I prefer the iPad New Yorker to the print version. Full screen pictures if you want and lots of extras, plus half the ads.

Have to say I read the New Yorker on my iPad on a Porter flight to Chicago and the experience was pretty... good! Seems like the proportion of airline passengers with tablets and e-readers is going up faster than a Q400 take-off.

Thanks for the article Kat.

It personally boils my skin to see things like digital editions with type that's blurry. I haven’t seen The New Yorker iPad app, but think it’s smart to be so conscious of the reader experience. I personally can’t stand anything that degrades the legibility of type, but I’m also a type freak.

An interesting thing to note is that there are a lot of different types on consumers out there. In comparison to music, people would illegally download crappy music files and put up with songs that were incomplete or had an annoying DJ shouting things in the background (or we’d listen to music through crappy speakers and not know the difference [eg. me]). People would watch bootlegged movies that were blurry or had people coughing or standing up in the movie. (And people would PAY for these crappy bootlegs!) People continue to put up with streaming movies online, and sit through the choppy staggered video.

There are those who don’t mind trading convenience (ie. don’t have to go to the store or can get it for free) for degraded quality. And there are those who are willing to pay for the best quality. I think it’s up to the producers of the publications to ensure that there exist such a “best quality.”

To #2: While some apps allow for pinching to zoom in on type (e.g. our own Design Edge Canada), many magazine apps don't, including The New Yorker. Kat: Guess that means I'll be forking over more dough to Apple, argh!!

Oh, they will, Doug. A few issues to work out but I expect it to have the same resolution as the iPhone 4 before long.

there's nothing wrong with the resolution of type on the ipad; when reading a magazine in an app or through zinio, i just enlarge the type with a gesture and it is clear and crisp. I wear glasses and find i only need to increase the size slightly for it to be readable and clear.

Now if they can only improve the resolution of the type on the iPad, there would be an even better reading experience. Not The New Yorker's problem; Apple's problem.