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View Full Version : Has anybody put dnd books on thier iphone?



Ozreth
2010-03-30, 03:15 PM
Got the idea o put my book PDFs onto my iPhone. as anybody done this?

dragonfan6490
2010-03-30, 03:24 PM
I would think that putting dnd books on the iphone would make the text a pain to read. But I don't have an iphone, so I'm not really an authority :smalltongue:

Ozreth
2010-03-30, 03:28 PM
It'd probably be ok on landscape view and the pinch zoom is great, but ya it may suck. Guess I'll find out tonight. I'll report back.0

Hzurr
2010-03-30, 03:29 PM
I've done it with my android phone, and while it's possible to make it work, it's kindof a pain. Reading the books is difficult (especially since usually it will be a scanned pdf, so its an image instead of text). Another big problem is file size. Some of these pdfs are 40-50 MB, and if you're using a pdf reader that loads the entire thing at once, there can be a lot of lag and delay.

I wouldn't recommend it.

I think there is an iphone app called iplay4E or something like that which is supposed to be really good for character sheets, though.

cssmythe3
2010-03-30, 03:40 PM
Good app for the iPad if it ever gets released...

valadil
2010-03-30, 04:17 PM
I put the books in my Dropbox and got the Dropbox app for iPhone. It's readable, but damn slow. Each page will take 30 sec to draw and there's no way to jump to other pages.

What I've found more useful is a local copy of d20srd and some saved pages from the DDI compendium. Those draw plenty quickly.

dbmeboy
2010-03-30, 04:20 PM
I think there is an iphone app called iplay4E or something like that which is supposed to be really good for character sheets, though.

iplay4E is quite nice. It can be found here (http://iplay4e.appspot.com/characters)

BIRDMANﺕ
2010-03-30, 04:21 PM
You kids and your fancy shamncy technology...

I can't afford an Iphone... but it sounds like that would actually be helpful if the app lets you book mark crap so like lets say your dming and you want to look up kobold stats for monsters you can just be like do the iphone thing and poof theres your monster manual page.

Optimystik
2010-03-30, 04:33 PM
I'd do it with an iPad, but love my eyes too much to put sourcebooks on a cellphone.

valadil
2010-03-30, 04:35 PM
You kids and your fancy shamncy technology...

I can't afford an Iphone... but it sounds like that would actually be helpful if the app lets you book mark crap so like lets say your dming and you want to look up kobold stats for monsters you can just be like do the iphone thing and poof theres your monster manual page.

This is how I use the compendium. I have a folder on the iPhone (actually on my Dropbox again) full of monsters I've saved. It's functionally equivalent to bookmarking them.

Nidogg
2010-03-30, 05:05 PM
I have a med speed computer and the Pdfs are a pain to load. and then you have the painfull scrolling. I think it will be good IF you can scroll FASt or jump pages.

Eldonauran
2010-03-30, 05:35 PM
Has anybody put dnd books on thier iphone?

I have, actually. Got quite a few on there (mostly the ones I don't know off the top of my head).

I use the "GoodReader" app for it. Its very, very nice.

Its not slow either. I have 100+meg pdf files on it and it loads great. It loads each page individually so there is no lag when opening the file. Usually a 2-3 second load time for a page, but you can zoom up to x25 times on the page to read it well.

Bartonar
2010-03-30, 06:22 PM
Wouldnt the small screen make it a pain, except for stuff like quick-references on spells etc?

Olo Demonsbane
2010-03-30, 08:25 PM
I have my character on my iPod. Works well if I get a sudden idea for something and I need to check and see if it will work for my character.

Eldonauran
2010-03-30, 09:01 PM
Wouldnt the small screen make it a pain, except for stuff like quick-references on spells etc?

Not really. You can nearly see the entire width of the page at a level of zoom where the text is quite legible (landscape) or half of the page with little scrolling down needed to read easily. Scrolling is mostly* lag free, so panning the page takes only a moment. If I could figure out how to take snap shots of the app while using the phone, I would gladly share.

For D&D on the go, I am quite happy with the iPhone GoodReader App. However, an iPad... that would be sweet. :smallamused:

*= High levels of zoom (where a letter takes up 1/3 of the page) has slight lag.

