Digital PDF of No Cure for the Paladin Blues is now on sale [Archive]

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The Giant

2016-02-16, 11:28 AM

For those who have been waiting for the next book in the series to be converted to PDF, the day has arrived.

http://www.GiantITP.com/Images/OOTS02_GumroadCover.png (https://gumroad.com/l/ootsncfpb)

No Cure for the Paladin Blues Digital Edition is available for purchase on Gumroad (https://gumroad.com/l/ootsncfpb).

A new bulleted list of features:
PDF format that works great on the tablet of your choice!
Art is still in its native vector format, allowing you to zoom in with no loss of quality!
Updated lettering to match last year's Blood Runs in the Family and current strip dialogue!
Includes all-new essay tidbits, "Still No Cure in Sight" looking back on the old material wistfully!
Fully bookmarked and hyperlinked to each strip referenced in the commentaries!
No digital rights management—just a single watermark on the front cover!
Some typos fixed, others almost certainly introduced!
Digital delivery allows lower prices! Just $17 for No Cure for the Paladin Blues.

Most questions about the PDF have been answered in the previous thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?437208-Digital-PDF-versions-of-Dungeon-Crawlin-Fools-On-the-Origin-of-PCs-now-on-sale!) about the release of DCF and OTOPCs, but if you have any additional questions or concerns (or technical issues), then feel free to ask them here. Thanks!

Expected FAQs!
I can't figure out how to buy them!
You can get to the new book by clicking this link (https://gumroad.com/l/ootsncfpb) above or the big cover picture, or you can get to the Giant in the Playground profile page at Gumroad (which lists all the products we have one page) by clicking here (https://gumroad.com/richburlew).

Will the rest of the books be coming out?
Yes! This release of Paladin Blues is just the first book this year. Unless sales really fall off a cliff or something, I have every intention of releasing all the regular books in the series as PDFs, eventually. (Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales (https://ookoodook.com/products/gtpotsdr) will probably remain an Ookoodook-exclusive until we sell out of the last paper copy.)

When will the rest of the books be coming out?
Uncertain, as I need to juggle the relettering with other work, but my goal is to get the rest of the series out before the end of the year, if not sooner.

How do I get my PDFs?
You'll get an email with a download link a few minutes after ordering. Keep an eye on your spam folder, just in case.

What does the watermark look like?
It's on the first page (the cover), and it's a small grey ribbon-shape with the Gumroad "G" logo, next to which it says "Sold to" and then the email address that you gave when you purchased the book. So don't buy using your top secret email.

Why do the listings say that it's 248 pages when the print versions are 244?
The page count includes the front and back covers, inside and out.

Why did you reletter the old comics? I like Comic Sans!
For the same reason I relettered Blood Runs in the Family—because they were created on an old version of Adobe Illustrator, and updating to the new one caused them to burst their balloons slightly. Since I had to touch each one manually to fix it, I decided I might as well use the current font.

Why did you change the typography on the commentaries?
The original layout for both of these books was done in Quark Xpress 3.3—a program I don't have access to anymore, so I couldn't even open them. I needed to lay them out from scratch in Adobe InDesign, which is what I've used for the more recent books. That meant retyping the old commentaries.

Did you make any other corrections to the art?
A few really egregious errors that had slipped by, though I probably missed some yet again. Not much else. I didn't correct all the terrible mouths and crooked lines in the early strips, if that's what you're asking—except for the wavy borders, which I had already fixed for the original print Dungeon Crawlin' Fools.

Why are you using Gumroad instead of (insert name of other company)?
Because they charge the lowest commission, which means I could lower the price more. Plus, most other companies that offer a watermark service add it to every single page, which seemed like overkill to me. One page is enough.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or technical difficulties, feel free to post them here (though I don't know how much help I can be with the technical stuff; we may have to wait for Gumroad customer service for that).

Peelee

2016-02-16, 11:33 AM

Recently got a friend hooked into this comic by making him borrow my books. He's lamented there's so few PDF versions. Time to go tell him the good news!

infinityman

2016-02-16, 11:48 AM

Hot Diggity Dog! I've been waiting for this ever since buying the first two after Christmas... of course, I could just pull the dead tree copy off my shelf, but that seems needlessly complicated.

Armitage

2016-02-16, 01:42 PM

Once again: Thank you, Giant!
This one will join the other two on my virtual PDF shelf shortly.

