It seems to be a trend that developed lately - the inclusion of certain "as handwritten" fonts.
Examples are the genealogy on the front and back pages of Council of Thieves, the front and back pages of Kingmaker and last not least, the front and back pages of Smugglers Shiv.
These fonts are very hard to read - when viewing the PDF versions on an ereader "very hard" becomes "impossible".
So please, Paizo, stop using these fonts for something that can be easily read.
Thank you for your attention.
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These fonts are very hard to read - when viewing the PDF versions on an ereader "very hard" becomes "impossible".
So please, Paizo, stop using these fonts for something that can be easily read.
I love 'em! As player handouts they have a great atmospheric feel to them and my players are quite fond of them too.
I loves me some Paizo funk.
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These fonts are very hard to read - when viewing the PDF versions on an ereader "very hard" becomes "impossible".
So please, Paizo, stop using these fonts for something that can be easily read.
I love 'em! As player handouts they have a great atmospheric feel to them and my players are quite fond of them too.
I loves me some Paizo funk.
Very atmospheric when rendered correctly, which other operating systems and devices don't do consistently. I'm sure this is not Paizo's fault, but it would be nice if those fonts that render incorrectly had some sort of alternate font that displays when the letters get mashed up on an ipad or ereader. Some sort of default that kicks in if the reader doesn't recognize the font, maybe?
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These fonts are very hard to read - when viewing the PDF versions on an ereader "very hard" becomes "impossible".
So please, Paizo, stop using these fonts for something that can be easily read.
I love 'em! As player handouts they have a great atmospheric feel to them and my players are quite fond of them too.
I loves me some Paizo funk.
I can see both sides... but very rarely are these seen in the adventure themselves, they are usually in the inside covers, which are extra information that is rarely critical to read to run the AP (The Crimson Throne genealogy was cool, but I only actually referenced it once, and that was to find a name for a fluff off-shoot quest). When they show up in player handouts in the adventures they are much larger and easier to read (PFS faction missions being the exception).
The text wouldn't be "grabbable" but maybe Paizo could convert them to outlines? Should fix the problems with readers not handling the fonts correctly. I cut and paste text a lot with my PDFs so I'm not sure I like this solution very much personally. :)
M
I like them
my 2 coppers
Creative Director
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It seems to be a trend that developed lately - the inclusion of certain "as handwritten" fonts.
Examples are the genealogy on the front and back pages of Council of Thieves, the front and back pages of Kingmaker and last not least, the front and back pages of Smugglers Shiv.
These fonts are very hard to read - when viewing the PDF versions on an ereader "very hard" becomes "impossible".
So please, Paizo, stop using these fonts for something that can be easily read.
Thank you for your attention.
We've been doing "handwritten" handouts since the first Pathfinder, actually. And I'm always looking for feedback on these elements, because it's VERY easy to go too far and make the fonts hard to read.
We'll try to use more legible handwritten fonts in the future, in any event.
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It seems to be a trend that developed lately - the inclusion of certain "as handwritten" fonts.
Examples are the genealogy on the front and back pages of Council of Thieves, the front and back pages of Kingmaker and last not least, the front and back pages of Smugglers Shiv.
These fonts are very hard to read - when viewing the PDF versions on an ereader "very hard" becomes "impossible".
So please, Paizo, stop using these fonts for something that can be easily read.
Thank you for your attention.
We've been doing "handwritten" handouts since the first Pathfinder, actually. And I'm always looking for feedback on these elements, because it's VERY easy to go too far and make the fonts hard to read.
We'll try to use more legible handwritten fonts in the future, in any event.
Any possibility of making the handwritten sections images in the pdfs instead of text, as one person upthread suggested? I know it's probably going to add to the already huge pdf size, but converting the entire pdf to images tends to work around the font weirdness that causes some handwritten fonts to scramble letters in non-adobe readers.
I like them
my 2 coppers
Add 2 more.
I like them both as a GM and as a player.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Any possibility of making the handwritten sections images in the pdfs instead of text, as one person upthread suggested? I know it's probably going to add to the already huge pdf size, but converting the entire pdf to images tends to work around the font weirdness that causes some handwritten fonts to scramble letters in non-adobe readers.
Well, that would cause problems for folks who want to cut-and-paste that text to make their *own* handouts (or whatever)...
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Any possibility of making the handwritten sections images in the pdfs instead of text, as one person upthread suggested? I know it's probably going to add to the already huge pdf size, but converting the entire pdf to images tends to work around the font weirdness that causes some handwritten fonts to scramble letters in non-adobe readers.Well, that would cause problems for folks who want to cut-and-paste that text to make their *own* handouts (or whatever)...
Maybe, but cut and paste works as well for images and the amount of affected text would be small(I tend to have spacing and line wrap problems when I copy text and would rather it be legible across all readers than selectable).
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For players handouts funky fonts are fine (and I read everything on Linux and my Mac so don't see a problem with alternate platforms). Funky text in sections of text in descriptive text or rules is frustrating. I don't see much of this in Paizo's stuff though.
You don't have the weird scrambled text issue on your Mac? Maybe my iPad needs an update or something.
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For players handouts funky fonts are fine (and I read everything on Linux and my Mac so don't see a problem with alternate platforms). Funky text in sections of text in descriptive text or rules is frustrating. I don't see much of this in Paizo's stuff though.You don't have the weird scrambled text issue on your Mac? Maybe my iPad needs an update or something.
I don't use the Mac much but the times I've read Paizo PDFs I've never had trouble, nor has my wife.
I poke through them a lot on my Linux system and other than that missing 'A' thing and it being slow I've never had issues.
