Stargazer's thoughts on PDF layout in free RPGs

[misterecho]

[koipond]

I like most of what he says there. I'm not always a big fan of textures, I know they're kind of a staple but I'd rather a nice little border than a texture.

For one thing, it saves people money if they want to print out part of their PDF.

[Onix]

It's interesting that this is all there is for layout advice. So far I've heard this asked multiple times in different places and the answer is always very vague.

[Thought]

Perhaps it would be useful, then, for some interested individuals (or several individuals) to sit down and make an in-depth reference source. A step-by-step approach probably wouldn't work, but there are a lot of possible considerations that beginners don't even know of. For example, should one use a monospaced font or true-type? Such a simple consideration will influence the the number of characters per inch, which in turn will influence line spacing, margin size, etc. Of course, many people can get by without that information as well, which is probably why a lot of guides are vague.

[koipond]

See, I wouldn't be able to add to this discussion.

Most of what I do are kind is all learned on the fly. I mean I tried to make Critical! look less like a regular RPG book and more like a trade paper back fantasy novel. While Geasa is a little more like a traditional book, because it's got a border.

I have some small things I know, but beyond that I know I could appreciate an in-depth resource.

[Rob Lang]

I'm contemplating this. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to distil years of desktop publishing advice from across the web into a guide that's useful to the kinds of people who write free RPGs. I tried to write down a load of notes of faux pas that I think are easily avoided but many of them needed loads of background that I couldn't find succinct references for.

If you want your game to look nice then chances are you're going to need to do some schooling or iteratively release and refresh until it looks good.

Still contemplating this, I am not sure I agree with myself.

[Thought]

[Onix]

I'd go for a community based project, we could make it the goal to give lets just say ten things either to do or to avoid when making a layout. Some may need a lot of explanation, others may not. There are simple ones like why you want a two column layout. Then there are tougher subjects on how to organize headings and subheadings (and what to do when you get to a sub-subheading and the dreaded sub-sub-subheading) mainly because they're more subjective but there are some obvious do's and don'ts. How much white space to have on a page is important. What are good tricks for handling that chapter that ends with three sentences on a page? One thing I keep running afoul of is type size issues. How about snazzing up your layout with text wrapped images and their pitfalls. Then there's practical advice about laying out images, that you might not want to put the images in until last and keep your layout simple before you do because they're like dropping bombs on your text, splitting up paragraphs and making orphans and widows of sentences.

Some of these things I think I have a handle on, others are still a mystery to me.

[koipond]

The all mighty PICA!

[misterecho]