Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi All,

Just curious if anybody know if GW publications are available in PDF/EBook formats from anywhere.

Before I get slaughtered by zeolots, insulted and banned, I'm talking about official documents, not 'pirated' scans. I'm asking if there's a facility for me to pay to receive a crisp, hi-res digital copy of any of the rulebooks instead of a hard copy.

Cheers.

Off hand, I don't think there is much rules-wise aside form GW's FAQ and the odd Codex (Witch Hunters and Daemonhunters) available on pdf.

The Black Library has launched some digital stuff though, including a weekly free eBook from their site.

Not that I know of.

There are sometimes rules FAQ for a faction released (usually as small updates to old codexes when new rules come out) on the GW website.

I've got the FAQs, yeah. It was them that sparked off the thought to be honest. With something like an ipad or laptop with all those PDFs on anyway, it'd be actually easier for me to have all the other resources on PDF, too.

I suppose they'd just be circulated and the company would lose a stack of cash though, probably won't ever happen if it hasn't been done already.

Some the older currently OOP codexes like the Demon Hunters and Witch Hunters are currently up as PDFs.

Some of the non-English rules are also up as PDFs, so if you want to just look up the stats and can figure out the (or know) the langauge that works too. I know all the Japanese ones are up, don't know about other langauges.

Other than that I don't know of any legit sources. You would think they'd have them out by now for phones, laptops or tablets but then again GW still thinks the internet is a fad.

Games Workshop's own site contains a variety of PDF publications including most of the Specialist Games, all of the Japanese versions of the codexes and some older codexes as mentioned above. These are available free.

There is no facility to buy digital versions of codexes and rules which are on sale as paper, though.

Use your scanner to make your own PDF backup.
It will take a while but if its what you want then go ahead.

Or you can do it illegally and have zealots go through you if they find out. In all honesty That is what I done I got the rulebook, read through it decided I actually like this game, played a few games then bought the real 7th edition one. (this was yonks ago)

I could scan the ones I have, but my scanner isn't of great quality and more to the point, I can't be arsed, hahah.

It's more for the ones I don't have that I was thinking about, really.

GW has each codex and -some- (mostly basic stuff) sections of the rulebook on their website as PDF files. Other than that, you won't find much (aside from FAQs) that'll be official, legal, and free all at the same time.

Free isn't the issue, I'd happily pay if they were premium quality (as in perfect) scans. Having all the books just becomes a storage hassle and I get the wife shouting at me, that's all.

Then yea you can get partial Codi online from GW's website. They won't be full Codi - you'll only get the army lists, unit stats, and wargear (In other words, a "Core" Codex). No fluff. So the only thing you'd need to buy a carbon copy of is the Rulebook.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Some the older currently OOP codexes like the Demon Hunters and Witch Hunters are currently up as PDFs.

Some of the non-English rules are also up as PDFs, so if you want to just look up the stats and can figure out the (or know) the langauge that works too. I know all the Japanese ones are up, don't know about other langauges.

Other than that I don't know of any legit sources. You would think they'd have them out by now for phones, laptops or tablets but then again GW still thinks the internet is a fad.

Japanese versions of all codices? Sugoi!

Fifty wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Some the older currently OOP codexes like the Demon Hunters and Witch Hunters are currently up as PDFs.

Some of the non-English rules are also up as PDFs, so if you want to just look up the stats and can figure out the (or know) the langauge that works too. I know all the Japanese ones are up, don't know about other langauges.

Other than that I don't know of any legit sources. You would think they'd have them out by now for phones, laptops or tablets but then again GW still thinks the internet is a fad.

Japanese versions of all codices? Sugoi!

Took me a little searching but I found them again

http://jp.games-workshop.com/resources/wh40k/default.htm

You'll need Japanese or really good guessing to find them though.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Fifty wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Some the older currently OOP codexes like the Demon Hunters and Witch Hunters are currently up as PDFs.

Some of the non-English rules are also up as PDFs, so if you want to just look up the stats and can figure out the (or know) the langauge that works too. I know all the Japanese ones are up, don't know about other langauges.