The Pilgrim

2016-02-16, 01:46 PM

I don't think it's just a coincidence that Miko gets a cameo in the comic the same day NCPB goes PDF. :smallwink:

As always, well played, Giant. :smallamused:

ti'esar

2016-02-16, 02:21 PM

17 dollars seems way cheaper than what I remember the physical version costing. Nice.

Porthos

2016-02-16, 02:36 PM

And, purchased. :smallsmile:

EDIT::::

Read through the new commentary, and thumbs up all the way around.

Did notice one thing that you probably won't care about, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

The next-to-last "page" of the PDF is NOT the "dozens of Roys on a pale blue background" that made up the inside part of the back cover as can be seen on "page 2", which is the inside cover page for the front cover. Instead it is a pure white blank page.

An extremely minor thing, but I thought I should flag it for your attention. :smallsmile:

ChristianSt

2016-02-16, 04:23 PM

Porthos

2016-02-16, 04:27 PM

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

That's strange.... I have it on mine. :smallconfused:

http://i.imgur.com/ZOlQydp.png

EmberIce

2016-02-16, 04:38 PM

Zar Peter

2016-02-16, 04:38 PM

Somehow I can't manage myself from stopping to throw money at you... (and is kinda nice to have them "ready at my pc" when I need to look at some book content for a forum discussion :smallwink:)

One thing that might be more relevant though:

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

My version has it. The versions 2 and 3 of the other two books don't have it, though, but I think that has been discussed already.

Oh, and it's great to read it again, with all the small new remarks. Thank you very much. (Oh, and since there was the question, when I bought the paper books I read all the commentaries, the preface, the foreword, the introduction and even the cast of characters. Didn't want to miss one thing.)

Sgt Pinback

2016-02-16, 04:41 PM

How about pdf versions of the calendars? I'd like the villains calendar, but unless shipping costs have come down dramatically, buying a single item just doesn't make sense.

ChristianSt

2016-02-16, 04:43 PM

That's strange.... I have it on mine. :smallconfused:

Mh ok - that IS really strange. :smallconfused:
So that means that is maybe a problem on my end (Fedora Linux, tested with Evince and Acrobat) or for whatever reason Gumroad fails to add the watermark to my files. (If the Giant wants I certainly can add screenshots, but otherwise I don't think they add much.)

I can certainly live with that (and I can't spot other problems at first glance - especially the v3 files of Book 0 and 3 solved all previous issues I had), but it is probably relevant to know how many users are affected by this.

My version has it. The versions 2 and 3 of the other two books don't have it, though, but I think that has been discussed already.

I only added the Book 0 and 1 v3 thing in case it is related. From the last thread I too thought the issue was resolved, but since I do not see a watermark in Book 2, I'm not that sure about.

Porthos

2016-02-16, 04:43 PM

Hi Rich, somewhat related question, do you plan on releasing an ebook for Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales? You only promised SSDT wouldn't be reprinted but said nothing about digital releases, so technically you can do it if we interpret what you said literally, Lawful Neutral style.

I'm in Europe, so if you say, nope, SSDT won't get an ebook, I will just bite the bullet and pay the shipping before the current print-run runs out. But if you say there will be a digital release, I would rather wait, even if it's low priority.

Will the rest of the books be coming out?
Yes! This release of Paladin Blues is just the first book this year. Unless sales really fall off a cliff or something, I have every intention of releasing all the regular books in the series as PDFs, eventually. (Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales (https://ookoodook.com/products/gtpotsdr) will probably remain an Ookoodook-exclusive until we sell out of the last paper copy.)

:smallsmile:

How about pdf versions of the calendars?

Seconded. Obviously further down the road, but I admit I'll be willing to shell out money for digital versions of them, outdated dates and all.

....

Don't judge. :smalltongue:

Ailurus

2016-02-16, 04:59 PM

Yay! Your link text on the Gumroad announcement e-mail was 100% accurate, Rich. Heck yeah, I want to buy this!

The Giant

2016-02-16, 05:06 PM

Did notice one thing that you probably won't care about, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

The next-to-last "page" of the PDF is NOT the "dozens of Roys on a pale blue background" that made up the inside part of the back cover as can be seen on "page 2", which is the inside cover page for the front cover. Instead it is a pure white blank page.

