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Quality, price, and the place for PDFs in the print industry
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<blockquote data-quote="The Sigil" data-source="post: 857166" data-attributes="member: 2013"><p><strong>PDFs are NOT more expensive...</strong></p><p></p><p>I couldn't let the comparison go without trying one of my own. I grabbed 5 "print" books and 5 PDF "books," trying to select some representative samples to find out which one really is "cheaper." FWIW, I selected PDF products that I considered among the best ones out there (quality-wise). Oddly enough, all were well over the $5 mark in price (a bit of a surprise to me, I must admit). Note that Forgotten Heroes: Paladin is currently on sale for half off (I used "sale" prices that default to "regular price" since the sales seem perpetual on all the other ones) , so that would improve its standing below considerably.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I'll name names - here are the products I used...</p><p></p><p>Defenders of the Faith (WotC)</p><p>Masters of the Wild (WotC)</p><p>Encyclopedia Arcane: Demonology (Mongoose)</p><p>Dungeons (AEG)</p><p>Mithril: City of the Golem (SSS)</p><p></p><p>Librum Equitis Compiled (EN Publishing)</p><p>Forgotten Heroes: Paladin (Maladin's Gate Press)</p><p>The Book of Eldritch Might 3 (Malhavoc)</p><p>The Banewarrens (Malhavoc)</p><p>The Enchiridion of Treasures and Objects d'Art (S.T. Cooley Publishing)</p><p></p><p>We will rank them first by cost/page, going from lowest to highest.</p><p>1.) Librum Equitis Compiled - 6.8 cents per page (117 pages, $7.95 price)</p><p>2.) Enchiridion - 6.9 cents per page (144 pages, $10)</p><p>3.) Banewarrens - 7.8 cents per page (128 pages, $10)</p><p>4.) Book of Eldritch Might 3 - 9.4 cents per page (96 pages, $9)</p><p>5.) Forgotten Heroes: Paladins - 10.2 cents per page (64 pages, $6.50)</p><p>6.) Mithril - City of the Golem - 16.3 cents per page (110 pages, $17.95)</p><p>7.) Dungeons - 16.9 cents per page (118 pages, $19.95)</p><p>8t.) Defenders of the Faith - 20.7 cents per page (96 pages, $19.95)</p><p>8t.) Masters of the Wild - 20.7 cents per page (96 pages, $19.95)</p><p>10.) Demonology - 23.4 cents per page (64 pages, $14.95)</p><p></p><p>AVERAGE* PDF COST PER PAGE: 8.2 cents per page</p><p>AVERAGE* PRINT COST PER PAGE: 19.6 cents per page</p><p></p><p>*Computed by averaging the cost per page for each product, not by summing total pages and total product cost</p><p></p><p><strong><em>Note that the average cost per page is more than double for print products - it is in fact 2.4 times as much! IMO, that tends to discredit the argument PDFs are "too expensive."</em></strong></p><p></p><p>Similarly, we can compare cost per word.</p><p>1.) Librum Equitis Compiled - 0.0094 cents per word</p><p>2.) Banewarrens - 0.0105 cents per word</p><p>3.) Enchiridion - 0.0109 cents per word</p><p>4.) Forgotten Heroes: Paladin - 0.0122 cents per word</p><p>5.) Book of Eldritch Might 3 - 0.0129 cents per word</p><p>6.) Masters of the Wild - 0.0252 cents per word</p><p>7.) Mithril - City of the Golem - 0.0257 cents per word</p><p>8.) Defenders of the Faith - 0.0264 cents per word</p><p>9.) AEG Dungeons - 0.0282 cents per word</p><p>10.) Mongoose Demonology - 0.0388 cents per word</p><p></p><p>AVERAGE PDF COST PER WORD: 0.0112 cents per word</p><p>AVERAGE PRINT COST PER WORD: 0.0289 cents per word</p><p></p><p>No big surprise there, either - the ratio is 2.57 to 1 in favor of PDFs.</p><p></p><p>You can argue a lot of things, but please don't argue that PDFs are more expensive. They are clearly LESS expensive, on average, by a considerable margin. Even if it costs you 10 cents per page to print and bind a PDF (i.e., 20 cents per page for double-sided), that's STILL just 18.2 cents per page compared to 19.6 cents per page for print... and that's a fairly high printing cost estimate, if I'm not mistaken. YMMV.</p><p></p><p>Just trying to put everyone in possession of some incontrovertible facts here. