IF you buy PDFs from Wizards of the Coast, can you print them?

Or does "Watermarked PDF" mean "Next to Useless?"

Nope.

What you're talking about will probably require a professional printer, and printers often require "express permission" from the copyright holder first.

Sigh. If I can't hit "print" and mark them up six different ways, that's a lot less enticing.

If you just mean printing them out at your own printer for personal use then I'd be very surprised if the US banned that, I know the EU specifically states that reproduction for personal use is valid of any product you buy. However, even if reproduction for personal use is illegal in the US, which would mean that transferring the pdf to another computer was illegal too, it's not like WotG is going to send ninjas after you or anybody would think that you're doing something morally offensive.

If you're talking about going to the print shop and having a lot of copies made it'd be a different story, but as far as I can tell that's not it.

I would be very surprised if there was something preventing you from printing them out, assuming you are spending your own ink and paper. That said, unless the question is with how, it sounds like we're getting into legal questions of what you can and cannot do (which is against forum policies).

Your best bet would be contacting Wizards of the Coast directly and asking the question - I'm sure you can, but WotC are familiar with their own legal documentation better than I am. And by that, I mean actually contacting WotC, by email or through some sort of email response. Posting on their public forum probably won't give you the information you're looking for.

Yes, from a technical perspective, there's nothing preventing you from printing them out on a personal printer (Mind your ink usage though!), but from a legal perspective, that's slightly problematic.

You can print things out for your own personal use. If you make copies of it and start selling it, that's where you'd get into trouble. The watermark shows that you are the owner of it and purchased it. If copies of stuff you printed out start circulating around and wind up for sale somewhere, they'll know who's door to knock on...but other than that, you bought the thing, it's yours to print, make copies of, save the file in 20 different locations and discs...

Also, assuming you're talking DTRPG? Then the Watermarks are not massive or page consuming. It's a little text bit in the bottom left of every page with your name and order number, in an attempt to stop filesharing.

Well, as a test, we downloaded the free "4e quickstart", and printed a page from that with no problem.

On the otherhand, I don't see a watermark on the 4e PDF, so we'll see what happens when Mommy and the kids "pick out" Daddy's present.

No prints out fine to me.

Has my name and order number in the corner if that's your hang up?

Maybe I'm missing something here?

You can definitely print out the character sheet and battle square pages, because they say you're allowed to.

The rest is straying too far into "legal advice". If you're just printing it out so everyone around the table has a copy to refer to that's probably "fair use", but ask a copyright lawyer, not us.

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Originally Posted by Yuki Akuma

You can definitely print out the character sheet and battle square pages, because they say you're allowed to.

The rest is straying too far into "legal advice". If you're just printing it out so everyone around the table has a copy to refer to that's probably "fair use", but ask a copyright lawyer, not us.

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I'm not asking for copyright law advice, I just didn't want to pay for it and then not be able to print out hard copies.

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No prints out fine to me.

Has my name and order number in the corner if that's your hang up?

Maybe I'm missing something here?

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Name and order number doesn't bother me at all. I just didn't want to buy it, and then find out, oh no, you can't print it because if you print it you could scan it and then distribute. What, you thought you could bring a copy of the dungeon map to the table? Silly customer. Hope you enjoy reading it on your laptop!

Hopeless, sounds like you've answered my question--yes you can print out pages from the Watermarked PDFs.

I'm pretty sure you can print them out for your own use. Hell, I think technically you could probably even bring it to a print shop and ask them to print out a physical double sided copy for you(might have to try a few shops though since some places are unwilling to make copies of large portions of any book)

Though like said above. You can't go out and print 100 of these and start selling them.

Here's what the DriveThruRPG FAQ has to say.

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Originally Posted by DTRPG Official FAQ

What can I do with my ebooks?
First, the one thing you should not do is make a copy of the ebook for another person. Contrary to what many file-sharing sites would have us believe, doing that is a copyright violation and more importantly, it seriously erodes the ability of publishers to continue to offer the best products possible. It's not like our publishers are minting millions as it is, so your support against copyright infringement is always appreciated. You may print your ebooks, and copy as many selections to the clipboard as you wish.