An extremely minor thing, but I thought I should flag it for your attention. :smallsmile:

That's weird. It's placed in the original layout file, but it looks like it dropped out when exported to PDF. The same thing happened to the "Order of the Stick Extras" text on the page with the Solicitation Comic. I'll see if I can figure it out, but neither one is really a big enough deal to issue a v2 file solely for that. If people find more errors or glitches, then I'll just fix them all at once.

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

Eh, I've given up trying to figure this out, since Gumroad has been absolutely no help in trying to troubleshoot it. If it's there, it's there. If it's not, please don't post it on a fileshare site.

ChristianSt

2016-02-16, 05:33 PM

Eh, I've given up trying to figure this out, since Gumroad has been absolutely no help in trying to troubleshoot it. If it's there, it's there. If it's not, please don't post it on a fileshare site.

So then I guess I hope that it will be consistent in the future for me (because I would hate to have some files with and some without watermark)...

Also I think putting stuff on fileshare sites is at least as bad as putting DRM on things, so I really appreciate it that you offer your content DRM-free :smallsmile:

137beth

2016-02-16, 05:57 PM

I absolutely love the new meta-commentary at the beginning of round 8:smallbiggrin:
I'd say what I loved about it, but whoops! Looks like the end of the post is coming up!

Reboot

2016-02-16, 06:14 PM

Personally, I'm waiting for the analogue PDF ;)

israfel00

2016-02-16, 06:45 PM

Woke up, saw the email.

*clicky clicky*

Just finished it. Bliss! My beloved print versions are..well, beloved, but this PDF version is superb. Just like its predecessors.

Also, just to add to the confusion, mine has the watermark.

CoffeeIncluded

2016-02-16, 08:28 PM

Well I know what I'm doing once I'm done learning about the wonderful world of fracture repair for the night. Thank you!

2016-02-16, 11:07 PM

Bought.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get it personally signed by the author.... :) :) :)

Pyrous

2016-02-16, 11:53 PM

Seconded. Obviously further down the road, but I admit I'll be willing to shell out money for digital versions of them, outdated dates and all.

....

Don't judge. :smalltongue:

Thirded. :smallredface:

Peelee

2016-02-17, 12:02 AM

I, too, am willing to shell out Porthos's money for some outdated digital calendars.

Porthos

2016-02-17, 01:03 AM

I, too, am willing to shell out Portho's money for some outdated digital calendars.

At least I won't have to worry about footin' the bill. It'd be on that poor Portho sap, whoever they may be.:smallamused:

ArnaudBo

2016-02-17, 02:21 AM

like many other, got a mail, connect to the link and bought it :smallbiggrin:

waiting for more of the digital version. Shipping to Europe are way too costly :smalleek:

Raydar

2016-02-17, 05:33 AM

Thanks for this!

My copy of the PDF has some pages in an odd order. The two-page Author Commentary of Round 5 (p108-) is interrupted by the first page of that round (#198). This might be intentional, but it disrupts the flow of both the comic and the commentary to read as such.

lothos

2016-02-17, 06:26 AM

Cool ! Thanks Rich. Just purchased. Will enjoy on my phone during my train commute tomorrow.

It's great to have another opportunity to support the ongoing web comic and to get something of value for myself.
Looking forward to War and XPs.

Armitage

2016-02-17, 07:01 AM

How about pdf versions of the calendars? I'd like the villains calendar, but unless shipping costs have come down dramatically, buying a single item just doesn't make sense.
+1

A while ago I considered asking for this, but then life happened and, well, you know, stuff.

nachoted

2016-02-17, 07:31 AM

Great another one added to my PDF collection thanks for this Giant, and also thanks for the confirmation that the rest of the books will be eventually added.

The Giant

2016-02-17, 08:01 AM

My copy of the PDF has some pages in an odd order. The two-page Author Commentary of Round 5 (p108-) is interrupted by the first page of that round (#198). This might be intentional, but it disrupts the flow of both the comic and the commentary to read as such.

This is intentional, because as a paper book, it had two-page spreads and the commentaries are found solely on left pages. So you had two spreads in a row with one commentary, one comic; this broke up the comic less than a two-page spread with nothing but commentary. I didn't repaginate the book for the PDF.

LepcisMagna

2016-02-17, 10:05 AM

Got an email from Gumroad.

