”The True First Edition”
Different Types of 2002 Eragons
Blue Eye Wide Kerning
(Batch Number 3299)
Blue Eye Tight Kerning
(Batch Number: 5611)
Chris has never released the batch numbers, nor do we know if he has records of them . Based on eBay sales we can estimate 5% of Eragons are Blue Eye Wide Kerning, Blue Eye Wide Kerning make up 47.5% and Violet Eye make up the other 47.5%.
”You can also date editions of Eragon based off the spacing of the title. Later editions have tighter kerning.” - Chris
Ording in small batches allowed for design changes to the cover. The earliest version had a blue eye with a wide kerning in the text. The kerning was later made tighter with the eye still being blue. The last version of the cover had a Violet/Dull Blue eye.
Violet Eye
(Batch Number: 722900001B)
IBID: “Was there ever a change of colour on the eye from like blue to purple or vice versa?”
Chris: “Yeah. I actually preferred the bluer version. I can't remember if it was the printer or if it was on our end. And I think it was on our end. I think we changed the file. My sister actually did the original colour for the eye. Well I tried it and I'm colour blind so it didn't work, so she did it, and then that's why it's dedicated to her, for 'when I'm "blue"' and I think we shifted it at one point, and yeah it went to that more purpley colour so that colour's a later printing.”
Unofficial Changes
Due to the print-on-demand process, books have very little quality control. We see massive gradient differences between books, and the eye colour is never consistent, even with books in the same batch. We can also see miss cuts on the cover when the eye wraps around the spine, the equivalent of centring in the card grading world.
An example of different grading, each book is different due to poor printing quality.
An example of negative centring, the front cover has a slither of white on it from the spine.
An example of positive centring, the Eye has wrapped around onto the spine
The Creation of Saphira’s Eye
This is a great article on paolini.net about the process of drawing the famous Saphira eye.
Research Team
IBID
Torch
HELLOMYNAMEIS99
ARCAENA
