The current Blue Desk update covers a top of (possible) general Cumberland
interest:

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/blueroom.htm

And here's a paste for your convenience if you're not in a browsery mood:

- - - - - - - --

2/22/07: A conundrum I'm facing at the moment involves some current
<http://www.cumberlandgames.com>Cumberland projects, two of which might require
Acrobat 6 (PDF 1.5) when they're released. I've been resisting this for a long
time; it's my desire (in fact, Cumberland's avowed
<http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/policy.htm>policy) for all my titles to be
backwards-compatible to a minimum of 3 revisions of Reader. Currently, I keep
features rooted in Acrobat 4 generally, Acrobat 3 when possible, and leave open
the possibility of Acrobat 5 just in case I need to do something funky with
transparencies (haven't yet).

From a gamer's standpoint, I like to get a PDF open fast, print it as fast as
my printer can manage, and then game with it. So I prefer to open a PDF in Foxit
or Reader 4. From a designer's standpoint, it's hard for Adobe to tempt me
forward since I approach my work as a writer, and because Cumberland titles are
aimed at the gaming table (by way of the injket or laser), not the screen. So,
pointy-clicky bells and whistles don't impress me unless I'm being silly.
Content remains king.

But Acrobat 6 supports layers the user can switch on and off. This means (to use
one feature already popular with some gamers) that a map's grid can vanish if
you'd rather print it gridless. Or ... a starship's cargo hold can be
cargo-packed or empty, as you like. Or a parchment map-backdrop can vanish if
your printer prints it too dark. Or a "player's version" and "GM's Secrets"
version of a map can occupy the same space in the document, and so on and so on.
Hell yes. That's a gen-u-wine function; neither a bell nor whistle be ... and
so, I ponder.

My love of maps, in particular, aims this conundrum at a very tender area in my
gamerly passions. So I may end up making two versions of each new PDF release
for a while ... (and by "for a while" I guess I mean "until Acrobat 9 comes
out"). But producing two versions could multiply labor in at least one of the
projects to the point where the price would change, and I'd rather not allow
that. So I ponder and ponder and ponder some more. If you have a stake in this
pondering, drop me a line and let me know how you feel about it.



|| S. John Ross
|| Husband · Cook · Writer
|| In That Order
|| http://www.io.com/~sjohn