Purchased several seconds later.

Finished reading an hour later.

Hooray!

(Your retrospective commentary is wonderful, and I really loved the stained glass Gods of the South.)
(Also, in the Epilogue Commentary (pg. 242), there's an editing note to replace "bread" with "break").

nogall

2016-02-17, 01:28 PM

Bought and read all the new commentary! thanks Giant!

Grey Watcher

2016-02-18, 09:18 AM

Am I the only one that didn't mind the Closing Arguments comic? I mean, I saw that much space devoted to speech balloons and only two images of characters standing and talking (the little gag but be notwithstanding) and I guess I just approached that particular update as "text with decorations" rather than "comic strip".

Pyrous

2016-02-18, 09:52 AM

Grey Watcher

2016-02-18, 10:43 AM

littlebum2002

2016-02-18, 12:46 PM

... whether you're interested in how I look back on the Miko era today or you're simply an obsessive completionist who is driven—nay, compelled—to read every word I have ever written regarding the comic.What do you mean "or"? :smallconfused:

The question is: Do the people who ARE competitionists, and have read every word regarding the comic, and seen every bit of artwork, get an achievement at the end for getting 100%?

Gift Jeraff

2016-02-18, 12:54 PM

The question is: Do the people who ARE competitionists, and have read every word regarding the comic, and seen every bit of artwork, get an achievement at the end for getting 100%?

It's one of those games that goes beyond 100%, actually.

littlebum2002

2016-02-18, 01:00 PM

It's one of those games that goes beyond 100%, actually.

I think 100% is the highest you can get without risking a restraining order from Rich, though.

Gift Jeraff

2016-02-18, 01:28 PM

I think 100% is the highest you can get without risking a restraining order from Rich, though.

Casual. :smallannoyed:

Random Poster

2016-02-19, 07:15 AM

All the new commentary made me wonder how Scott Kurtz from 2016 would comment on Scott Kurtz from 2006 who thought that it was perfectly reasonable to buy webcomics printed on paper just because they were webcomics printed on paper...

Nibelung

2016-02-20, 05:53 PM

ChristianSt

2016-02-21, 04:39 AM

Minor nitpick, that comes since the other two books: The way pagination works on the pdf inverts the side of each page when you use the "open book" visualization mode. You know, the one that show two pages in a single screen (really nice for widescreen monitors).

I would guess the problem arises from your pdf reader just displaying two pages besides each other. The first (front title) page should be displayed at the right, with no page besides it. If that is not the case then I think it's more your readers fault (though quite likely there is an option for that*). Since the page numbering seems correct to me (i.e. odd pages are right pages and even pages are left pages), I don't think there is anything to correct.

*One of my readers does this automatically (though it has the option "Odd pages left" to reverse the order). For my other reader I need to check the option "Show Cover Page During Two-Up" to have the in-book left/right order.

EDIT: I noticed a small page order change from print to pdf, though I assume it is deliberate: On the second to last two-page spread the book has the Solicitation Comic on the right (left page blank) while the pdf has it on the left (right page replaced with the Miko/Belkar scene from the 2014 Calendar and commentary).

Nibelung

2016-02-21, 11:23 AM

I would guess the problem arises from your pdf reader just displaying two pages besides each other. The first (front title) page should be displayed at the right, with no page besides it. If that is not the case then I think it's more your readers fault (though quite likely there is an option for that*). Since the page numbering seems correct to me (i.e. odd pages are right pages and even pages are left pages), I don't think there is anything to correct.

The weird part is because I have some PDF that actually isolate the cover in 2-page view mode, or do something like the D&D classic PDF, that add an extra page to make everything show up right.

Anyway, like I said, it is very minor, and only will sorta of become relevant by book 4 and 5. Just wanted to give the heads up.

ChristianSt

2016-02-21, 03:19 PM

The weird part is because I have some PDF that actually isolate the cover in 2-page view mode, or do something like the D&D classic PDF, that add an extra page to make everything show up right.

Anyway, like I said, it is very minor, and only will sorta of become relevant by book 4 and 5. Just wanted to give the heads up.

But the problem is: While it would make life easier for you, it would probably make life harder for others. That isn't exactly obvious from most OotS books*, but for any regular book odd pages are on the right side**. If your pdf reader has no option for displaying two pages with even being on the left and odd on the right, in my eye it is clearly the fault of your reader an not a fault of the book.

