Format: Acceptable. Direct scan to pdf of a new - quality book. The top - level chapters are bookmarked, but there is no other non - scan information.

Text: Mediocre. The pdf produces acceptable black text, but many of the headings are in light orange and are barely visible in my inkjet printout. On the computer screen, they can be read with difficulty.

Images: Not bad. The original artwork was very good indeed, though the pdf quality blurred them somewhat, they are still clear.

Language: OK. Most of the book is in cant, a dialect spoken in the fictional town of Sigil. If you're planning to use cant, this is an excellent introduction - it is very easy to learn and a cant dictionary is found in the back of the book. Otherwise it is tolerable.

Content: Outstanding. While I would not reccomend basing an entire campaign on just this book, it is all that is needed if you are deciding whether to use it.

Format: like most of the works here, this is a direct-to-pdf scan. The original is an almost - new quality, very nicely illustrated and written book. The scan was a bit off and some of the lines are slightly jagged and a few pages are noticably off-perpendicular.

Text & illustrations: some of the text is unfortunately in orange and some of the illustrations are too faint or too dark to print well. Otherwise very nice.

Content: very good. It was a bit rules - heavy for me, but still a very fun read.

Format: Acceptable. direct scan - to - pdf of a new - quality original. Aside from a minimal four bookmarks, there is no other non - bitmap - type information.

Text and illustration: OK. Mostly easy to read. Some of the text is in orange and does not print well at all, though it is readable on the computer screen.

Language: Rather terse and short, shifting between proper english and cant (the dialect spoken in the fictional town of Sigil). You may need to get the Planewalkers Handbook for the dictionary of cant terms.

Content: Excellent. In addition to the descriptions of the major towns in the outlands and a brief guide to traveling in this very strange universe, there are several beutiful maps, including a huge map that must be printed and taped together from eight pages. Again, it helps to have the Planewalker's Handbook as well.

i was surprised that there were no reviews of this volume when i bought it. While not covering every well known D&D creature (The tiamat dragon, for example, was missing), this is a remarkable volume. Most species are given a full page, not only giving statistics but information on the D&D creators vision of their appearance, behavior, and even beliefs where appropriate, as well as how they interact with each other. The creatures are alphabetized by category. i.e., werewolves are filed under lycanthrope. The volume scanned was in quite good condition and the PDF is very readable. Because of the large sixe (391 pages) Bookmarks for each letter of the alphabet were a godsend, though I would have preferred an html linked index.