Nick_at_... wrote:
>
> Benedict wrote:
>
> >> PDF's are useful in that they are harder to
> >> manipulate and plagiarize.
>
> > PDFs are less useful in that they are harder to
> > manipulate and add to.
>
> Heartily seconded.
The problem, though I admit that I don't like PDF's either, is that formatting is a bit of a pain, especially in this day of highly different word-proccessors (mercifully, the MS hegemony hasn't taken over entirely)
However, format and artwork. And, sadly, _size_. As a part of my job, I had to convert a set of tech manuals from Word (gah) to PDF format. The drop in size was pretty dramatic from 3.4 m to 114 k. If artwork or sophisticated formatting is involved, the size of the file can get rapdily out of hand.
> Why this unspoken assumption that giving purchasers
> something *useful* in electronic format would be a Bad
> Idea?
Of couse, you could just put them out there in RTF format, I suppose. Not as nice looking but still usable.
> Steve Jackson Games practically *give away* electronic
> draft manuscripts for all their GURPS books long before
> publication, for a trivial fee ($15 a year? Less than the
> cover price of one hardcopy book, anyway, and you get
> a great weekly e-zine thrown in), and don't seem to be
> going out of business.
Yes, that's true. But SJG _expects_ folks to buy the non-draft copies and, by and large, people do. Its a lot easier to have a printed book than 120+ pages of printout. At least, that's how the he explained it to the MiB's. Considering the size of the material we're thinking of -- scenarios, small supplements, just printing it out is more managable.
(checks MIB backmail) Interesting to note: SJ said that converting it to pdf was too expensive. Easier just to toss the draft copy onto the server.
> PDFs make Narrators' lives more difficult. They don't
> prevent dissemination of unauthorised copies at all. I
> agree they're pretty, but I don't think that's the be-all
> and end-all of the argument.
A good point.
Jeff
-- Jeffrey Kyer BESI Interim Change Management (EP) / Consultant CGI Information Systems and Management Consultants Tel: (416) 215-9464 Fax: (416) 585-7805
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