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Some of the other points raised ARE interesting ones, and I'm trying to envision to myself how I might incorporate bells and whistles cheaply, but I think it's a point of fact that a PDF is, on average, cheaper than a print product, at least if you want to count "per page" or "per word." Obviously, they're empirically cheaper. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>--The Sigil</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Sigil, post: 857166, member: 2013"] [b]PDFs are NOT more expensive...[/b] I couldn't let the comparison go without trying one of my own. I grabbed 5 "print" books and 5 PDF "books," trying to select some representative samples to find out which one really is "cheaper." FWIW, I selected PDF products that I considered among the best ones out there (quality-wise). Oddly enough, all were well over the $5 mark in price (a bit of a surprise to me, I must admit). Note that Forgotten Heroes: Paladin is currently on sale for half off (I used "sale" prices that default to "regular price" since the sales seem perpetual on all the other ones) , so that would improve its standing below considerably. Anyway, I'll name names - here are the products I used... Defenders of the Faith (WotC) Masters of the Wild (WotC) Encyclopedia Arcane: Demonology (Mongoose) Dungeons (AEG) Mithril: City of the Golem (SSS) Librum Equitis Compiled (EN Publishing) Forgotten Heroes: Paladin (Maladin's Gate Press) The Book of Eldritch Might 3 (Malhavoc) The Banewarrens (Malhavoc) The Enchiridion of Treasures and Objects d'Art (S.T. Cooley Publishing) We will rank them first by cost/page, going from lowest to highest. 1.) Librum Equitis Compiled - 6.8 cents per page (117 pages, $7.95 price) 2.) Enchiridion - 6.9 cents per page (144 pages, $10) 3.) Banewarrens - 7.8 cents per page (128 pages, $10) 4.) Book of Eldritch Might 3 - 9.4 cents per page (96 pages, $9) 5.) Forgotten Heroes: Paladins - 10.2 cents per page (64 pages, $6.50) 6.) Mithril - City of the Golem - 16.3 cents per page (110 pages, $17.95) 7.) Dungeons - 16.9 cents per page (118 pages, $19.95) 8t.) Defenders of the Faith - 20.7 cents per page (96 pages, $19.95) 8t.) Masters of the Wild - 20.7 cents per page (96 pages, $19.95) 10.) Demonology - 23.4 cents per page (64 pages, $14.95) AVERAGE* PDF COST PER PAGE: 8.2 cents per page AVERAGE* PRINT COST PER PAGE: 19.6 cents per page *Computed by averaging the cost per page for each product, not by summing total pages and total product cost [b][i]Note that the average cost per page is more than double for print products - it is in fact 2.4 times as much! IMO, that tends to discredit the argument PDFs are "too expensive."[/i][/b] Similarly, we can compare cost per word. 1.) Librum Equitis Compiled - 0.0094 cents per word 2.) Banewarrens - 0.0105 cents per word 3.) Enchiridion - 0.0109 cents per word 4.) Forgotten Heroes: Paladin - 0.0122 cents per word 5.) Book of Eldritch Might 3 - 0.0129 cents per word 6.) Masters of the Wild - 0.0252 cents per word 7.) Mithril - City of the Golem - 0.0257 cents per word 8.) Defenders of the Faith - 0.0264 cents per word 9.) AEG Dungeons - 0.0282 cents per word 10.) Mongoose Demonology - 0.0388 cents per word AVERAGE PDF COST PER WORD: 0.0112 cents per word AVERAGE PRINT COST PER WORD: 0.0289 cents per word No big surprise there, either - the ratio is 2.57 to 1 in favor of PDFs. You can argue a lot of things, but please don't argue that PDFs are more expensive. They are clearly LESS expensive, on average, by a considerable margin. Even if it costs you 10 cents per page to print and bind a PDF (i.e., 20 cents per page for double-sided), that's STILL just 18.2 cents per page compared to 19.6 cents per page for print... and that's a fairly high printing cost estimate, if I'm not mistaken. YMMV. Just trying to put everyone in possession of some incontrovertible facts here. ;) Some of the other points raised ARE interesting ones, and I'm trying to envision to myself how I might incorporate bells and whistles cheaply, but I think it's a point of fact that a PDF is, on average, cheaper than a print product, at least if you want to count "per page" or "per word." Obviously, they're empirically cheaper. ;) --The Sigil [/QUOTE]
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