Viking supplement Printing woes

[ImaTarget]

Hello all,

Due to the GM Day I took the plunge to check out the good word on RuneQuest II and the Viking supplement and bought it on Drivethroughrpg as a PDF.

I wnt ahead to print them and the MRQII Rulebook was no problem at all and worked great and without issue. The Viking supplement is not printing properly however. Usually you hit print and the pages come out one after the other. Here printing takes ages as Adobe tries to downsample something or other (Maybe weird transparency or some such?) so each page takes about a minute to print. I cannot block the printer for such a long amount of time. Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this? I suspect it might also be some decryption of the file that is causing it to give my printer a hissyfit. Any help is highly appreciated as I want to take it with me on vacation end of this week and need it in print format then to plan my new homebrew.

I have been trying to find the books themselves but they are ridiculusly expensive here in Germany. In any case, I want to print out the PDFs as I like to have my paper to flip though and do not own an electronic reader to carry them around with.

 

[SnowDog]

I have no idea if this will help, but here we go...

Have you installed a pdf printer (like cutePDF) to your computer? It works as a virtual printer and when you have the bought pdf opened in pdf reader, try to print it out to pdf printer instead of an actual printer. If it takes a lot of time to print then, it doesn't matter (I suppose).

When you have the new pdf, try to print that.

I think the problem lies in pictures, at least I have noticed similar problems myself. Not with these products as I have bought them as physical books...

 

[Vagni]

Sounds odd.

I can report I have printed my copy of Vikings out okay without any issues. So I'm not sure where that leaves you.

Good luck with it.

 

[PhilHibbs]

I don't understand why anyone would want to print out their entire PDF, why not just buy the book? Printing costs about 1-2p per page, so a 136 page book for £22 isn't a bad price. Unless you're stealing the printing from your employer, of course.

 

[ImaTarget]

I have no idea if this will help, but here we go...

Have you installed a pdf printer (like cutePDF) to your computer? It works as a virtual printer and when you have the bought pdf opened in pdf reader, try to print it out to pdf printer instead of an actual printer. If it takes a lot of time to print then, it doesn't matter (I suppose).

When you have the new pdf, try to print that.

I tried that, but cute PDF stops with an error as it cannot work with this specific PDF provided, I wager it is the encryption. Bah looks like I am all out of luck on this one.

Thanks for all the replys so far!

 

[sdavies2720]

I don't understand why anyone would want to print out their entire PDF, why not just buy the book? Printing costs about 1-2p per page, so a 136 page book for £22 isn't a bad price. Unless you're stealing the printing from your employer, of course.

I've done it. I have a visceral resistance to writing in a published book, but I don't have any problem scribbling all over the copy I printed.

So, for instance, I'm getting ready to run Clockwork & Chivalry. I bought the physical books and adventure, but I've also printed the adventure. And I'm writing 'notes to self' all over that printout. Meanwhile the professionally printed copy is sitting on my shelf...

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure any of that will help you understand. I'm not sure I do either!

Steve

 

[Deleriad]

So, for instance, I'm getting ready to run Clockwork & Chivalry. I bought the physical books and adventure, but I've also printed the adventure. And I'm writing 'notes to self' all over that printout. Meanwhile the professionally printed copy is sitting on my shelf...

I generally do the same. I print out the main section I'm likely need and write cues and notes to myself for the session. I find it more convenient that way. Printed version is used to access other material (e.g. I use post-its to flag important bits).

 

[PhilHibbs]

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure any of that will help you understand. I'm not sure I do either!

I do get it, actually. I tend to make my own documents with rules summaries and tables and print them out, though, and use them like a "personal errata".

 

[Redcrow]

Well, I work for a printing company so its cheap (free) and easy to print off a pdfs on our big color laser. I have also recently started doing cardstock modeling and printing everything out at work has saved me enough cash to buy a robo-cutter at home.

One nice thing about pdfs is the ability to print out multiple copies of certain sections for easy player reference which is much cheaper than buying multiple hard-copies.

 

[gran_orco]

I don't understand why anyone would want to print out their entire PDF, why not just buy the book? Printing costs about 1-2p per page, so a 136 page book for £22 isn't a bad price. Unless you're stealing the printing from your employer, of course.

I can print a pdf book with 3 € total, normal quality.

 

[PhilHibbs]

I can print a pdf book with 3 € total, normal quality.

Maybe my costing is out of date. *Update* Hm, looks like my brain wasn't working when I did the maths. That's only a couple of quid total cost at the price I estimated.

 

[sdavies2720]

I can print a pdf book with 3 € total, normal quality.

100 page book, roughly 3p per page? Sounds do-able, especially if double-sided printing on a cost-effective printer.

I print most of my pdfs on my 15 year old HP Laserjet 4MP. Nice to use the toner because it doesn't smear with highlighting. And the cost per page is pretty low.

There are some PDFs that it doesn't like to print, so one day I may need to get rid of it.

Steve

 

[jolt]

My problem with printing pdf's is that regular printer paper is such lousy quality. For small pdf's I'll sometimes use resume or presentation paper (or cardstock for things like tables and charts that I'll use over and over again) but that kind of paper is too expensive for larger works; cheaper just to buy the book.

jolt