Printer Friendly Monthlys

Throw your ideas for Druchii.net around in here...

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Ragian Cain
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Printer Friendly Monthlys

Post by Ragian Cain »

Im only speaking for my self, but id like everyones opinions. i love the Monthly, its awesome but trying to print those textured backgrounds is a killer!

id like to see a printer friendly version, with white backing, text an the pics.
Anyone else?

RagainCain
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Nagathi
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Post by Nagathi »

We changed the background to this near-white one so we didn't have to make a priter friendly monthly anymore. However, I see possibilities when the initiatives' websites are up. Then we can hopefully have pure white backgrounds with plain black text.

Loremaster Nagathi
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Sneaky
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Post by Sneaky »

You're going to REALLY hate the next monthly. It's a lovely background, but it'll probably be hell on the printer again. It's more printer friendly than the last one (kinda) but there's a strip of blue on the side. I'll talk to Imdat about putting out a printer-friendly version as well, but it'll probably be ugly as sin (I'm not going to re-layout every page for the printer-friendly version, so there'll probably be a weird gap... if you really aren't happy, print in black and white on a laser and it should come out fine).
Goodbye.
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Ragian Cain
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Post by Ragian Cain »

Seams fair enough gentlemen.
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Nagathi
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Post by Nagathi »

Whenever I get the time I will start creating some test pages for the websites, I just need to discuss some details with Imdat and people.

Loremaster Nagathi
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Mdk
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Post by Mdk »

If we just create a Montly with just a simple boreder on the left side
of 3 or 5 cm it's less hard to print it and still look good. Well, you know
we are working on it.
You’re a wreck, an accident.
Forget the freak, your just nature.
Keep the gun oiled, and the temple cleaned shiz
snort, and blaspheme, let the heads cool, and the
engine run. Because in the end, everything we do,
is just everything we’ve done.
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Zentaricai
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Post by Zentaricai »

---I always forget to bring this up! I'm glad someone did--I never read the monthy for that reason--I'd sure like a Word or NotePad version for printing I'm in front of a laptop all day--I'll burn my eyes out if I stare at the monthly.
DON'T MONKEY WITH MY BUSINESS
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

I am also glad that someone started about it. And it is not only about printing. Have you ever tried to use any other PDF viewer then Adobe? For example, the December issue. On Windows, it is unreadable in GhostView, and on Linux, it is unreadable in xpdf and kpdf. It can be read in kghostview and gv, with some difficulties (grey text on black background).

So, please, make it printer (and me)-friendly. My favorite is black text on white paper.

Thanks
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Nagathi
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Post by Nagathi »

Loflar, see the initiative sites as well. Although the latest Monthlies aren't there, you can get all the articles as web text.
try:
www.druchii.net/cop
www.druchii.net/tok
www.druchii.net/tbf
www.druchii.net/monthly


- Nag
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Robin
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Post by Robin »

Nagathi wrote:Loflar, see the initiative sites as well. Although the latest Monthlies aren't there, you can get all the articles as web text.
try:
www.druchii.net/cop
www.druchii.net/tok
www.druchii.net/tbf
www.druchii.net/monthly


- Nag


These are a great help. Thanks.

I really apreciate the effort put in crating the monthly. It really is a neat magazine. But I'll join the others in saying an easily printable is on the wishlist. For me this could be as simply as just the articles in a .txt file. Although this will lead to some loss of the monthly as a full magazine.

Cheers.

Robin
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"Don't piss me off! I'm running out of places to hide the bodies"

"Remember: if all else fails, get out first and burn the whole thing down"
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

The same applies to me. Although in plain text I would miss some pictures ;-) But HTML is good. Thanks.
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Nagathi
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Post by Nagathi »

If you complain about the pages taking much ink, why do you want pictures? The HTML text format on those links I gave are the very basic thing. Copy & Paste into a txt file or Word Document (or whatever file format you prefer) and print it. It can't get much more printer friendly :P

- Nag
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Well, I see I should explain. I don't want to print all monthly's. There are articles, which I would like to print. I think, that most of toner is used on the colored background and those big sidebars. Pictures alone take some toner, but IMHO not that much. But for printing, HTML, even without pictures, is OK. They are usually not important parts of the article.

