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About MiniGUIDEs

MiniGUIDES provide a versatile format for covering rock climbing information which is especially useful for single crags or to introduce larger areas. They can also be used as a sustainable format between print editions of guidebooks when there is no alternative information available. They are also frequently used to provide small tatser guides for print editions.

Format

MiniGUIDES are produced to the same high standards as ROCKFAX print guidebooks and when printed on a modern colour InkJet or Laser printer, will give superb documents. They are stored in Portable Document Format (PDF) which require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed - more info on PDFs including download hints and tips.
Before you download a MiniGUIDE it is a good idea to try out test PDF to check your printer and printer settings - A4 test PDF.

Registration

In order to download any of the MiniGUIDES, and ROCKFAX updates, you need to become a registered user of the ROCKFAX web site. Once you have registered all your MiniGUIDES are listed on your own personal page - ROCKFAX Account in the left-hand side-bar - and you can access them at any time. You do need to be logged in for your account details to show.

What Do You Get For Your Money?

Paying for an electronic data file can seem a bit weird, after all it is difficult to see exactly what you have bought. In the case of MiniGUIDES you will have purchased a full-colour PDF file which can be printed out and also stored on your computer for later use. This means that you can take one copy with you on a trip, and if it gets trashed, just print out another copy when you get home. Additionally, once you have purchased a MiniGUIDE, most subsequent editions of that MiniGUIDE will be free downloads for you unless there are major changes. Each MiniGUIDE will be watermarked with your name and own unique user number.

Although it is possible to download a MiniGUIDE as many times as you wish, we do advise that you keep a copy safe on your own hard disk. Certain MiniGUIDES are withdrawn from sale, particularly the interim MiniGUIDES that are produced between print editions of guidebooks. Once the MiniGUIDE has been withdrawn, you will not be able to download another copy.

Printed Format

MiniGUIDEs are produced in several different formats which are all designed to be printed out on good quality modern colour printers. Each one comes with an instruction sheet which describes in detail how they should be assembled. We also have a Help Page for further problems.

A4 Paper - This format enables people to easily print out single-sided A4 pages and assemble into neat A5 books. The procedure is simple and most of the MiniGUIDES are available in this format. It does use twice the paper of double-sided booklets hence is not quite as compact.
A4 Booklet - Most of the recent MiniGUIDES are now available in a booklet format which is designed for those with access to two-sided printing. These documents are in proper page pairs which enable them to be folded together into booklets. They are slightly complicated to print initially but produce the best books in the end. Instructions for printing out A4 Booklets.
Full A4 sheets - These can be done with single or two-sided printing and result in single flat landscape A4 documents, usually held together with a staple on the left-hand side. There are only a few MiniGUIDES in this format, mostly the ones which are PDF versions of old guidebooks.

Paper size - All the MiniGUIDES are produced for A4 paper. A few are available in US Letter paper size as well but not in booklet format.

Write Your Own MiniGUIDES

The MiniGUIDE concept lends itself very well to new areas, travel destinations, small crags and isolated areas where full coverage with a print guidebook is sporadic or impractical. If you know any area which you think could benefit from a MiniGUIDE then perhaps you could produce your own MiniGUIDE for it. More info....

Other Guidebook Producers

We welcome approaches from other guidebook producers who wish to work with us on MiniGUIDES. This may be filling gaps with troublesome crags which you have no room for elsewhere, or keeping important venues up to date when the print guide is being delayed by lesser crags. Any MiniGUIDES produced would not need to be in the ROCKFAX format, they could just be the pages from the pre-press version of the print guide in PDF format. They could be free or sold and ROCKFAX would only take a distribution cut on the sold MiniGUIDES. Contact us for more information.