Comments on: Free Sample of Digital Issue Pages

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:59:35 +0000

You should be getting a link very soon from the circ folk to go download it.

By: SeaQuest

SeaQuest — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:05:07 +0000

I’ve just converted my current subscription to digital. Can I now download the entire current issue in digital format. I do have the sample issue.

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:19:17 +0000

Rick and SD-Don, I wish our software allowed me to export to ePub in addition to a straight PDF – but for now…I’m sorry. Heck – I’m just happy you can see it on a Kindle!

By: Rick Simpson

Rick Simpson — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:01:10 +0000

I also tried it on a Kindle. The pictures look surprisingly good, better than the photos that the New York Times supplies with its Kindle version. The entire page appears as one full screen image, making the text far too small to read, as noted by SD-Don above. It’s simple to zoom in far enough to read the text, but then the screen only shows a small part of the page, and Kindle’s means of moving the viewport around on the page is klunky and slow. I wouldn’t choose to read the magazine on Kindle.

It might work better on a different reader, particularly on Barnes & Noble’s color Nook. It will depend on how well their zoom and pan functions work.

By: SD-Don

SD-Don — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:35:30 +0000

I tried the pages on my Kindle, which supports PDF. The pictures look great, graphics are there, and all the text, but the text is much too small to read without magnification. To work on the Kindle, I think the pages will need to be formatted into smaller chunks.

By: robshively

robshively — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:25:03 +0000

Even with all of these new-found pox pustules from a Luddite’s curse, I can still see advantages of the electronic version over the paper. First and foremost, I don’t have to make any more space available in my home. Do you have any idea how many banker’s boxes it takes to house 240 issues of FWW and well over 100 of PW? And how many of your banker’s boxes will you be taking as carry-ons on your next flight? And PDFs live as long as your backup drive or CD ROM, not the device you use to view them. That can be a long time; probably longer than I’ll be around. All these sores look terminal.

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:32:53 +0000

Don’t worry – the print issue isn’t going away!

By: tsstahl

tsstahl — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:03:26 +0000

A pox upon you!

Dead trees live longer than we do.

PDF files usually only live as long as a device.

I love the power of electronic reading, but I can’t sacrifice the longevity of the dead tree version. Publishers like O’reilly and Baen get it and have friendly multi-format offerings. You _can_ bake a cake and eat it, too.

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:39:03 +0000

Derek,
At the moment, we don’t offer a dual subscription, but I know our circ people are willing to revisit the topic, so it’s possible that we will in the future.

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:37:59 +0000

Yeah….I didn’t realize we were serving that freebie along with the subscription. That was created in a really old version of Acrobat, so while it works on a computer, it’s not working correctly on e-readers. We’ve just created a new digital “freemium” (a heinous word!) titled “Workshop Storage Solutions,” and I’d be happy to send it to any new digital subscriber who wants it – just send me an e-mail please!