To PDF Publishers: Why landscape?

[Troll Wizard]

I work for an engineering firm as a graphic artist/desktop publisher of white papers, proposals, technical reports, etc. and the only time we use landscape orientation is for briefings/presentations, large diagrams, and the rare large table. I have purchased about 20+ PDFs from RPGNow and quite a few are in landscape with the text in two large width columns. I print out the PDFs and place them in a GBC bound book or 3-hole binder and find its a real pain to read landscape text.

For a large map it makes sense, but is there a reason for landscaped oriented text?

 

[RangerWickett]

Computer monitors are wider than they are tall. If you want to be able to view the whole page at once, landscape is easier than portrait. That's all I can think of.

Honestly, I think E.N. Pub has only done one landscape book - Four-Color to Fantasy (Modern Edition) - and in hindsight I wish it was portrait.

 

[Cathix]

Dog Soul never creates landscape books. We just don't like reading things on the screen. However, there are lots of folks who do (including a large number of reviewers...) and that's why screen versions are occasionally longer than they are tall.

Good thing to check the demo of a product if you're adverse to a particular style of pdf. And leave comments, write to publishers, if you happen to feel strongly about it. Publishers can't exist in a vacuum. It's good for us to hear what our customers want.

 

[arwink]

I just find it eaiser to put together layouts in landscape for some reason

 

[Cathix]

I just find it eaiser to put together layouts in landscape for some reason

It is easier. Less problems with runaround text and things getting squished.

But then, a graphic artist is not meant to be comfortable. Burlap mouse pads and spiked metal desks for us!

 

[Mark CMG]

This might be a case where a vocal minority, early on in 3.0 days, championed the landscape over portrait method of publishing PDFs since I've seen several times where publishers have mentioned it was not something that resulted in a reasonable enough number of sales to warrant the effort. You'd have to search these forums for actual testimonials but that's my recollection.

 

[lmpjr007]

It is very simple, it is different. And different means some people will take a extra second to look at it. and that might mean an additional sale. It is an OLD graphic design trick.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I've done one landscape product and I included a portrait, toner version as well for printing. I think only including landscape in a PDF is a mistake because it ignores the printing aspect.

 

[jmucchiello]

I don't do landscape layouts. I don't have enough time to make two layouts look good. And I think that anyone comfortable to use a book online is comfortable scrolling the page around as needed. Someone who isn't comfortable with scrolling around, probably just prints the pages they like and never opens the pdf again.

 

[Warden]

I've done one landscape product and I included a portrait, toner version as well for printing. I think only including landscape in a PDF is a mistake because it ignores the printing aspect.

Landscape was always considered the screen copy for us in the early days, with a portrait version included using less graphics for easier printing. After reading general comments, it looks as if those willing to print out copies and willing to print out the screen version if it will fit in a binder or other handout. So we focus on portrait copies only with a bit less graphic, something more print-based nowadays. It also saves us time in putting the POD copy together as well.

I have a question about all this: if you buy a PDF and print it all out, is it still worth it for you? Are people printing them out at work, where it means nothing to them in extra expenses, or are there a lot more toner printers out there than I had expected?