Lulu POD - GURPS Basic Results

[Gotha]

Impressive !

I've been toying with the idea of POD-ing things like the Starships series for some time now, but I'm also slowly getting used to PDFs and e-books. I didn't know you could get so beautiful books from Lulu, though...

[ericbsmith]

So I finally broke down a couple weeks ago and ordered my GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Omnibus from Lulu. Overall I like the results:

http://gurpsland.no-ip.org/DFOmnibus.html

It contains all 15 DF books, plus DF Monsters, DF Adventure 1, the two DF Pyramid magazines and a handful of DF Articles, coming in a bit over 700 pages.

One thing I'm a little disappointed with is that the color images came out extremely dark, however the grey-scale images used through most of the books came out pretty nicely and the text came out very clean.

EDIT: The total cost was only $53 including Shipping.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

So I finally broke down a couple weeks ago and ordered my GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Omnibus from Lulu. Overall I like the results:

http://gurpsland.no-ip.org/DFOmnibus.html

It contains all 15 DF books, plus DF Monsters, DF Adventure 1, the two DF Pyramid magazines and a handful of DF Articles, coming in a bit over 700 pages.

One thing I'm a little disappointed with is that the color images came out extremely dark, however the grey-scale images used through most of the books came out pretty nicely and the text came out very clean.

That is friggen' cool.

[mook]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

So I finally broke down a couple weeks ago and ordered my GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Omnibus from Lulu. Overall I like the results:

http://gurpsland.no-ip.org/DFOmnibus.html

Nice! I'm slowly compiling wish-lists of PDFs I want to "omnibus," and Dungeon Fantasy is right up there.

Thanks for the pics!

[ericbsmith]

For anyone that's been thinking about it Lulu is running a significant coupon special, 40% off your order if you use coupon code FALLSALE40. That means that the Dungeon Fantasy Omnibus like the one I had printed would run you only about $26.50 plus shipping, or about $32 with shipping. This coupon is good for your whole order, so if you want more than one book printed up they're all reduced price.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

For anyone that's been thinking about it Lulu is running a significant coupon special, 40% off your order if you use coupon code FALLSALE40. That means that the Dungeon Fantasy Omnibus like the one I had printed would run you only about $26.50 plus shipping, or about $32 with shipping. This coupon is good for your whole order, so if you want more than one book printed up they're all reduced price.

Ooooo

How long is that coupon good for?

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Ooooo

How long is that coupon good for?

Good through Nov 4th.

[templar]

Just a quick question about formatting. How are you combing the PDFs together. I am not the best at layout, but I've been thinking about getting a hardcopy Crusades and the Low-Tech supplements.

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by templar

Just a quick question about formatting. How are you combing the PDFs together. I am not the best at layout, but I've been thinking about getting a hardcopy Crusades and the Low-Tech supplements.

Lulu will do that for you. During the project creation you can upload any number of PDFs, even changing the ordering of them after you upload them, and Lulu will then combine them and offer you a chance to download the combined PDF (which I recommend you do, and look it over to make sure that the files didn't get barfed on anywhere).

One suggestion I do have for layout, though, is to get yourself a PDF with a single blank page that you can insert after an odd page-numbered PDF; that way you can align it so that page one of a PDF always starts on the right side of the book (this is a minor thing overall, but it's easier to page through a printed book when the odd pages are always on the right hand side and even pages on the left; if you don't insert filler pages then it may go back and forth between books when you do a combined set).

You can also use a PDF Printer (like Bullzip) to "print out" a PDF and eliminate the extra advertisement pages at the end of a PDF. This really doesn't make the book any cheaper, but a couple of the PDFs I put in my collection had 3-4 pages of ads at the end, and I really didn't need all of them there.

[templar]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Lulu will do that for you. During the project creation you can upload any number of PDFs, even changing the ordering of them after you upload them, and Lulu will then combine them and offer you a chance to download the combined PDF (which I recommend you do, and look it over to make sure that the files didn't get barfed on anywhere).

One suggestion I do have for layout, though, is to get yourself a PDF with a single blank page that you can insert after an odd page-numbered PDF; that way you can align it so that page one of a PDF always starts on the right side of the book (this is a minor thing overall, but it's easier to page through a printed book when the odd pages are always on the right hand side and even pages on the left; if you don't insert filler pages then it may go back and forth between books when you do a combined set).

You can also use a PDF Printer (like Bullzip) to "print out" a PDF and eliminate the extra advertisement pages at the end of a PDF. This really doesn't make the book any cheaper, but a couple of the PDFs I put in my collection had 3-4 pages of ads at the end, and I really didn't need all of them there.

You are soooo tempting me... This will of course have me spending more money on SJG games as well. I am one of the old school Physical copy gamers. I print everything out I buy, and I have delayed buying quite a few products in the hope that they will be come available in hardcopy. This Lulu option gives me some hope.

Also, how about the covers? Some of the images here have custom ones. Does Lulu have an automated feature to help with those, or will I need Photoshop (which I have but don't know how to use)?