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With the April 2010 issue that combined Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine, we introduced a new design to accompany the new title, Popular Woodworking Magazine. We read all your comments and where possible, tried to address your concerns.
After the April issue delivered to subscribers, for example, we heard from a lot of you that you didn’t like the “tiny URLs” as a way to find additional information online. So, with the June 2010 issue (which is in the mail to subscribers right now), we put all the links from the “Go Online For More…” boxes at the end of each story on our “online extras” page. Now, you’ll have to remember only one URL per issue to get you to all the free videos and related information , for the June issue, that URL is popularwoodworking.com/jun10 (for the August issue, it will be popularwoodworking.com/aug10, and so on).
Another concern we heard from quite a few readers was that the font size of the body copy was hard to read. Now for the record, it didn’t change from the old design to the new. Nonetheless, we want to make sure you are easily able to read the information we print, so we decided to amp up both the point size and the weight of the font. Beginning with the August issue (which mails to subscribers in mid-June), you’ll find the type just a little bit larger and a little bit heavier , and we’re happy to report that we were able to increase it without losing many lines of type. On average, the larger font takes up just a few more lines of copy (the pictures are, however, a wee bit smaller).
As a person who just had to buy her first pair of reading glasses, well, I can report that the August stories that are moving from desk to desk right now for comments and edits are a lot easier to read. Good thing, too, ’cause I routinely forget to put those new glasses in my purse. And with the larger font size, I can take off my regular glasses and not struggle. My ibuprofen intake is way down.
– Megan Fitzpatrick
p.s. Subscribers get their issues on average two weeks before the issue hits the newsstands , and they pay a lot less. Subscribe now and save!
p.p.s. Yes, thank you. I do know that my desk is a mess.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
Tom: Um, no. Sorry. That shoulder plane, after my No. 4, is my most-used plane (and also makes a good paperweight).
Don: I own somewhere in the ‘hood of 10 pairs of glasses, all with older and older "normal" prescriptions — if only my insurance would cover using one those older pairs for new lenses for various uses. Silly rules!
Greg: Thank for for catching that error; we’ve now fixed it.
And Richard: I’m sorry. I’m afraid I don’t have a solution. The magazines ship from the printer (in Illinois, I think?) and the farther one is from there, and the more rural, the more frustrating delivery gets. But you’re still saving a lot of money and racking up virtue points by resisting temptation?
I really like the magazine, but the small font of the old format are the reason to end my subscription – too small and hard to read. And you know they are too small because in the AD’s the fonts are BIG!
as far as I know, "tiny URLs" aren’t checked by anti-virus programs. for me it’s a NOT GOOD thing
Thanks for the bigger type. It will be much appreciated.
Unfortunately Glasses are a lot like planes. One will not be sufficient.
If I could only have one – the plane it would be my 5 ½ and my specs, progressives. But – Steve is correct the sweet spot can be small.
Your Better Vision in the Shop article hade it about right. You will need large pair of glasses (for a large field) focusing at your working distance (and of course safety glasses).
Messy desk: Embarassingly, at my first glance at the clutter, I thought that shoulder plane(?) was a stapler…
–GG
Megan, you might want to pop those glasses on, go to the link to the June issue, and look at the title! 😉
I’ve tried to use varifocals, but for my work (in front of a computer with two large monitors), they just didn’t do the job, because the sweet spot was too small. I could only really focus on a small circular area in the middle of one screen.
Every two months I have to fight temptation as my subscription does not arrive until a week or more after the new issue is in the bookstore here in Central Maine. Any suggestions?
I had to go to bi-focals about a year ago. The guy at the eye glasses store said that with my interest in woodworking, I should go with the no-line option. He said that the bifocals with the lins in them tend to have an area in which your sight is "fuzzy", and it would probably be about where the saw blade is on the tablesaw. I took his advice and got the no-line bifocals, and have not had any trouble, other than occasionally have to tilt my head up slightly to see small marks on a couple of my rulers and 1 time when I was watching tv and leaned my head back against the back of the chair (tv got very fuzzy very quick). The main thing to know is that you point your nose at whatever you are trying to see (don’t just move your eyes_.
After getting the bifocals, I would not go back. I can see much clearer now than I could before, and I have worn glasses since before I was 5 (I am 45 now).
Eric
I’ll give you $5.00 for that nifty paperweight….
Paul,
I may actually suck it up and move to no-line bifocals…except I hear from other woodworkers that they’re not terribly effective in the shop. And as far as my desk, well, I cleared a space to shoot the photo!
Soon you will have many pair of ‘readers’; at least one in every place you might have the need to pause and read.
You desk isn’t cluttered while you can still see some of the original desktop.