*Exception being the prequels, like Book 0: The print version has odd pages right, and the pdf version honors this: Each odd page printed on paper is a odd page in the pdf. Removing the cover front and back-page (which I think are seldom counted as pages in print) would make them line up perfectly.

**I just checked the few other books I have as pdf (Shadowrun, Delta Green and Das Schwarze Auge rule-books) and they all show the same behavior in regards to odd/even pages.

Nibelung

2016-02-21, 05:11 PM

Just to make sure that this is not about my pdf reader configurations. A shot of my 4e PHB have the pages in the correct position, including splash page art. This is because the pdf has one extra page added, when compared to the physical book:

http://i68.tinypic.com/2mrslsk.jpg

But I do also have a comic book PDF that probably have something something configured, that "skips" the first page position, setting page 1 on the right side, and pairing from there onwards. I didn't changed any settings on my reader for it to show like this:

http://i64.tinypic.com/j7t5oj.jpg

blunk

2016-02-25, 01:50 AM

But I do also have a comic book PDF that probably have something something configured, that "skips" the first page position, setting page 1 on the right side, and pairing from there onwards. I didn't changed any settings on my reader for it to show like this:You might be able to work around it in your PDF reader, at least. In Adobe Reader, I checked View -> Page Display -> Show Cover Page in Two Page View, and the cover was displayed on its lonesome (and the polearm-shop strip was on facing pages).

It does seem odd that AR (is that what you're using?) doesn't put the first PDF page (odd number 1) on the right naturally. Maybe your magic PDF contains its own workaround that doesn't break other readers.

Xapi

2016-02-29, 09:43 AM

Grey Watcher

2016-03-01, 08:12 PM

Had to Tweet at Gumroad because I can't figure out how else to get attention: it won't let me buy books that I already own as gifts. :smallmad:

Peelee

2016-03-01, 08:19 PM

I do like that there's a failsafe against purchasing multiple times, but that is a bit odd.

Itrogash

2016-03-03, 01:14 PM

How about pdf versions of the calendars? I'd like the villains calendar, but unless shipping costs have come down dramatically, buying a single item just doesn't make sense.

I second that motion. I never got the chance to buy them because of shipping costs so I silently hoped calendars would be re-released, either compiled in some kind of artbook or in some other way. Digital release would be a perfect solution :smallsmile:

The Giant

2016-03-21, 02:52 AM

Since I'm finishing up the next PDF, I wanted to address the issue about the two-page spreads.

This is, strictly speaking, a viewing issue. Acrobat lets you enable this behavior by going to View > Page Display > Show Cover Page in Two Page View. To see what that looks like, open the spoiler:

http://www.GiantITP.com/Images/AcrobatScreenshot_SOD.png

Now, I can't "force" your PDF reader to display pages like this. Or, more specifically, I can't say "display like this only if you choose two-page view." I can force everyone who opens the document to automatically begin in two-page view with this option selected. I am not going to do that because most people will be reading this one page at a time on a tablet or smaller screen rather than as big spreads. Presumably, this is what the second example in Nibelung's post is doing—forcing everyone to start viewing in two-page spread mode.

I could also add a blank page to the start of the document to make the cover sit on the right, but I'm not going to do that either.

Because ultimately, this is an issue of your individual viewing preferences. If you want to look at the book in two-page mode and have the pages line up correctly, find out how whatever PDF viewer you are using does what Acrobat can do and turn it on. If your viewer can't do that...it's a crappy viewer and you should get Acrobat Reader.

Ruck

2016-03-26, 02:19 AM

(Also, in the Epilogue Commentary (pg. 242), there's an editing note to replace "bread" with "break").

Yeah, I caught this too.

"Roy’s sword bread was not what I would call, “permanent.”"

edit: I also noticed that the title of bonus comic 280a is simply, "Comic Title." I don't have my paperback handy to cross-check it, but I assume that is not correct.

Grey Watcher

2016-03-31, 05:11 PM

Yeah, I caught this too.

"Roy’s sword bread was not what I would call, “permanent.”"

edit: I also noticed that the title of bonus comic 280a is simply, "Comic Title." I don't have my paperback handy to cross-check it, but I assume that is not correct.

I now have an urge to bake a sword-shaped piece of bread.