Quote from: blakkieP.S. *climbs up on soapbox* I will add that I avoid places that use watermarks and DRM. Watermarks I find a bit irksome and even freaky to have my name there, but the real issue is that with them normally comes the inability to have a marked up electronic format of the document.

What do you mean by marked up electronic format? I've not seen any differences with the watermarked ones I've bought other than my name in the corner.

Yeah, I hate DRM as much as the next person but given the current paranoia from IP owners, having to put up with your name in the corner is well worth the price of not having to deal with DRM.

For me it is print or no thanks.   I enjoy having a print book to read and take with me wherever I go.

   Not to mention that when you purchase a .pdf book it is not "game ready", I still have to print it out to be able to use it at my game table.

    I will stick with print.

I'm not sure why, but buying things off the internet scares me off. Freebies are fine by me, though.

That said, I've got something like a 99.999999999999999999% reading comprehension... and can memorize most books after the third read. Comes from all that "Bible memory" crap from elementary school. At least I got something out of it.

Can't do the same for PDFs though. They're a lot less skimmable, which puts a damper on the whole "start with whatever catches your eye" bit.

Credit card fruad is more likely to come from having your card cloned in a restaurant or petrol station that it is from shopping on the internet. Personally I wouldn't be buying any roleplaying or gaming stuff if I didn't internet shop, the savings in travel and parking alone are enough to make it worth it to buy from an internet retailer than it is the local shops.

Another thing about PDFs is that, because you aren't going to be killing trees, you don't feel the need to cut things.  Looking at the manuscript for Havens I can see at least 10 pages that don't absolutely need to be in there (rules for the effects of enviromental pollutants, some of the rarer diseases, the short chapter on post-Rising homosexuality) and would be the first things to go if I had to fit within a word count

It just wouldn't be the same without the llama

Quote from: BagpussCredit card fruad is more likely to come from having your card cloned in a restaurant or petrol station that it is from shopping on the internet.

Yeah... I don't do credit cards either.

Quote from: beejazzYeah... I don't do credit cards either.

Well if you are determined to live by the barter system you will find it hard to trade your chickens for PDF's over the internet.

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonAnother thing about PDFs is that, because you aren't going to be killing trees, you don't feel the need to cut things.

That's a double edge sword.  I've seen some PDF only products that had stuff that seemed to be in there for padding.  The process of editing for length and deciding what's important can force writers to crystalize their thoughts and create an easier to read product instead of a meandering one.

Quote from: BagpussWhat do you mean by marked up electronic format? I've not seen any differences with the watermarked ones I've bought other than my name in the corner.

I guess you don't have Adobe Professional.  Raw PDFs are normally editable. For example you can touch up the Bookmarks. When a watermark is added usually the PDF usually gets locked up so you can't alter it without m4d ha@zz0rz.

Quote from: BagpussWell if you are determined to live by the barter system you will find it hard to trade your chickens for PDF's over the internet.

Nah, nah... it has more to do with the whole money laund- I mean, yeah, I'm a hippie who only does cash 'cause anything else ain't /natural/.

Quote from: blakkieRaw PDFs are normally editable.

Well the ones from RPGNow I've bought rarely have been. Locking the PDF is just something the author can choose to do.

Quote from: BagpussWell the ones from RPGNow I've bought rarely have been. Locking the PDF is just something the author can choose to do.

Yes, well I wish anyone doing it would stop.  I wish it even more than cleaner, better optimized PDFs.  Because if they'd leave it open at least if I'd be able to I can stomp all those bazillion lagass layers together, or get rid of that 50% of nothing in the poorly authored files.

Or have some better, IMO of course, Bookmarks. Because I realise not everyone is going to like the same set of bookmarks, but let me change them and it's all good.

PDFs are too ephemeral for me. I'd much rather purchase material in printed format. The one exception is for archival preservation of extremely rare materials--texts that are simply never going to be available again, or are too rare to obtain in any other fashion.

I have dozens of PDFs, so I'm not tyrannical about it. But given a choice between a PDF and a nice binding of current work, I'll choose the bound version every time.

I like books. I like shelves of books. Shelves and shelves and shelves of books.

I find it nearly impossible to replicate the ease of use of an actual bookmark in electronic form, and reading upright seated in front of the vertically oriented computer screen isn't very comfortable for long periods.

I particularly like being able to reference disparate paragraphs across multiple volumes merely by laying them open in stacks on my desk, an activity which drives me insane attempting with multiple PDFs--the physicality of position makes it easier to cross-correlate information from several sources.

Quote from: blakkieYes, well I wish anyone doing it would stop.  I wish it even more than cleaner, better optimized PDFs.  Because if they'd leave it open at least if I'd be able to I can stomp all those bazillion lagass layers together, or get rid of that 50% of nothing in the poorly authored files.

Or have some better, IMO of course, Bookmarks. Because I realise not everyone is going to like the same set of bookmarks, but let me change them and it's all good.

I've noticed some small B&W pdfs with enormous file sized, larger than my StarCluster 2 with its 288 pages and color illos. Is this a function of bad software or inexperience with settings?

BTW, I never lock my files. The watermarked versions on DTRPG are not locked by me.

-clash