PDF Publishing: Borders or no borders?

[GregS]

As I'm laying out my first PDF I'm hit with what might be a significant question: do you include borders (artistic, flashy types) on sellable PDFs?

The pro is that I have really nice ones that look great and enhance the ambience of the book.  The con is that they are artsy and will waste a ton of ink for those who are printing them out themselves.

So, rather than spend hours pouring through RPGNow reviews I thought I'd just ask for the benefit of experience here.

Thanks.

[M Jason Parent]

Most of us include some amount of border, either on the outside edge for two-page layouts, or top/bottom (or both).

The trick is to include two versions for PDF release in the zip file. One with the border, one without (as well as without any non-essential art) for easy printing.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Greg,

Home printers will not print anything that extends all the way to the edge of the page. What you'll get is white edges. To achieve edge bleed, books are printed larger than the target page dimensions and then trimmed down.

Paul

[jgbrowning]

Most of us include some amount of border, either on the outside edge for two-page layouts, or top/bottom (or both).

The trick is to include two versions for PDF release in the zip file. One with the border, one without (as well as without any non-essential art) for easy printing.

Yep. PDF game buyers want an attractive screen version of the product and a version that won't kill their printer (and ink budget) for reading away from the computer.

I'd make the attractive border and then simply remove it for the print version.

joe b.

[Andrew Martin]

I only print out those PDFs that have a plain background and no fancy borders, with only one exception, Scarlet Wake.

If I'm really, really interested in printing out a PDF with a fancy background, I'll copy and paste the entire text into a word processor, reformat it and then print that. So far, I haven't found the effort worthwhile with most fancy PDFs.

Just my opinion.

[Matt Wilson]

My ideal rpg text looks and reads like a "for dummies" book. Big margins, clean pages, and well-organized text.

All that border art just clogs up the page. If you want to use it in any product, print or pdf, use it sparingly.

[TheLe]

Most of us include some amount of border, either on the outside edge for two-page layouts, or top/bottom (or both).

The trick is to include two versions for PDF release in the zip file. One with the border, one without (as well as without any non-essential art) for easy printing.

Yup. This method has been very successful for me. I place a border on the landscape-onscreen version, then remove it for the portrait-printer-friendly version.

~Le

[M Jason Parent]

My ideal rpg text looks and reads like a "for dummies" book. Big margins, clean pages, and well-organized text.

All that border art just clogs up the page. If you want to use it in any product, print or pdf, use it sparingly.

While I also like good, clean design, it appears from my secondary and primary research that your opinion is not very prevalent among the RPG buying community.

Especially in the PDF market, a very simple layout (no matter how clean and well-done) is seen as a mark of amateurism by many buyers. If it looks like it could have been done in Word by the buyer, then it is assumed to have been done in Word and therefore the perceived value is often lower.

It's bunk. We know it is bunk. But market perceptions are what we have to sell to, especially in fringe markets.

[Edward Kann]

We're going with a nice landscape on-screen version with borders, some color, a fair amount of artwork and so forth and a print version without borders, landscape, no background and only the maps and images that are absolutely helpful / necessary for game play.

Ed