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PHB Book Layout - Good or No so Good
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<blockquote data-quote="Marius Delphus" data-source="post: 4869166" data-attributes="member: 447"><p>This being an opinion-based thread, and I having a strong opinion of my own, it's time to make public Marius's List of 4E Layout Nitpicks. There's a really good design here, it just needs loads of refinement. Had I but world enough, and time.... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Ugly, huge fonts. This is the first time since 2E Player's Option that I've wanted to know what the fonts were so I could <em>avoid</em> using them. (I still have an unvarnished hate for University Roman, and though I can stand Frutiger, I would never, ever use it as body text.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Inconsistent use of graphical header bars. They look nice, sure, but do they go over both columns? One column? When? What level(s) in the book's outline are they associated with, and why does that/do those levels get treated differently from time to time?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Inconsistent placement/cropping of images. In particular, the one-column/half-page vertical images: do they get to be full bleed or don't they? Do they get cropped out of the gutter or are they left pushing into the gutter?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">No baseline grid. Lines of text don't line up horizontally between columns. This one is something I simply can't get over.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Overuse of gradient ramps. And speaking of gradients, what is with those sidebars? Ugh. (Ditto here what's already been said about the combat chapter. Painful, painful.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Use of letterspace adjustment with left-aligned text. You can get away with it when the text is justified (I do it all over the place in the WOTBS books). It just looks silly when the text is left-aligned. It makes me feel as though a copyeditor needs to take another swipe at the paragraph.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Half an index. I base this on the feeling I have that, half the time I go looking for something in the index, it's not there.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">[<em>After reading Toben's comment below, adding:</em>] White space, used badly. White space used well can help a page. The kind of white space found in the 4E books isn't that kind of white space.</li> </ol></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marius Delphus, post: 4869166, member: 447"] This being an opinion-based thread, and I having a strong opinion of my own, it's time to make public Marius's List of 4E Layout Nitpicks. There's a really good design here, it just needs loads of refinement. Had I but world enough, and time.... :) [LIST=1] [*]Ugly, huge fonts. This is the first time since 2E Player's Option that I've wanted to know what the fonts were so I could [I]avoid[/I] using them. (I still have an unvarnished hate for University Roman, and though I can stand Frutiger, I would never, ever use it as body text.) [*]Inconsistent use of graphical header bars. They look nice, sure, but do they go over both columns? One column? When? What level(s) in the book's outline are they associated with, and why does that/do those levels get treated differently from time to time? [*]Inconsistent placement/cropping of images. In particular, the one-column/half-page vertical images: do they get to be full bleed or don't they? Do they get cropped out of the gutter or are they left pushing into the gutter? [*]No baseline grid. Lines of text don't line up horizontally between columns. This one is something I simply can't get over. [*]Overuse of gradient ramps. And speaking of gradients, what is with those sidebars? Ugh. (Ditto here what's already been said about the combat chapter. Painful, painful.) [*] Use of letterspace adjustment with left-aligned text. You can get away with it when the text is justified (I do it all over the place in the WOTBS books). It just looks silly when the text is left-aligned. It makes me feel as though a copyeditor needs to take another swipe at the paragraph. [*]Half an index. I base this on the feeling I have that, half the time I go looking for something in the index, it's not there. [*][[i]After reading Toben's comment below, adding:[/i]] White space, used badly. White space used well can help a page. The kind of white space found in the 4E books isn't that kind of white space. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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