"Do you prefer PDF (electronic) to paper rulebooks?" Topic

If I were living in the US or UK, I would most probably say "no".

I like the feel of a good hefty book in my hands, and I usually print out the PDFs anyway because I much prefer reading on paper than on a computer screen.

But I happen to have the misfortune of living halfway around the world in wargaming-forsaken Asia, and the shipping fees for books very often come up to something like a third of the price of the actual book itself.

For example, let's take my favorite rules for the Napoleonic Wars, Lasalle.

The book costs $42.99 USD , but the shipping cost me an additional $22.00 USD . So the final cost of the book for me was $64.99 USD !

Now let's take a look at the price of the PDF version: a mere $16.00 USD !

Even if I take the PDF to a local printer to have it printed and bound to a rather high standard, the final cost of ownership will still be less than 1/2 of what I had to pay for the physical book.

This, at least for me, is the biggest reason why I prefer to buy PDF versions whenever possible.

I think this topic comes up daily. I almost always prefer PDF. I can easily print it to have a hard copy. La Salle is a pretty book and ones that nice "might" be the exception.

Not daily yet but certainly monthly.

The whole gaming world is not ready yet for electronic rulebooks. Some gamers love them. Some hate them. Most are in the middle.

I prefer books to PDFs.
However if my toner did not cost a fortune to replace then I am sure I would own a lot more PDFs..

With cheaper portable readers it will make PDFs far more useful … I have 30 sets on my bigger kindle and it saves carting them round … make all my QRS into pdfs and it saves heaps of hassle.

Yes. We are in a global marketplace and the most efficient means of delivering information is electronically, hands down.

No.

PDFs if properly done are much kinder to my dyslexia problems than paper so I'm a yes.

x42

All I ever do with electronic copies of rules is print them out. Then write on them. Then modify them.

It is certainly a cheap method of distribution, but if I'm going to pay for something, I want printed material or a MASSIVE discount if I'm going to have to print the d**n thing myself.

Taking e-readers to games is like taking computers to games, a bit of a niche interest…

No.

Deja Vu

but still NO

Nope, PDF's simply contain little value to me personally, other than as small add-ons to existing print rules. Print costs add up quickly, and PDF's are not priced cheaply enough to compensate for that in many cases.

PDF.

Brian

No

Hate PDFs. Love paper.

Depends on the book.

It depends on the rules themselves. If they print out well on my mono laser, and aren't too long then pdf is my preferred format. Ganesha Games rules are great examples of this.

As to the cost I find that printing a set of rules out myself, including folders, plastic pockets etc., usually works out cheaper than Postage and Packing for a printed copy, so the price difference is a real saving. Besides the instant gratification of a download is great.

For the big glossy productions with lots of worthwhile colour in them, Hammer's Slammers The Crucible for instance, then I want the book even if a pdf is available.

Even though I'm happy to read ebooks on my PC or PDA for wargames rules I always want a hard copy one way or the other.

No – I prefer something real.

I can never find things in pdf rulebooks. My real books have bookmarks.

A somebody above pointed out, "print your own`" is fine for short documents but becomes impractical for larger books.

Mick

Books are better, but PDFs can be very handy.
-Kle.

Hell NO!

Both. If easily acquired, I'll buy the book. Also, with the Free stuff and sales on RPG.com and Drivethrurpg.com and Studio 2 it is a good way to see if you're interested in something beforehand. I don't always print out the entire book, just what I feel is needed for gaming at that time. Especially when printer-friendly versions are becoming more prominent.

30 pages or less in black & white then a pdf is fine. Any more than that and it gets very expensive for printing and binding around here. I recently tried to get a PDF printed and bound at the only place in town that does such things. It was 100 pages with a colour cover. The printer refused to print the cover separately so I had to make do with black and white, he would also only do single sided prints and the whole job came out at £40.00 GBP (30p per page plus £10.00 GBP binding). As it happens it was a technical PDF for work so they paid for it but if I had paid £40.00 GBP for a 100 page b&w ruleset I would be a bit miffed to say the least.

I prefer paper but agree PDF's have their uses.

Love PDFs! It means I can get away with reading rulebooks at work.

Actually I think offering PDF books is one of the reason Ganesha Games are doing so well. And that the games are great.

No!

I don't like my rules on pdf but on paper.

