Hey Paizo folks. I just downloaded the PDF for the new fourth printing and I noticed that the size of the single-file PDF has jumped from 79MB to 122MB from the 3rd to the 4th printing.
A 50% increase is pretty substantial and the new errata can't possibly account for all those new bytes. Are the graphics compressed less or of a different format? Perhaps there has been a change to the personalization engine or something didn't get compressed?
Hey Paizo folks. I just downloaded the PDF for the new fourth printing and I noticed that the size of the single-file PDF has jumped from 79MB to 122MB from the 3rd to the 4th printing.
A 50% increase is pretty substantial and the new errata can't possibly account for all those new bytes. Are the graphics compressed less or of a different format? Perhaps there has been a change to the personalization engine or something didn't get compressed?
Yowie! I think I'll keep my current PDF for the time being.
Chief Technical Officer
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We do expect file sizes to go up with each revision for the foreseeable future. In the initial release, recurring graphic elements were only included in the file once each (more or less). Sadly, due to technical issues related to keeping the internal hyperlinks working, there are now extra copies of any recurring elements for each page that has changed since the original release, so that will make each new edition a bit bigger. Hopefully someday the problem that's forcing us to do it that way will be resolved, and we'll be able to bring the file size back down.
That said, there's something that we can't actually explain going on here. Watermarked 4th printings are in the range of 128 MB (file sizes will vary a bit based on your disk size and formatting). Watermarked 3rd printings were in the 77MB neighborhood, which is vexing me, because the *non*watermarked 3rd printing PDF is 104MB. Neither Ross nor I have any idea how the watermarker managed to make the file significantly smaller—everything we know suggests that it should have made it slightly *bigger*. (Neither do we have any ideas about why it's *not* doing the same with the fourth printing PDF.) Gary is the real expert on the watermarker, though... maybe he can figure it out when he's back from vacation.
Ya ... I can't view my PDF copy on my Kindle DX because of the size or something. It just freezes it up tight. In fact, its a bit hard to view it on the computer for the same reason. Whenever I need to review something from the book, I go to one of the online Pathfinder GRDs.
Might be the reason I don't buy more Pathfinder PDFs I am sorry to say.
We do expect file sizes to go up with each revision for the foreseeable future. In the initial release, recurring graphic elements were only included in the file once each (more or less). Sadly, due to technical issues related to keeping the internal hyperlinks working, there are now extra copies of any recurring elements for each page that has changed since the original release, so that will make each new edition a bit bigger. Hopefully someday the problem that's forcing us to do it that way will be resolved, and we'll be able to bring the file size back down.
That said, there's something that we can't actually explain going on here. Watermarked 4th printings are in the range of 128 MB (file sizes will vary a bit based on your disk size and formatting). Watermarked 3rd printings were in the 77MB neighborhood, which is vexing me, because the *non*watermarked 3rd printing PDF is 104MB. Neither Ross nor I have any idea how the watermarker managed to make the file significantly smaller—everything we know suggests that it should have made it slightly *bigger*. (Neither do we have any ideas about why it's *not* doing the same with the fourth printing PDF.) Gary is the real expert on the watermarker, though... maybe he can figure it out when he's back from vacation.
I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to PDF creation, but I think at least some older versions of acrobat had an "Optimise file size" option. I'm not sure whether it's still there, or whether it's automatic now, and I don't know what you use to create your PDFs, but maybe there is some sort of optimisation available you need to turn on in some of the advanced options or something?
I found a 2nd printing core PDF laying on my laptop. It's in the 75M realm. So whatever the watermarker was doing, it was doing it in the second printing as well.
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I really hope you find out how to improve this.
The 3rd printing was diplaying rapidly on my destop computer, but the 4th one is really slow (I have to wait about 2 seconds between pages).
3rd printing was quite slow on my androïd smartphone, but doable. Now it is really a nightmare !
Fortunatly i found a lightweight SRD on www.d20pfsrd.com, which is very usefull for quick reference on my smartphone.
I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to PDF creation, but I think at least some older versions of acrobat had an "Optimise file size" option. I'm not sure whether it's still there, or whether it's automatic now, and I don't know what you use to create your PDFs, but maybe there is some sort of optimisation available you need to turn on in some of the advanced options or something?
I have PDF-Tools 4 installed on my desktop, so I ran the PDF for the 4th printing of the Core Rulebook through it's optimization tool. After that the PDF clocks in at 103 MB instead.
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Chief Technical Officer
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We have updated the PDF of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook.
The PDF update issued earlier this month left out the following changes that were made to the fourth printing of the book:
- In Chapter 11, on page 391, on Table 11-9, the Pathfinder Chronicler's 3rd-level ability has been renamed from "Bardic music" to "Bardic performance."
- In the Appendix, on page 563, in the "Invisible Creature is..." table, the header of the second column has been changed to "Perception DC Modifier." Additionally, the entry for "Not Moving" has been changed from "–40" to "+20."
In addition, we've significantly reduced the file size of the single-file version, dropping it from 128.4 MB to 79.2 MB (approximately).
Those of you who have access to the PDF may download the updated version for free from your My Downloads page.
The errata PDFs for each previous printing of the book have also been updated with these changes; you can find them on the Pathfinder RPG Resources Page.
As a gift from my friends, I have the printed version. Based on that, is it possible to download the updated PDF files? If yes, how?
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I've downloaded the new version, it's around 77 MB and it's great !
Thanks a lot Paizo !
@DigitalMage :
Check at www.d20pfsrd.com, in the download section, there are 2 PDF files with only OGL text. No pictures, no flavor text at the begining of chapters.
One is called "TurboPRD", it's full of links and very useful checking a rule quickly with a laptop/tablet/smartphone. But it's 1484 pages long and around 25 MB.
The other one is very 'printer friendly', it's only 7 MB.
An old thread, I know. But I would love the possibility to buy a background/image-light pdf to use on a pad. It would make life so much easier.