Just how small is the print in the CKG digest?

[nightstorm]

I've found it real cheap online. I would buy the hb, but one reviewer on youtube said the pages were glued in.

[Omote]

The digest print is pretty small. I'd say font size 4 or so when compared with MS Word font sizes.

~O

[Sir Ironside]

Somewhere on this forum someone mentioned that it was just the original pages shrunk down to fit a digest size.

[koralas]

I've found it real cheap online. I would buy the hb, but one reviewer on youtube said the pages were glued in.

Yeah, the font is roughly 1/2-2/3 the size of the full sized manuals. Personally I do not find them that difficult to read, but some may. Considering that I am probably one or two prescriptions away from bi-focals in general, that isn't to bad. Oddly enough while I tend to take my glasses off at night to read novels before sleeping due to a slight problem focusing with them on, I can read the digest easily with or without my glasses. And realize that the format and layout is the same as the full-sized books, the form factor is changed to about 2/3 the size, so the font reduction follows that trend...

Not sure what the reviewer meant by "glued in", what else would you do in a soft-cover book? Heck, even most hardcover books pages are simply "glued in", though some do have other methods such as saddle-stitching, but in the end, even these are glued. Having tried my hand at some home-binding, it is amazing how easy it is to do for one-off type projects. However, doing it the old-fashioned way makes you appreciate why books were so expensive back in time.

[nightstorm]

The digest print is pretty small. I'd say font size 4 or so when compared with MS Word font sizes.

~O

humm my only goes to size 8. Any smaller and you'd need a magnifying glass. I think what the reviewer meant by being glued in (for the hardback) was that it was glue only and no stitching or any such thing.

[Sir Ironside]

I think what the reviewer meant by being glued in (for the hardback) was that it was glue only and no stitching or any such thing.

"Glued in" is not a bad word, as I'm guessing the reviewer intimated. Every paperback is glued in (Paperback as in the novels you buy at any bookstore.) It only becomes a problem if the glue is faulty. (BTW even saddle stitched has glue keeping the stitched paper together in the book.) There is a strip of cloth that acts as a binder in saddle stitched along the spine, but the glue is still there.

These are soft-cover so it doesn't surprise me at all that it uses only glue.

[Omote]

The digest print is pretty small. I'd say font size 4 or so when compared with MS Word font sizes.

~O

humm my only goes to size 8. Any smaller and you'd need a magnifying glass. I think what the reviewer meant by being glued in (for the hardback) was that it was glue only and no stitching or any such thing.

8 was indeed what I meant to say.

~O

[mhensley]

Is there or could someone post an image of one of the pages at actual size?

[gideon_thorne]

Its about a 4 point font. I'd reformat the books to put it at a 6-7 but that would also about double the page count of the book.

[nightstorm]

I found the answer. The "In god we trust " on a dime.


I think I'll pass

[koralas]

I found the answer. The "In god we trust " on a dime.
<image deleted from reply>
I think I'll pass

No, no, no, it is definitely more like an 8pt font give/take.

Here is something to try, hold your copy of any TLG book to your screen, and adjust the zoom level of your browser to 100%, this should display the font at the same size as the rule books but check to be sure. (use keyboard <ctrl>+ or <ctrl>- to adjust zoom level on IE and FF on Windows not sure if that works on Mac) Then once you have the fonts at the right sizes, hit <ctlr>- twice and that is approximately the size differential. I'll double check the number of <ctrl>- that you should use when I get home, unless someone beats me to it... <ctrl>0 returns you to the default zoom level of 100%.

Note, depending on your default font and font size in your browser, you may need to adjust a bit to get it right. Now we are talking rough approximations here, but it will get the idea across.

[Arduin]

I found the answer. The "In god we trust " on a dime.

Nope. WAY larger print than that.

[koralas]

ok, so my experiment on the screen doesn't work well based on scaling of the fonts... However I did another couple of tests and...

I used Times New Roman as my base font and printed a line at 12, 10, 8, and 6pt.

The CKG looks to be just a bit shy of 10pt, that I will chalk to the font itself.

The Digest CKG is just shy of an 8pt font size, so I printed another line at 7.5 and it matched up pretty well, just a hair larger than the actual text, so maybe it is ~7.45, but we could be just splitting hairs at that point. (In fact I think the differential in the dCKG and 7.5 is probably less than the width of a hair...)

So if you want to test out readability, take any text document you have, convert it to a 7.5pt Times New Roman font, print it out, read it, and see what you think...

[GameOgre]

I have a copy and at 41 years of age I can read it fine,IF I hold it close to my face. My vision isn't the best though and I'm told I need Bifocals. It's worth having it because at the time its the only version I could get. It's MUCH better than nothing but I for sure would get a full size version as well.

[smug]

I have found that it's OK in good light, but not in bad light. In some cases the type seems clearer than in others, I would say, but in general it's easy to read and I like them as reference books (ie, not as reading books).

[mbeacom]

How about this?

The typefont in the digest versions is VERY small.
That means, the digests should probably be purchased in those cases where portability is really what matters. If you're buying the digest simply to have the content at a cheaper price and don't actually NEED the small size, you may be a bit disappointed. I bought a copy of Monsters and Treasures of Aihrde because it was cheaper and now I wish I had a full size version. Not enough to actually rebuy it, but still. And this is coming from a person who doesn't need reading glasses.

If I have time tonight I'll grab one of my digest size books and one of my full size books and scan them in side by side for a comparison.

[Troll Lord]

I've found it real cheap online. I would buy the hb, but one reviewer on youtube said the pages were glued in.

THE FONT IS TINY!!!! I can hardly read it.

The first round of hardcovesr CKG was inline binding, which means the pages are each glued to the spine. This allows the user to open the book completely and leave it open to the page desired. We couldn't keep up demand so we had the whole project shipped to walworth for mass printing, these are smythe sewn, and though they are solid a s a rock, they do not allow the user to open and leave open on the desired page (like 95% of all other RPG books and the PH, MT etc). I have gone back to using the inline glue version so i can see what I'm reading.

Does that make sense?

STeve

[MormonYoYoMan]

The font in the digest is a bit small in the morning, and gets a little larger - and much more readable - by noon. About 8:30 pm, it starts to shrink again, and by 11:30 pm it's unreadable!

[Lobo316]

It's small enough that after I ordered the PHB, M&T and the CKG all in digest form from Amazon (tight budget and all, trying to save money) I ended up sending them all back to Amazon and re-ordering the full-sized hardback copies of each one.

I found the digest versions almost unusable, and I don't wear glasses or contacts (have excellent vision). The font was just WAY to small for me. Maybe OK for a reference source at a tournament or convention something, but do yourself a favor, spend the extra cash and get the full sized copies, especially if you are planning on using them as your core, standard, rulebooks.

[mbeacom]

The large font is from the collectors edition of Monsters & Treasure. The small font is from the digest version of Monsters & Treasure of Aihrde.

[Omote]

mbeacom takes care of buisness and sets the record straight~!

~O

[The Evil DM]

I have the players handbook and that one is waaay to small for me. I let my kids use it as a reference when we play. In my opinion it's only value is as an extra copy for table use.