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I find I wind up recreating the player handouts anyway and use my own fonts, etc. Pulling the "handout" out of the PDF and cleaning it up to make sure no other bits of the AP are on there is a bunch of work, and then you wind up with a small handout in smaller font. The same font that's hard to read in the AP usually looks GREAT at 24 or 36 points, and then it takes up the whole page, and I can rip the edges and soak it in coffee or whatever to give it a good look.
I guess I consider these pages more "art" than "handout" anyway.
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Although... I have noticed that in some of the PFS scenarios, the faction mission handouts have a drop-put of the letter "i" about half-way through some of the missions... that's why I started re-creating them from scratch, they weren't printing properly anyway. I know paizo is a Mac house so I assumed that was the source of the incompatibility.
...We'll try to use more legible handwritten fonts in the future, in any event.
Thank you very much.
I think it should be easily doable to use a "handwritten" font that is both athmospheric and not borderline unreadable.
However I must admit, I am not a native english speaker, so it might be that part of the problem stems from that double challenge.
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Maybe, but cut and paste works as well for images and the amount of affected text would be small(I tend to have spacing and line wrap problems when I copy text and would rather it be legible across all readers than selectable).
As somebody who does a lot of cutting and pasting of text, making me write even small sections of text would get irritating fast. I'm actually ecstatic that Paizo gives us the ability to cut and paste both images and text from our AP PDFs and would hate to see for that ability to go away because of a font issue.
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Maybe, but cut and paste works as well for images and the amount of affected text would be small(I tend to have spacing and line wrap problems when I copy text and would rather it be legible across all readers than selectable).As somebody who does a lot of cutting and pasting of text, making me write even small sections of text would get irritating fast. I'm actually ecstatic that Paizo gives us the ability to cut and paste both images and text from our AP PDFs and would hate to see for that ability to go away because of a font issue.
Understandable, but not being able to read those sections at all on certain devices is just a touch more irritating.
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Chief Technical Officer
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Although... I have noticed that in some of the PFS scenarios, the faction mission handouts have a drop-put of the letter "i" about half-way through some of the missions... that's why I started re-creating them from scratch, they weren't printing properly anyway. I know paizo is a Mac house so I assumed that was the source of the incompatibility.
I've not heard of this. Can you point me at an exact spot in a particular PDF, and also what PDF reader and OS you're using?
Thanks!
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Although... I have noticed that in some of the PFS scenarios, the faction mission handouts have a drop-put of the letter "i" about half-way through some of the missions... that's why I started re-creating them from scratch, they weren't printing properly anyway. I know paizo is a Mac house so I assumed that was the source of the incompatibility.I've not heard of this. Can you point me at an exact spot in a particular PDF, and also what PDF reader and OS you're using?
Thanks!
In Rebel's Ransom, the Qadira faction handout is missing the letter M everywhere when I printed it out using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Linux OS, even though it displays normally... That struck me a little odd.
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Chief Technical Officer
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In Rebel's Ransom, the Qadira faction handout is missing the letter M everywhere when I printed it out using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Linux OS, even though it displays normally... That struck me a little odd.Although... I have noticed that in some of the PFS scenarios, the faction mission handouts have a drop-put of the letter "i" about half-way through some of the missions... that's why I started re-creating them from scratch, they weren't printing properly anyway. I know paizo is a Mac house so I assumed that was the source of the incompatibility.I've not heard of this. Can you point me at an exact spot in a particular PDF, and also what PDF reader and OS you're using?
Thanks!
Is it safe to assume that problem goes away if you use Adobe Reader on the same OS? If it *does*, it's probably an issue in the library your PDF viewer is using. If it *doesn't* go away, the problem is probably in your printer driver.
(Odds are good that there's something non-standard about that particular font, but if it displays properly in other viewers on other platforms—and it does—then it's the rendering software that needs to dealt with properly.)
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(Odds are good that there's something non-standard about that particular font, but if it displays properly in other viewers on other platforms—and it does—then it's the rendering software that needs to dealt with properly.)
I know I know, I'm a broken record, but if your going to use funky fonts, could you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use standard compliant funky fonts.
- Galnorag "dropped-A Rager" Graywolf
ps Adobe may be the defacto reader, but IE is the defacto browser...
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Example - PFS 37 The Beggar's Pearl: the Qadira handout loses the letter "i" in print-outs for me. I'm using Acrobat 8.2.3 on a PC running Vista. I've seen this (only with the letter "i") in several Qadira handouts for PFS scenarios. Oddly, the "i" doesn't always drop out uniformly; the first few lines are sometimes ok and then it disappears.
I'm not a tech guy, but I expect there are some font issues with the PC/Mac conversions - our designers in-house are Macs as well and the same sort of thing sometimes happens.
(Hmm... OK, the designers *use* macs, they aren't Macs... except maybe that new girl...)
Maybe, but cut and paste works as well for images and the amount of affected text would be small(I tend to have spacing and line wrap problems when I copy text and would rather it be legible across all readers than selectable).
Afraid that's not my usage pattern. For me, I highlight the text, bring it over to a layout program and print it on good (parchment) paper. I don't want the image of the parchment in the AP. That's going to end up rendered black & white no matter what I do (laser printer), which will look bad. By doing just the text, I end up with something quite nice. I can then add personal touches like blood smears, tattered edges, smudged or burned parts, or whatever. If I have an image, I'm hosed.
I'd say the best compromise is to keep the fonts relatively tame. I don't use them, you don't use them, so funky fonts are cosmetic options. Removing them doesn't harm either use model.
At some point I want to put into print a fiend whose name is unpronouncable in mortal language and actually causes physical harm, but which can be written down using an untranslatable extraplanar script (letters in the Voynich manuscript's alphabet which is a funky and very real script).
>:D