But PDF with pictures looks nice. And I really like some of the pictures. The problem is, that in GhostView, which I usually use, I cannot see the letters (in some issues). That's why I would like the monthly PDF to be more simple, preferably black on white.

I plan to try to read the last issues on Linux computer with kghostview, when I will have the time, but it will be hard, because even there the letters are only a bit lighter then background.
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Z'gahn
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Post by Z'gahn »

Well, the last few issues - and all future issues, most likely - already have black text on white background. ;)

and if you want pics with your plain text version from the ini-site, you can open the pdf, and then select and copy the pics (there's a button for it).

I don't think there's a lot more we can do
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Z'Gahn wrote:Well, the last few issues - and all future issues, most likely - already have black text on white background. ;)


Please, look at these two screenshots.

http://www.druchii.net/album_page.php?pic_id=2349

http://www.druchii.net/album_page.php?pic_id=2348
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Robin
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Post by Robin »

Nagathi wrote:If you complain about the pages taking much ink, why do you want pictures? The HTML text format on those links I gave are the very basic thing. Copy & Paste into a txt file or Word Document (or whatever file format you prefer) and print it. It can't get much more printer friendly :P

- Nag


I'v hit the reply button, forming an answer. But in the end it all came down on me being a lazy git :P I'll explain.

I'm not worried about the ink (hey I print them at work) and I do like the pictures. However what I prefer to do is print out the whole montly and then read it at leasure. However when printing in pdf format it takes ages as opposed to when in a txt format. The printer can print out a word document of about 100 pages in 2 minutes, about the same as it takes to print out 2 or 3 pdf pages and when printing out the montly jamming up the printer que for about an hour or so.

The links provided can help me make a that quick printable cut and paste version but as I'm a lazy git I wanted you to do that...... And that's where I realised that I better retract my vote for a txt format montly and let you guys put their effort in creating an absolutely fantastic high quality magazine instead of answering silly mails from lazy gits. :oops:

Keep up the good work!

Robin
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Mdk
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Post by Mdk »

Loflar, I advice you to use Acrobat reader any way.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

I've made the Monthl on a Macintosh with Indesign. The
PDF's I make with it are only readable with the newest version of
Acrobat Reader. For the Mac is that 5.0 and for the PC from 6.0
I guess. Let me know if you have mor etroubles. gr. MDK
You’re a wreck, an accident.
Forget the freak, your just nature.
Keep the gun oiled, and the temple cleaned shiz
snort, and blaspheme, let the heads cool, and the
engine run. Because in the end, everything we do,
is just everything we’ve done.
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

I am considering installing Acrobat Reader on my home computer
(I have linux there with several PDF viewers, and until now I did not need Acrobat Reader - I can read everything except some PDF 1.6 files and Monthly). On my working computer (Windows), I prefer GSView, as it can also read PostScript files, which I sometimes use. And I don't want Acrobat to mess with file extensions.

The PDF's I make with it are only readable with the newest version of Acrobat Reader.


Yes, that's the problem ;-)
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Mdk
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Post by Mdk »

Welcome in 2005 m8 ;)
You’re a wreck, an accident.
Forget the freak, your just nature.
Keep the gun oiled, and the temple cleaned shiz
snort, and blaspheme, let the heads cool, and the
engine run. Because in the end, everything we do,
is just everything we’ve done.
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Post by Freebooter »

Erm.. guys, if you want printer friendly Monthly, perhaps merged Jan-feb-mar Monthly isn't your cup of tea. It has a big overly saturated cover illustration.. it wans't gonna get printed in any existing printer because it had bright purples and oranges, and most printers can't print 60%+ saturated pics... I toned it down like 30% from overall saturation, but some spots in that cover might still leavy empty spots when printed...

It's up to MDK to fix it, so please send all hatemail to him rather than me ;)
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Freebooter wrote:merged Jan-feb-mar Monthly isn't your cup of tea.


Are you talking about the one we all expect? Hmm, then we will see.

Fortunately, I have already found a working approach to those monthlies I could not read before. XPDF is the answer. It has pdftotext utility, which dumps all text from PDF file, and pdfimages utility, which dumps all images. This way, I can look at images I like, and read the text white on black or include it to, say, TeX file for printing ;-)
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