Thursday, March 31, 2011

Hurry up and wait, Blackmarsh progress

After researching my options, I decided to go with RPGNow for the print copy of Blackmarsh. It will be 8.5 by 11, 16 pages. So the full map will be properly display within. Since I will be using color the maps will (crossing fingers) be a full gray scale. I also setup the PDF sides of things which will be free and working with Brave Halfling to coordinate our releases.

The only downside is that the I have to wait for the print files to be approved from a technical standpoint. A process that takes way longer than Lulu. Then I get to order it and see how it printed and hope that nothing went wrong. Otherwise I get to repeat the whole cycle again.

One thing I did different this time is made sure my files are PDF/X-1a:2001 compliant. This is a standard used by printing houses to ensure that the printed color is really what the color the customer wanted.

Because I did this I am going to set up a b/w versions on lulu and RPGNow to see if it succeeds in avoiding halftoning of my maps. The key element of exporting to a PDF/X-1a:2001 PDF was converting all my images to either a 1 bit b/w format for line art or 32-bit CMYK (not RGB or grayscale) for the images. I hope you find this helpful for your own projects.

We are on track for an April release. And below is the full letter size cover. Click to enlarge.

5 comments:

  1. Looks great Rob, can't wait to see it in print.

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  2. This looks gorgeous, Rob. I'm really looking forward to getting Blackmarsh, as I very much enjoy reading your 'sandbox' mini-settings.

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  3. Rob, now that I have tMW, I look forward to picking this up when it is released. Not sure where I am headed with DD yet, but glad to see this released standalone as well.

    Elsewhere you said, "My upcoming Scourge of the Demon Wolf is a Majestic Wilderlands, so I go full bore on using the material I develop in the Majestic Wilderlands supplement" - where can I read / hear more about this?!

    Best and happy gaming,
    TB

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  4. That is quite interesting, as I am thinking of doing something like that too, as an experiment as much as anything. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Just wanted to let you know, hopefully before you submitted for "printing" you have a typo in the 3rd paragraph on the back cover, it looks like you changed from covetous eyes to covetous eye and didn't completely change the words prior to them.

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