I was at the local bookstore and my wife picked up a 4E players handbook. While she was looking through it, the text ink smudged under her fingers. Is this a common problem?
I think you guys just have hot fingertips.
They might be silly putty elementals.
::Bows before the brilliance.::
The thing is, these books are FRESH of the printer. Let them lie for a week or two, and they should settle down. (I hope)
I would be torque’d considering the price, holy crap. I wonder what would happen in humid areas, if the ink would bleed into the other pages, or if it is just the acid from human contact?
One of my buddies here at work tells an odd story about censored porn in China a while back, not sure if it has any truth to it or not, but the gist of it goes they'd ink over the naughty bits, but the ink was water soluble, so the real purveyors would always be walking around with blue-black tongues.
All the books bought by people in my group have either smudged or the pages have warped so badly that the book doesn't lie flat, or both. And these are seven books (two full core sets, and a PHB) all bought by different people. I have to assume its the books, which is wierd because not a one of the 3.5 or 2nd ed. books that I've kept in my basement for years have done that.
I haven't had any problems and I'm normally kind of hard on books, propping them page-down on my knee, or over the arm of a chair, or a counter top. I haven't had any smears so far and I've been reading them in bed, even.
But I'll definitely be more careful if it's a problem the books have. Maybe I've just been lucky. I live in Arizona so it's hot, but not really humid at all so maybe that helps.
I've been impressed by the print quality of my books.
I got a few smudges, but that's only from leaving my finger on the page for too long. As long as you don't do that you should be fine.
I'll admit the printing isn't has high quality as 3.5, but it works just fine, and I've seen worse printings.
I tend to read most of my D&D books hanging out in the tub (and I don't care who knows it, I consider lavender a manly scent, so there). I can see weak ink being a problem!
My set of books is somewhat warped, in a way that they don't like quite flat... It's a minor problem, I suppose, but I get the sneaking suspicion Wizards is trying to save money wherever they can (See, for example, the crappy paint jobs on the most recent D&D Minis sets)
If they were going to save real money on printing costs, they wouldn't print their books in the US. I haven't had any serious problems with my core books.
A friend who bought them said the pages are already rippled, and a drop of condensation from a glass ended up boring through a number of pages. He's owned them for less than a week. Nice.
spotted my first copy of the PHB in my local store today and was dismayed by the sorry state of the printing and binding. The printing felt tacky to the touch and the covers were actually bowed out front and back.
...but I get the sneaking suspicion Wizards is trying to save money wherever they can (See, for example, the crappy paint jobs on the most recent D&D Minis sets)
Maybe skipping GenCon could save a few bucks. And waiting a long time to hire software developers will save a bundle. And Webmasters that know how to remove funny white borders around pictures might cost more than they want to spend. And doing a competent job on the first 4e adventure would really be a waste of time and money...
Just some suggestions :)
In other words, I agree -- a pattern has been emerging. Pinching pennies on a project of this importance is passing strange.
For some reason the PHB section with the female dwarf is all sticky.