Not a hard and fast rule, but in general: books for rules, and pdf's for scenario collections. However, I would (and have) bought cheaper pdf's of rules where I wouldn't have risked the money for the book.

I prefer to buy PDF and then print them in a format of my choosing. PDF all the way due to the savings.

I prefer to buy my rules in PDF format. The price is less, and if I want a hardcopy I have the tools to print and bind a copy, so I can have the best of both worlds.

Paper. I like something to read while I'm on the can.

I dislike PDFs.
The labor and materials in printing them up myself far outweigh any advantages.
Taking the to Office MAx to print and "bind" is just added labor.

Thay are not worth any imagined price saving.

Hands down paper almost always. If I buy a PDF, it's usually because a paper version is not available (or OOP and too expensive). There are certain situations where I buy PDF over paper (for RPGs adventure modules, so I can notate, modify, etc…yes I know I could do this with a physical copy too, but I'm a book nerd and hate defacing books).

Damon.

I like the print version…
What I do like is things that Two Hour Wargames does. If you buy the print version, you usually get the PDF too.
Then you have them both.

I find it nice so I have the bound book in front of me, and I can make good copies of the charts I need so I have them readily available.

I prefer books to PDFs. I can take them anywhere with me.

I much prefer printed paper rulebooks. On the other hand, PDFs are great for QRS sheets and the like.

I prefer PDFs, I can print them myself in I want to (and as a papermodeler, I'm already onboard with the costs/work of production) or carry them around on a thumb drive to read.

What I don't like are those few PDF rules authors that try to put all the costs of hardcopy production and distribution on their PDFs as well. These are the mental GENIUSES who take a pittance off the book price as if they are doing you a favor, and then gripe that PDF buyers aren't buying the books. You know who you are.

I love paper, and I have a stack of printed-out PDF rulebooks at home.

Reading PDFs on a computer screen has never been much fun.

However… I have a Kindle on order at the moment, as I always like to have a couple of books on the go wherever I am. I don't expect it to handle big colour PDFs at all, but I'll have a go using small, cleanly laid out rulebook files (Ganesha, Two Hour Wargames) on it. I'll also experiment using the Calibre conversion tool. E-readers support bookmarks and the like, and I just want to load the files onto the device (rather than keeping them on Whispernet or the like).

My brother is very happy reading a lot of academic PDFs on his iPhone.

Short answer – I'm giving PDF on an e-reader a serious go, get back to me in a few weeks time.

Paper lover!

Rees

I always prefer a book over any PDF's. This is true for any reading material, rules and scenario books. Call me old fashioned, but I think I prefer to get away from the computer that I sit at so much. Too many days in the office working on the computer.

Besides, it is hard to read a computer from the porcelin throne.

book are out of discussion!
but I'd appreciate the possibility to have both rules and historical books on new devices, such as kindle or sony.
all in your hand for reading, taking notes (it's now possible) and put in the pocket of your jacket.
let's consider furthermore the incresing number of free books you can downoload from googlebooks or archive.

for the moment I consider this as something to add to my normal behaviour: hard copy on my stomach in the sofa…
but in the future..?????
luca

peanadipiombo.blogspot.com

I like PDFs and have tons of them, but no I do not prefer them. I'll always prefer a nice printed book over an electronic format.

Oh yeah, BTCTerrainman, there are these new fangled things called laptops, netbooks, e-readers and such that work great on the porcelin throne!

No pdfs for me

Having worn out many a rule book over the decades, I prefer PDFs. That way, I can print a copy and when I wear it out, print another.

I don't actually read my PDFs on the computer.

I like PDFs as a delivery method only.

I have to have things in paper if they are ever going to get read. The only time I have a computer with a pdf up, is if we are doing something that requires lots of searching around within the book such as leveling up a character in an RPG or comparing force statlines across multiple publications.

I've gotten to the point where I bought my own comb binder, and then print and bind my books on my own.

NO!

PDF, 100% hands down.

For ecample, if the FOW books were in PDF format I'd sell all the papers and get them for sure.

when playing the game paper all the way, for the first to see if I want to play the rules PDF is Okay.

Much prefer paper.

No, I prefer paper.

PDFs are fine but given a choice, I vastly prefer paper. The price in the OP is fine but way to many companies want 50-75% a print book's price for a PDF. Any price over about 35% the books cover is WAAAAY to much for a PDF in my mind.