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You can do whatever you want with your eBooks as long as you're not "distributing" them. That's a fuzzy line, but printing some out to bring to sessions is way below it. Filesharing them in a public internet sharespace? No. Printing a selection or even a whole book to pass around at your gaming session? It's like inviting friends over to your house to watch a DVD. It's not only so small no one would bother prosecuting, it's within the intent of your purchase agreement anyway.

And I have no idea how you'd be physically prevented from printing a PDF. I'm 99% sure that's not what "watermarked" means, at least.

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Originally Posted by Nerd-o-rama

And I have no idea how you'd be physically prevented from printing a PDF. I'm 99% sure that's not what "watermarked" means, at least.

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It isn't. Watermarked just means that there is some custom mark somewhere (usually order number and account name) that gets put on most or all pages.

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Originally Posted by Knaight

It isn't. Watermarked just means that there is some custom mark somewhere (usually order number and account name) that gets put on most or all pages.

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As I would've said. A watermark proves, in this case, that you bought the book, as opposed to "acquired" it through other means.

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Originally Posted by Nerd-o-rama

And I have no idea how you'd be physically prevented from printing a PDF. I'm 99% sure that's not what "watermarked" means, at least.

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Presumably, you would do it the same way that they used to prevent people from photocopying things. You'd have an image in the background of each page, very large, and extremely faint - so faint you can't really see it on the PDF - but which is programmed to print out in the foreground and obscure everything.

I have printed (through private print, i.e. only available to me) the B/X rule books at lulu, they look great :D

Ok...as a professional printer I can tell you this much: If you pay for the PDF then you are free to print out copies for your own personal use. A professional printer may refuse to print them for you with out a licensing notice (either a watermark on the PDF or other document stating that you have purchased the file), but as long as you can prove that you have legally purchased the file, and are not printing out more than one or two copies (which may lead some one to believe that you are reproducing them for re-sale rather than personal use), then you should have no problems.

That being said, it is usually cheaper to print smaller files on your home printer if you want color printing. With the price of most Inkjet cartridges, however, larger files will still be cheaper to print professionally. Most places such as FedEx office, Office Depot, OfficeMax, etc. usually charge around 49 cents per side for color printing. (Or around 10 cents per side for black and white.) The upside to this is your prints will be done on a high resolution laser printer on 24 lb paper and will print in a matter of minutes. (You can also have your book coil bound (I usually recommend laminating your front and back cover with 10mil laminate) for about $4.

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Originally Posted by Nerd-o-rama

And I have no idea how you'd be physically prevented from printing a PDF. I'm 99% sure that's not what "watermarked" means, at least.

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FYI a watermark is a faint "ghost" image (either a logo or text) that usually shows up in the background or on a page edge. Watermarks are usually used to distinguish a copy from an original, put a business logo on documents with out taking up page real estate, or otherwise provide additional information (such as, in this case, licensing information). Although a watermark can be a copyright notice, it does not in any way, shape or form prevent said file from being printed. (Although it can prevent a professional printing service from accepting a job to reproduce it.)

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Originally Posted by Machpants

I have printed (through private print, i.e. only available to me) the B/X rule books at lulu, they look great :D

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That's what I was looking for.

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Originally Posted by Nerd-o-rama View Post
And I have no idea how you'd be physically prevented from printing a PDF. I'm 99% sure that's not what "watermarked" means, at least.

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It's not usually what "watermarked" means, but companies have tried many many different copy-protection schemes over the decades that end up breaking the product, so I just didn't want to give Wizards(Hasbro) money for a broken product.

The watermark doesn't bother me at all--I saw a screenshot somewhere, it's Your Name 00012345678 in tiny type at the bottom of the page.

Bought it, downloaded it, printed out the map of the dungeon.

Sheriff: Don't ask for or give legal advice here.