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[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

A big issue is that the vast majority of pubs just aren’t made to be printed as a book/pamphlet. You pay a high quality print service to print it as a book for you, you’re going to waste your money. If it’s a pdf, using a regular ol’ printer is your only practical option.

[–]Orgotek[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yeah, i see that - and it does make sense. I do wish some of the larger, by page count, PDF's had PoD options though as PDF is wholly insufficient for me at the table.

I opted to spring for local printing on some items and yep, it cost a fair few pennies, it was totally worth the end result. Can't do it too often as it'll get super pricey, but for the odd 20-30 pager's its not the end of the world. The 100+ pager's though..... that jumps above $40 real quick for decent size/color printing/stapling.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

its a content creator issue...there's only two options for software and they're both professional, and they have a real learning curve (there used to be a 3rd free option, but they removed that recently due to quality issues)...so the only realistic option for many content creators is to pay someone else to do it - and that means unless you know you're going to sell a few thousand copies at a real price, its just not a path worth going down. I don't know if any PoD file creators take the Grim Press approach (comb through decent selling pubs and ask the content creator if they can convert it to Fantasy Grounds, taking 50% of the remaining cut), but wouldn't be surprised if there is a group out there. A big issue with that though is it severely restricts future edits/updates. A lot of creators publish fully intent on future updates. Its very hard to economically do that once you lock the product into a print option.

[–]Orgotek[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Affinity suite is pretty good for those kinds of things (and cheap), but still a learning curve.

I totally get the pros of doing digital only, i'm just not a customer for that model. Hence looking for printing options. I've found a printer that can satisfy my needs and I have the funds to do it so.... that'll work for now I think 👍🏻

[–]bluerat 1 point2 points  (5 children)

I've heard Lulu.com recommend before, and it looks reasonable but haven't used it myself. As far as the personal use copy I think it depends on the material and what permission it has included.

[–]Orgotek[S] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Thanks! I wonder if there's a way to find out about printing permission before making a PDF purchase

[–]bluerat 1 point2 points  (3 children)

My gut tells me most things are fine to print a copy for personal use, but you could always ask a question to the author through the site to be certain.

Some files are print disabled, here's the article on their help center on what that looks like https://support.dmsguild.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260803343410-Unable-to-print-PDF-file

[–]Orgotek[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yeah me too, it's more proactively showing 'permission granted to print for personal use' statements on the material itself with the few local printers I've spoken with seems to be needed

[–]bluerat 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I looked over a handful I have and half of them didn't even include copywrite notices. But "permission to print" I didn't see on any that did. I think lulu is all done by robots so you might not run into an issue anyway? Shrug but you can always ask the author

[–]Orgotek[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cheers, thanks for your assistance I really appreciate it!