Making the most of Calidar's PDF digital editions
Calidar's Kickstarter fulfilment is proceeding apace, and the PDF versions of the main book and the Kickstarter exclusive short story compilation have both been sent out. Public release is drawing closer and closer, and hopefully Kickstarter backers' books are winging their way to you as I type. Here's a little look at the PDFs to tide you over.
But you can't use them unless you know they're there, so I'm going to take a moment to introduce these hidden features. (Note that I will be explaining these using Adobe Reader. Not all PDF readers give you access to all of these options.)
1. The background can be turned off
In the Layers tab, you can see the layers that make up the PDF file. Not only that, you can even turn them on and off.In the current version, all the text and images are on Layer 1, while the background elements are on the layer named Background. This means you can turn off the parchment background graphic to print out on white paper. (For your own use, of course.)
Notes: Layer 2 is empty, and currently the deck plan backgrounds are not on the background layer. With Bruce's approval, these things can be fixed in a future update.2. Bookmarks for easy navigation
Both of Calidar's PDF files are fully bookmarked. Access the "Bookmarks" feature (called the Table of Contents in some PDF readers), and you will get an expanded version of the Table of Contents right in the sidebar.Rather than just duplicate the Table of Contents, I went a step further and added in all the sub-sections, as well as two separate lists at the bottom: an index of maps and an index of art appearing in the book. Using these lists you can peruse all of the maps and art, as well as getting a caption for each picture telling you what's in it.
Neat!
3. Table of Contents and Index are hyperlinked
In addition to the bookmarks, the book's actual Table of Contents itself is made up of hyperlinks to its various sections. These links are invisible, but that's okay because everything is linked.
The page numbers listed in the Index are also linked. When there is a range of pages, the links take you to the numbers shown, which is to say the first and last pages in the range.
I also indexed the art and maps. This is what the "Hidden Text" layer is there for. You can't see it, but it actually includes text captions for each image, allowing them all to be indexed just like regular text. To differentiate these, we used blue for art, brown for map references.
4. References are hyperlinked, too
You know when the text says things like "see This Section" and "for which see That Section"? These are all hyperlinks, too. The linked part is the bold chapter or section title.
5. Maps include scalable vectors
While most of the visual elements of the maps are medium resolution raster images, some of them include vectors — and all of the text is plain old vector-based text.What does this mean? You can zoom in on vector text and images and it will remain sharp. And the text is fully selectable and indeed searchable: a normal search on the PDF will throw up text on the maps.
Maps which include vector elements include the Soltan Ephemeris Orbital Diagram (fully vector), the World of Calidar world maps (everything but the coastlines is made of vector art), and the City of Glorathon (only the external terrain is not vectors).
Best of all, all of the deck plans are 100% vector. This means that you can zoom in as much as you want, and they will remain crystal clear. You could use this feature to create floor plans for use with miniatures, for example. (Again, for your own use, of course.)
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| Zoomed in view of the Star Phoenix's Forecastle, generated from the PDF. |
Calidar is here... Time to explore!
All of these points apply to both the main book CAL1 In Stranger Skies, as well as the Kickstarter exclusive PDF, CST1 Under the Great Vault.Happy reading!
