Ninja-to
First Post
Finally! I lost this thread so haven't been able to read the comments. Anyway back to the issue of the smudges.
When I got my core book gift set it looked immaculate. There were no creases or glue issues of any kind. Nothing wavy etc. I used Amazon here in the UK.
I'd had KotSF for a week or so and had started reading that. Hadn't noticed any ink smudges.
I'd like to emphasize that there is a *huge* difference in smudginess (?) between all of my 3.5 books and the 4th Edition books.
In my 3.5 books, it's actually quite difficult to cause a smudge. The fact that in the 4th Edition books it happened while reading casually was very disappointing. The smudges were very noticeable, not because of a difference in printing styles but because for the simple fact the ink is very easy to smudge, especially if you're reading through a page carefully and your thumb is on the text.
There are a lot of people who say their books are fine. I hadn't noticed the smudginess of the 4th ed books until I'd started to read the PHB carefully. Flipping through the books casually won't do anything to them. What I did to test the first instance of the smudge was simply make a fist, rub my thumb up and down a bit on my hand until it was warm and then run it over the text. It smudged horribly. And interestingly, people have brought up the 'fact' that the 3.5 ink and paper was the same. When I noticed the 4th ed core books smudging I grabbed my 3.5 PHB and did exactly the same test, over and over. Not a single smudge. If I *really* drive my thumb on my 3.5 PHB I can eventually get a slight smear of the ink. I've had my 3.5 books for years and years, and have no smudges at all (minus the one I really had to work hard to get).
Conclusion: Something somewhere most definitely did go wrong in the printing press. My cousin happens to be a publisher, and he said quite quickly that the ink in my books was obviously not sealed properly. To take his quote almost directly, 'obviously someone somewhere has skimped on the sealing'.
Maybe not all the books have this problem. If you think your books are ok, try the test of getting a little bit of moisture on your thumb, and rub the ink. Hopefully your books are ok, mine most certainly were not. Make sure your fingers have slight moisture on them. Rubbing your thumb on your index finger should be enough.
I've returned mine to Amazon already and I'm waiting for them to ship a replacement. They must be low on stock as it's going to take almost a month it seems.
If you're still not convinced that the smudging in my 4th edition core books was no different to 3.5 (absolutely not true in my case), I also tried smudging the ink in my KotSF module, and yes it also smudges. At first it didn't seem as bad as the core books, but I think that was due to the core books being thicker and heavier. You have to support the back of the module with your own hand and rub a bit to get the same effect as the smudges on the core books.
I know I've already said it, but I have to say again that the 4E books smudge a great deal more than my 3.5 PHB, which is almost un-smudgable (I think I've made up some new words in this thread).
I actually took a photo of the smudging before sending the books back to Amazon. I thought they'd want to see the proof but turns out they didn't need to.
It looks a lot better in the photo than it does in real life. The smudges seem a lot cleaner in the pic. All three of the core books had the same smudgy ink.
When I got my core book gift set it looked immaculate. There were no creases or glue issues of any kind. Nothing wavy etc. I used Amazon here in the UK.
I'd had KotSF for a week or so and had started reading that. Hadn't noticed any ink smudges.
I'd like to emphasize that there is a *huge* difference in smudginess (?) between all of my 3.5 books and the 4th Edition books.
In my 3.5 books, it's actually quite difficult to cause a smudge. The fact that in the 4th Edition books it happened while reading casually was very disappointing. The smudges were very noticeable, not because of a difference in printing styles but because for the simple fact the ink is very easy to smudge, especially if you're reading through a page carefully and your thumb is on the text.
There are a lot of people who say their books are fine. I hadn't noticed the smudginess of the 4th ed books until I'd started to read the PHB carefully. Flipping through the books casually won't do anything to them. What I did to test the first instance of the smudge was simply make a fist, rub my thumb up and down a bit on my hand until it was warm and then run it over the text. It smudged horribly. And interestingly, people have brought up the 'fact' that the 3.5 ink and paper was the same. When I noticed the 4th ed core books smudging I grabbed my 3.5 PHB and did exactly the same test, over and over. Not a single smudge. If I *really* drive my thumb on my 3.5 PHB I can eventually get a slight smear of the ink. I've had my 3.5 books for years and years, and have no smudges at all (minus the one I really had to work hard to get).
Conclusion: Something somewhere most definitely did go wrong in the printing press. My cousin happens to be a publisher, and he said quite quickly that the ink in my books was obviously not sealed properly. To take his quote almost directly, 'obviously someone somewhere has skimped on the sealing'.
Maybe not all the books have this problem. If you think your books are ok, try the test of getting a little bit of moisture on your thumb, and rub the ink. Hopefully your books are ok, mine most certainly were not. Make sure your fingers have slight moisture on them. Rubbing your thumb on your index finger should be enough.
I've returned mine to Amazon already and I'm waiting for them to ship a replacement. They must be low on stock as it's going to take almost a month it seems.
If you're still not convinced that the smudging in my 4th edition core books was no different to 3.5 (absolutely not true in my case), I also tried smudging the ink in my KotSF module, and yes it also smudges. At first it didn't seem as bad as the core books, but I think that was due to the core books being thicker and heavier. You have to support the back of the module with your own hand and rub a bit to get the same effect as the smudges on the core books.
I know I've already said it, but I have to say again that the 4E books smudge a great deal more than my 3.5 PHB, which is almost un-smudgable (I think I've made up some new words in this thread).
I actually took a photo of the smudging before sending the books back to Amazon. I thought they'd want to see the proof but turns out they didn't need to.
It looks a lot better in the photo than it does in real life. The smudges seem a lot cleaner in the pic. All three of the core books had the same smudgy ink.
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