8.5x11 Format

[namada]

Given the fact that SJG seems inclined to primarily release micro-sized supplements (low word count), and simultaneously support POD, for the foreseeable future, why are we still using this format?

Most folks I've spoken to that are using tablets have said that 6x9 or smaller is their preferred format and consider 8.5x11 to be an outdated pain to navigate on such devices. As someone collecting the POD product, I can tell you it's a pain to have books with no writing on the spines to identify them on the bookshelf (saddle-stitched books are simply the worst.)

It would seem to me that all parties would be better served if GURPS transitioned to either a smaller 6x9 or 5x8 format, with single-column layout with occasional floating boxes. That would allow micro-sized releases, but also allow immediate POD support for books with spines, and the pdfs would read better on tablets.

Maybe this is what GURPS needs now, a relaunch with a smaller format?

[Stormcrow]

I wouldn't be able to print my PDFs!

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

I wouldn't be able to print my PDFs!

That, right there, in a nutshell.
Also, my GURPS books would start looking really weird and untidy if they were different sizes.

[Varyon]

I'd imagine it's a lot easier on the design/layout team if everything is in the same format, rather than having the digital-only books be in a different format than those available in dead-tree format. Additionally, note digital-only books that do sufficiently well (like DF) may end up with a print run. And, of course, as Stormcrow mentions, the user being able to readily print out the pdf's for use at the table (assuming they'd rather not need to pass around their tablet, if indeed they have one) is worthwhile. As Bruno notes, there's also the fact that having different sizes looks untidy - and unprofessional.

That said, if you have the ability to modify pdf's, chopping off the left and right borders would probably buy enough space that a "full screen" display on a 6x9 reader would work a good deal better.

[Daigoro]

A4 would be nice. Is that not a thing in Ameriland?

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

A4 would be nice. Is that not a thing in Ameriland?

Not really, no. The US has its own independent standard paper sizes. I mean, it could be done if a publisher cared to do it, but A-sized papers aren't easy to obtain for the average American, while sizes like 8.5x11 are trivial. Likewise, our regular stationery and office supplies (mailing envelopes, file folders, hole punches, etc.) are largely sized for 8.5x11 pages.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

A4 would be nice. Is that not a thing in Ameriland?

Nope. To more-or-less quote Wikipedia: ISO 216 is not used in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, or the Dominican Republic; we use ANSI/ASME Y14.1. As SJ Games is in the United States and has Canada and Mexico on either side, "freely" exchanging goods under NAFTA, that isn't likely to change.

[Kromm]

As a more general comment:

People are probably familiar with the idea of "retooling" in a factory setting. Something very similar applies to book production, although it's as much a matter of software as it is a matter of hardware there.

We're "tooled" for production in the ANSI A (​8 1⁄2" × 11") format, with text in two columns and boxes, tables, and art in fixed locations on the page. Changing that or adopting a parallel production process in another format – be that switching to A4 or the more complicated request for 6" × 9" or 5" × 8", single columns, and floating boxes – would be costly and labor-intensive. The special 8" × 10" format used for the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game demonstrated to us just how costly and how labor-intensive . . . and that was a relatively minor change. GURPS simply doesn't earn enough money to make such changes realistic at this time, and we don't believe that making those changes would suddenly make GURPS wildly more popular.

[Daigoro]

*cries in metric*

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The special 8" × 10" format used for the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game demonstrated to us just how costly and how labor-intensive . . . and that was a relatively minor change. GURPS simply doesn't earn enough money to make such changes realistic at this time, and we don't believe that making those changes would suddenly make GURPS wildly more popular.

Tossing in: The original "Lost Hall of Tyr" was in 8.5x11. The upgraded "Hall of Judgment" was 8x10. Both books got a second edition . . .and they might as well be separate books despite vastly similar content. You have to completely re-do layout, and things that fit in the art holes of one DO NOT FIT in the art holes of another. That format change is a big deal.