Private-Prinny
2010-03-30, 10:00 PM
I just keep all of my PDFs on my laptop. A computer is truly one of the best DMing tools in existence.

AslanCross
2010-03-31, 12:24 AM
Thought about it before, but I figured it would be better to just have an HTML-style resource like the SRD (it displays quite decently on the iPhone) Unless properly formatted for the tiny screen, it would be just too much of a hassle to read them.

Ormur
2010-03-31, 12:59 AM
I don't have a laptop or an Iphone but I've been thinking about a kindle or Ipad for both D&D and school related PDF documents.

Any recommendations?

Ozreth
2010-03-31, 02:13 AM
I don't have a laptop or and Iphone but I've been thinking about a kindle or a Ipad for both D&D and school related PDF documents.

Any recommendations?

Being an apple guy myself, If I were you I would get the 13" macbook pro before you get an ipod. Its not much bigger and it can do everything the ipad can do times a billion. That way youve got a laptop as well : )

Unless youve already good computer at home that you are completely with, then I would go with the ipad over the kindle ANY day. The ipad can do everything the kindle can do times a billion :)

Ozreth
2010-03-31, 02:14 AM
I have, actually. Got quite a few on there (mostly the ones I don't know off the top of my head).

I use the "GoodReader" app for it. Its very, very nice.

Its not slow either. I have 100+meg pdf files on it and it loads great. It loads each page individually so there is no lag when opening the file. Usually a 2-3 second load time for a page, but you can zoom up to x25 times on the page to read it well.

This is great news, thank you very much :)

Emmerask
2010-03-31, 04:58 AM
Being an apple guy myself, If I were you I would get the 13" macbook pro before you get an ipod. Its not much bigger and it can do everything the ipad can do times a billion. That way youve got a laptop as well : )

Unless youve already good computer at home that you are completely with, then I would go with the ipad over the kindle ANY day. The ipad can do everything the kindle can do times a billion :)

Must resist urge to tell you why the kindle is plain and simple the better product.

Anyway the display of todays smartphones (tried it on my android) is just not big enough to make it really worthwhile. Any notebook or netbook will do a much better job.
- more diskspace
- faster
- display where you donīt have to zoom everytime you want to read something

After some tries though books are the best way still it feels just much more immersive and authentic if you have a real book :smallwink:


nah could not resist in the end...
iPad is not really a good eBook reader because of the display ePaper not only is highly energy efficient you can also read it without getting headaches
and for outside reading... the iPad sports a glossy display nearly ultimate fail here :smallwink:
but it does have nice pageturning animations sadly such gimicks are just not enough ^^

While it does have other functions it can not really replace your notebook outside very very casual use (no multitasking :smalleek:)

So in the end you have a device that is not as good an eBook reader and canīt really replace your notebook.

valadil
2010-03-31, 08:42 AM
Thought about it before, but I figured it would be better to just have an HTML-style resource like the SRD (it displays quite decently on the iPhone) Unless properly formatted for the tiny screen, it would be just too much of a hassle to read them.

The PDFs work out okay because of the two column layout. A single column fits on the screen pretty well. The only issue with that is scrolling to go from one column to the next. This is a hassle if you're actually reading the book but if you're looking up a quick rule or two it's not so bad.

Will try GoodReader later. I'm impressed with Dropbox and AirShare for convenience, but they're both inadequate for dealing with big PDFs.

eepop
2010-03-31, 12:02 PM
I have some on my iPhone. I don't read them a lot, its more of just an option I want to have when I am bored and away from a computer.

I use an app called Files Lite. Its free, and it basically just lets you copy files onto your iPhone and has support for reading a few formats, most importantly: PDF.

To keep size down, I spent a few hours printing out smaller subsections to smaller pdfs using Bullzip PDF. I printed each class separately, feats separate, skills separate, items separate, etc. This way, the maximum pdf size is like 30 pages or so.

With the smaller size of each pdf it can open them pretty quick. And usually when I am looking at D&D books on my phone I am either
1) Idly browsing for a few minutes, so having one chunk is fine.
2) Working on getting a character concept idea, so I am just skimming things that I think I might want to base a character around. A little more annoying, but not overly so.
3) Trying to answer a question someone has. In which case, having them broken down in sections is a godsend, as I can jump right to the answer.