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So what's the scoop on D&D in PDF Format?
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<blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 9311988" data-attributes="member: 6796661"><p>Highlighting mine. No, they really are not just as permanent as a PDF. Much of the content is in proprietary formats that are as permanent at the companies and their software. Exporting that content and converting for use in other formats is difficult for non-technical people and take a lot of effort even from technical people. PDF has been adopted by many of the world's largest libraries and many government agencies as an archive format (including, in the US, <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2020/03/pdf-is-here-to-stay/" target="_blank">The Library of Congress and NARA</a>). It is highly unlikely that any PDF I buy and properly store will not be readily readable to me in my life time, or to anyone in my children's or their children's life time. I have a wide selection of software I can use to view the PDFs. </p><p></p><p>Their formatting precision is, of course, one of PDF's downsides. They don't render well in different screen sizes. They are not as nice as cross-linked and embedded content in a VTT or in DDB when actually running a game. So I do buy TTRPG content for Foundry. I subscribe to and buy content on D&D Beyond. But I have no expectation that this content will be readily available to me for the rest of my life. I'm old enough to have been through the experience of losing convenient access to content when a company goes out of business or just stops supporting a particular piece of software or platform. RealmWorks being the most recent example. Yes, I can continue to access my RealmWorks content, but the software is no longer supported or being updated. To future proof that, I put it in a Windows 11 Virtual Machine image, so I can spin it up and run it should it stop working in a future version of Windows (and so I can run it on my Mac). That is not comparable to the convenience, portability, and future proofing that a PDF provides. </p><p></p><p>Companies like prorprietary formats not only because of the additional functionality they may be able to provide, but because it keeps you locked in their ecosystem. </p><p></p><p>Does that mean that I want all of my digital TTRPG content to only be available in PDF. No. I much prefer using DDB over a PDF for D&D and Foundry over PDF for Warhammer Fantasy. But I don't care so much about ensuring I have access to this content for decades. But I would never tell someone who DOES care about having long term access that buying content in Foundry, DDB, Fantasy Grounds, etc. is "as permanent" as PDF.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MNblockhead, post: 9311988, member: 6796661"] Highlighting mine. No, they really are not just as permanent as a PDF. Much of the content is in proprietary formats that are as permanent at the companies and their software. Exporting that content and converting for use in other formats is difficult for non-technical people and take a lot of effort even from technical people. PDF has been adopted by many of the world's largest libraries and many government agencies as an archive format (including, in the US, [URL='https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2020/03/pdf-is-here-to-stay/']The Library of Congress and NARA[/URL]). It is highly unlikely that any PDF I buy and properly store will not be readily readable to me in my life time, or to anyone in my children's or their children's life time. I have a wide selection of software I can use to view the PDFs. Their formatting precision is, of course, one of PDF's downsides. They don't render well in different screen sizes. They are not as nice as cross-linked and embedded content in a VTT or in DDB when actually running a game. So I do buy TTRPG content for Foundry. I subscribe to and buy content on D&D Beyond. But I have no expectation that this content will be readily available to me for the rest of my life. I'm old enough to have been through the experience of losing convenient access to content when a company goes out of business or just stops supporting a particular piece of software or platform. RealmWorks being the most recent example. Yes, I can continue to access my RealmWorks content, but the software is no longer supported or being updated. To future proof that, I put it in a Windows 11 Virtual Machine image, so I can spin it up and run it should it stop working in a future version of Windows (and so I can run it on my Mac). That is not comparable to the convenience, portability, and future proofing that a PDF provides. Companies like prorprietary formats not only because of the additional functionality they may be able to provide, but because it keeps you locked in their ecosystem. Does that mean that I want all of my digital TTRPG content to only be available in PDF. No. I much prefer using DDB over a PDF for D&D and Foundry over PDF for Warhammer Fantasy. But I don't care so much about ensuring I have access to this content for decades. But I would never tell someone who DOES care about having long term access that buying content in Foundry, DDB, Fantasy Grounds, etc. is "as permanent" as PDF. [/QUOTE]
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