Halaster Blackcloak's Tome of Monsters - New Release!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 3:32 am

Ok folks! We have Halaster's Tome of Monsters ready as a web-content release already at this link:

http://www.undermountain.org/halmonster1.html

Lendras is working on the pdf formatting of it, but got set back by a nasty computer crash. Ouch!

Looks like he's back online now though, so we should be seeing the pdf soon. There will also be some new monsters added into the pdf release.

Stay tuned!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 1:19 am

Ok, Lendras disappeared off the face of the earth. Does anyone else here want to convert this from Word to .pdf format?

Also, I am going to change the web-content for the Tome of Monsters so that the first page looks like this:

That is, as soon as I figure out how to use GIMP to do the title banner and a few other things. Should be just a few days.

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:58 am

Ok, screw that! Evrsoft First Page is a major PITA. Wish I could still use Ace Expert!

I need someone who can do simple HMTL to make the page look like the above preview. I can send you the necessary images to insert, all you need to do is assemble it in HTML and it's done.

We really do need a full time web tech person, because doing that wastes hours and hours of my free time and totally irritates me to the point where I can't be creative. I end up micro-managing, and that kills it.

All it consists of is the body background image (the parchment stuff), the title (I can't size the font large enough, so I made it an image), the Halaster image, and the text at the bottom, plus insert a link to navigate into the content. I could do it in 5 minutes if I had access to Ace Expert, but all these new programs suck!

Anyone?

Post by **Mira** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:41 am

That one looks very straight forward, I am pretty sure I can manage that without the stuff I had to do before with the main page

So if you want to throw it my way, I should have it done in no time.

Mira (A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking)

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:07 pm

Thanks Mira!

I'm not sure if the title image is too big. I can't make the cool 3D effect with GIMP the way I could with Photoshop. It doesn't look too great using HTML for the font either (doesn't seem to get the right size). I'll email you the files. Thanks!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 3:42 pm

Well, first let me thank Mira for putting together the new main page for the Tome of Monsters! Thanks Mira!

Ok here's the new entry to the Tome:

http://www.undermountain.org/tom.html

Now a quick question.

On the second page, at the bottom, is a copyright mark:

©

However, today it appears as a diamond with a question mark inside:

�

What's that about, and how can I fix it?

Post by **Mira** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:39 pm

Maybe quit the browser and reopen it? There's nothing wrong with it as far as I can tell, that c thing shows up just fine for me. IE is notorious for getting messed up, if quitting it and restarting it doesn't work, then try clearing the cache, that seems to get corrupted quite often.

Mira (The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord)

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Tue Jan 29, 2008 3:03 am

Hmmm. Seems fine now. Thanks again Mira! It looks so much better with the official BIP cover.

Now we need someone to convert it to pdf format. Hmmm. I wonder if Vista made it an idiot-proof process? I might be able to do it myself!

Post by **Thorn Blackstone** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:30 am

I'd love to get this in pdf format so I can print it up and add it to my files. Any news on whether there'll be any more monsters added anytime soon?

Post by **jeffx** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:23 pm

Halaster Blackcloak wrote:Ok, Lendras disappeared off the face of the earth. Does anyone else here want to convert this from Word to .pdf format?

I can do some, even all, of the PDF conversion for you.

Post by **jeffx** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:31 pm

What about adding a Table of Contents and/or index?

Jeff

Post by **jeffx** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:42 pm

I am grabbing all the Tome of Monsters to my local hard drive. I am going to write a script to generate a table of contents. Then I am going to merge all the documents together and generate one single pdf file. Or would you rather one pdf per monster?

Jeff

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:57 pm

No, just make it one giant PDF of all of them, like a book. I like the table of contents and index, but I really need to add some more monsters.

Post by **jeffx** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:58 pm

Halaster Blackcloak wrote:No, just make it one giant PDF of all of them, like a book. I like the table of contents and index, but I really need to add some more monsters.

Add away. I hope to make the process of turning the html into pdfs automated. All you would have to do is make a new monster page and I hit the magic button and generate new manual.

I am not going to be able to put any work into this until this weekend.

Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:33 pm

Excellent Jeff! LMK when you have it going, and I'll get it set up on the downloads page.

Post by **jeffx** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:36 pm

Halaster Blackcloak wrote:Excellent Jeff! LMK when you have it going, and I'll get it set up on the downloads page.

I just finished with the first pass of it. Ran into a few problems with fonts, image sizes but it turned out decent. I placed it at link removed for you to take a look at.

jeff

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:08 am

Wow, that's nice now!

Just a couple of things to tweak. The back ground should fill the entire page, and we need some side borders. The text touches the very edge of the page. I'm guessing it should be .75" borders all around? Also, add a space between the line that separates the stats from the Appearance paragraph.

And that's it. It'll be perfect!

Which font is that, btw? Does anyone have the font that they used for the 2E Monster Manual? I'd like to use the same one.

Post by **Doirche** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:20 am

Halaster Blackcloak wrote: Which font is that, btw? Does anyone have the font that they used for the 2E Monster Manual? I'd like to use the same one.

Check out THIS PAGE for D&D related fonts.

I also posted this link in the 3rd Ed thread in the General Discussion boards because a similar question was asked.

Post by **jeffx** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:52 am

Halaster Blackcloak wrote: Just a couple of things to tweak. The back ground should fill the entire page, and we need some side borders. The text touches the very edge of the page. I'm guessing it should be .75" borders all around? Also, add a space between the line that separates the stats from the Appearance paragraph.

It touches the side of the paper? I am getting a mixed impression of what you are wanting. You say the background should fill the entire page and the text touches the very edge of the page. I am looking at the PDF and understand what you are saying about the background but not the text. In the PDF I am looking at and the source I created to create the PDF, there is a border. Are you seeing something different?

Jeff

Post by **jeffx** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:00 am

I changed the border from .79 to .75.

Extending the background to the whole page is going to take a little more work with document formatting. It screws up a lot of the layout they way I have to do it.

I might have time today to do it but I'll probably have to wait until after work during the week. I have some campaign prep to do today..

Jeff

PS: Now that I know you have it, I will be taking the copy of the pdf down from my site.

Post by **jeffx** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:51 am

I put up a single monster test pdf to see if you are still seeing the text border problems. http://www.jeffx.com/single_monster_test.pdf

Jeff

Post by **jeffx** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:12 am

jeffx wrote:I put up a single monster test pdf to see if you are still seeing the text border problems. http://www.jeffx.com/single_monster_test.pdf

Jeff

Have you had a chance to look at the new pdf? I would like to get this off my plate o' things to do before this weekend.

J

Post by **Minstrel** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:10 am

Candlekeep also has a good library of fonts available here.

Post by **jeffx** » Fri May 23, 2008 8:01 am

jeffx wrote:
jeffx wrote:I put up a single monster test pdf to see if you are still seeing the text border problems. http://www.jeffx.com/single_monster_test.pdf

Jeff
Have you had a chance to look at the new pdf? I would like to get this off my plate o' things to do before this weekend.

It has been a while so I'll ask again. Does the test pdf look the way you want it to?

Website · Post by **Tawnos76** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 4:09 pm

I through this together fairly quickly but it is all one PDF at the moment.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jw3tmddu0oo

Once I get my Adobe Professional up and running again I can make the PDF have a table of contents that when clicked on will take you to that monsters page.