fooled me. I think you would have a hard time getting that out of the statement describing the purpose of Adobe's file format. Adobe self-describes the purpose of the format as a "standard of electronic document distribution. It is not made specifically to be printed of not to be printed, but rather, to surmount portability issues.

If they were they would use fonts that are more friendly to the eyes on computer screens, and there is a difference.

True, there is a difference, but most PDFs are made to support being printed or read. On screen, you can scale the doc to whatever size you want, so print is the limiting case; other than that, print and screen fonts have similar viewing considerations (serif fonts in body text, etc.)

Your column formatting has for more to do with screen viewability than the font.

At any rate, I get PDF format specifically TO read them on the screen. I could carry dozens of books on my laptop and have them take up much less space and be much more portable than a print version.

Sure you can argue the cost of printing/binding, but that doesn't address the issue that once printed and bound, there is essentially no difference between the PDF and a printed copy except for the type of binding.

I think you way too easily dismiss cost and quality. It used to be that PDFs were priced that if you printed them out, you were still less expensive than the print version -- but you have a lot lower quality end product than you have if it is professionally printed and bound.

Unfortunately, costs of some companies' PDFs are climbing to near the cost of the print product, meaning that if you print it out, you are paying MORE for a lower quality product.

 

[Zappo]

Hm. I don't buy PDFs because of the reasons mentioned, not because I religiously dislike them. Don't think that when you don't see a reason, then there's none.

PDFs are only cheaper if you use them on the computer - but if you do so, they are a pain to carry around and use at the table unless you have a good laptop.

I'll wait for technology to advance until I can get a laptop as thin and light as a book.

 

[shadow]

If PDFs are intended to be printed, why are they so graphic intensive. Even the generic ink cartridges still cost me $12 dollars. And with graphic intensive PDF files (borders, illustrations, etc.) I can easily go through several ink cartridges to print an entire PDF file. Moreover, the ink usually smears, or streaks after a few pages (I have a crappy printer). I don't have a laptop, so viewing the document in game isn't an option. Call me a technophobe, but I haven't brought onto this whole electronic revolution. I still prefer good old print products.

 

[Arnwyn]

Sorry for the rant. I just hate it when people sumarily dismiss a perfectly viable printing option for reasons that aren't logical.

In your opinion. There are many good reasons why people dislike pdfs, most which have already been posted on this thread. And they don't seem illogical to me.

 

[gariig]

Any suggestions on printing PDFs cheaply? Someone suggested ink refills, but I'd prefer laser quality prints. Also, I haven't noticed the paper soaking up oils.


Does anyone here buy the PDF and then buy the printed product, too? Based on what I can figure out from Kinko's most products cost the same to print in laser quality and bink as they do to by the published product(Ala Malhavoc products).


Gariig

 

[smetzger]

And here is my slight rant

I like PDFs because I read them on the computer and can copy/paste from them.

So, I'd like to see more PDFs that have monitor friendly format; landscape works pretty good.

 

[Michael Morris]

I don't see why they have to be PDFs in the first place. As Tsyr mentioned, they are slow and cumbersome. I think I'd rather have RTF with a few added 1 page JPGs for illustration (which you can then choose to print out or not).

Rav

RTF?? Ha.

RTF doesn't give the publisher any control over what the file will look like on your computer unless you are using the same version of the same program to open the file AND have all the same fonts installed. Even then pages might come up misaligned and such on certain programs like Microsoft Word (One thing I hate about Word is that it is a ROYAL PAIN to get pages and columns to stay still). RTF also does not support JPEG or GIF - so if you put any graphics within the file itself they will be stored as uncompressed BMP. I've seen files that were only 230 K in PDF be over 2 MB in RTF, so don't tell me that RTF is a superior format. Far from it. RTF is, at best, a legacy format from the early 90's that has since been supplanted by HTML and PDF.

 

[Fenes 2]

Well, one thing bothers me with pdfs (although I purchase quite a bit of them from RPGNow and SV games): Most are formatted with two collumms, which makes it uncomfortable to read on my monitor - scroll down, scroll up, scroll down again, page per page.