4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

I’m building up a campaign setting with some friends and I am wondering what is the best program and if anyone could point me too few tutorials to use with it. I have seen some nice PDFs on here so I’m sure someone will know. Thank you. :D

I’m not sure of any specific programs that will let you create PDFs for free, but I do know of a number that will convert, say, Word Documents in to PDFs.  They basically export to PDF instead of saving as a document.  I’ve used them a bit in the past to create Word docs and save them as PDFs, and you can probably use Microsoft Publisher to create some fancier ones.  Just Google “free PDF creator” and you’ll get a bunch of them that work that way; I think Cute PDF Writer is one of them.

I mock up everything I want in Word and then print to pdf using Cute PDF, although with windows Vista I’ve now learned I can download an add-on to just directly export to PDF.  CutePDF has the advantage of better resolutions, but the Vista exporter has smaller PDF files on the back end.

A better idea, perhaps, if cost is an issue - just use Open Office.  It has most of the functionality of Word and a native PDF exporter built right in.

LightningNick - 31 July 2008 01:43 PM

I’m building up a campaign setting with some friends and I am wondering what is the best program and if anyone could point me too few tutorials to use with it. I have seen some nice PDFs on here so I’m sure someone will know. Thank you. :D

More than software, you need experience… which means practice, and looking at other people’s designs, and ideally reading a good book or two.  Good design looks easy, but it’s much harder than it looks, and there’s a lot of research that has gone into what is “good design” and bad.

As some have noted, you can get a PDF exporter or filter (PDF995 installs as a printer driver, for instance), so you can produce PDFs out of practically any program.  Word works in a pinch, though it’s really not ideal for laying out fancy stuff.  Microsoft Publisher if you must, though it’s pretty lame as far as DTP software goes.

Scribus is free and works much like Adobe’s PageMaker (the predecessor of InDesign), though it’s hard to pick up if you don’t know anything about DTP software… but so will any professional-level frame-based DTP package like InDesign or Quark.  (Having several years experience working with frame-based DTP software, trying to lay out anything remotely fancy with Word is very painful.)

Munkwunk - 31 July 2008 01:56 PM

Just Google “free PDF creator” and you’ll get a bunch of them that work that way

Incidentally, I use one called PDF Creator. It installs as a printer just as others have mentioned. I happen to think that you can create some great PDFs using Text Boxes in Word 2007 and printing to PDF.

I did almost all of d20 Advanced using OpenOffice.org Writer, with some artwork done in GIMP. It allows you to export directly to .pdf, and it works pretty darn well. Plus, it’s open source, and it’s free.

ravenx99 - 31 July 2008 06:13 PM

Scribus is free and works much like Adobe’s PageMaker (the predecessor of InDesign), though it’s hard to pick up if you don’t know anything about DTP software… but so will any professional-level frame-based DTP package like InDesign or Quark.  (Having several years experience working with frame-based DTP software, trying to lay out anything remotely fancy with Word is very painful.)

Having used PageMaker before (but no experience with InDesign, sadly), I have to agree that layouts in Word are painful by comparison.  But if you don’t have professional experience using the DTP software, they’re often just as painful to use at first until you get the hang of things.

You can replicate just about all of that in Word or OpenOffice but realistically they aren’t built to do so like the DTPs are.

Damn it. it sounds like I’m going to need word. I don’t like Open Office but only use it when I have too. Thanks for all the advice all.