Other than that I don't know of any legit sources. You would think they'd have them out by now for phones, laptops or tablets but then again GW still thinks the internet is a fad.

Japanese versions of all codices? Sugoi!

Took me a little searching but I found them again

http://jp.games-workshop.com/resources/wh40k/default.htm

You'll need Japanese or really good guessing to find them though.

Here is one step better > http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://jp.games-workshop.com/resources/wh40k/default.htm&ei=h0GxTOrRJY734Aa05L3uBg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBkQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://jp.games-workshop.com/resources/wh40k/default.htm%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3D0cT%26sa%3DG%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GBfficial%26channel%3Ds%26prmd%3Div

It's hard to pick the best one but I nominate this translation:

"Angel Beautiful bloody fight over a thousand years Kino Hisashi, race team Buraddoenjeru. Intense thirst for blood, black and insanity, but they are motivated."

Kilkrazy wrote:There is no facility to buy digital versions of codexes and rules which are on sale as paper, though.

But their should be. Search-able indexed rulebooks in PDF format are great resources.

I would buy digital rulebooks and codexes in a flash.

Even if they were full price. The ability to search them is priceless (especially when the rules are so poorly formatted).

Being able to easily cut-and-paste into rules discussions is also a bonus.

I like the idea of having an iPad or something and being able to load up the pdf of a codex for games instead of having books all over the place. But at the same time I think I'd want to also have the paper version also, I guess it's just the collector in me. If it came down to one or the other, I'd take a real book over digital any day

They should make a data slate with all the rules on it (yes yes i know i've been pushing this since i joined) and now with the black library going digital it seems even cooler an idea

A thought just popped into my head, what if the black library digital is going to be a testing ground for this kinda thing; simmiler to forge world testing out models?

Lord of battles wrote:They should make a data slate with all the rules on it (yes yes i know i've been pushing this since i joined) and now with the black library going digital it seems even cooler an idea

They'd end up going the same way that the official GW army builder programs did - forgotten and ignored.

PDFs are quite easy to make, even assuming they don't use them in the pre-press process.

Making good PDFs for screen reading is a little trickier, but not that difficult. However, the creator does need to learn how to set up links, optimize files, handle layers, and make sure the security is set up right.

Rihgt now I'm not sure if the tech is quite there. A lot of readers, from what I understand only "support" PDF in loose terms. Some essentially extract/reflow the text of a PDF, so you may see sidebars mingled in main text, charts messed up, etc. Not a good experience. I think the iOS devices (iPads, iPhones, iPod touches) have a true PDF viewer, and of course there's netbooks and similar, but it's not yet a perfect solution.

Still, it's weird that GW and WotC are the biggest holdouts for wargames and RPGs. WotC did some support, but ended up pulling their legal PDFs because someone leaked stuff, although supposedly the leaked stuff was unrelated new books that were leaked by the printer, not the older books they were offering on PDF. Still, these two are hold-outs.

Like music, this is a market where copyright infringement is nearly impossible to stop. I really think it's best to cut losses and make PDFs available at a fair price.

Following the music model, PDF publishers can't compete on price (anything is more expensive than free) but can compete on quality... With a bit of effort, publisher-approved PDFs will be better quality (no scanned/OCRed text), smaller files (again, no scanned text), more functional, and nice looking documents... And publishers can provide services like updates easily. You can't directly fight copyright infringement as $0.00 is a better deal than $1 (or $2 or $5, whatever) but you can provide a better project and hope that most gamers will take the option if it's reasonable. There will always be some that will take the free option, but at least you can recover some of those losses.

Personally, i think for gaming (RPG and wargaming both) there's enough 'love of paper' that real book production won't go away soon, but production probably won't increase, either, and Print on Demand is here to stay.

I would definitely pay for PDF's of the books, so long as they were cheap. When I play with friends in real life, I prefer the actual books. When I play on Vassal, then PDF's and a dual display are a better setup.