Design Tools Monthly

Design Tools Monthly has been providing Macintosh graphic designers with monthly summaries and quarterly software updates for over 10 years and this is the review of it that I was told I should not publish, but have anyway.

While each issue only contains twelve pages, they are crammed full of;

• tips & bug fixes
• industry news
• software & hardware updates
• font news
• book reviews
• upcoming events
• virus warnings

The only thing which is "missing" from each issue is advertising, which is actually a bonus as you don't have to wade through all the marketing hype.

In fact, I hate to admit this, but the best feature I found with Design Tools, was its compact format and well laid out design because this format made it extremely easy to read while sitting on the coldest seat located in the smallest room of the building and thus I could use that "wasted" time to catch up on all the news and information and theoretically I could save hours of browsing the web each day.

Well actually, I still browse the web for hours each day, but I get a great summary of what's happening and often pick up great tips or updates from Design Tools that I managed to miss on the web.

A sample issue of a recent Design Tools issue can be downloaded as a PDF from their website to give you idea of a typical issue.

sample »

Subscribing

Design Tools Monthly is available as a paper based publication which is printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks, or as an electronic download from the Design Tools website as an Acrobat PDF.

The electronic only subscription costs US$199 per year and gives you access to the Subscribers Only sections of the Design Tools website, which includes the Software Closet and the magazine as a PDF.

The PDF is extremely well constructed, with an excellent bookmark/index system, and hyperlinks to relevant websites.

If you are located within the United States or Canada, the paper based version costs US$229 and if you live anywhere else the cost is $249.

As a "paper" subscriber, you get access to the Subscriber Only areas on the website as well as a printed version of the magazine posted to you each month. Then four times a year, you'll also receive a CD that contains a copy of all the software that was posted to the Design Tools website during the last quarter.

subscribe »

Credits and Disclaimers

AUSOM Incorporated, Australia's Leading Apple Macintosh User Group, would like to thank the Nelson Group, Inc, for providing them with a 12-month "printed" subscription to Design Tools Monthly, for use in the AUSOM iMac Raffle, as well as providing a 6-month subscription for review purposes.

The suggestion that I should not publish this review came from a friend because they thought I shouldn't mention which room I actually read Design Tools in. Whilst I understand this opinion, the fact remains I do read it there. It should also be noted that the location in which I read Design Tools Monthly does not reflect the quality of the publication, nor upon the publisher and editor.

A copy of this article, with colour images, is available from my website, http://www.nicholaspyers.com.

Discussions about this article may also occur on the appropriate Australian Computer News Network (ACNN) mailing list(s). For more details, please visit http://www.zonian.net.au/lists.

Interested in reprinting this article? Any non-profit Apple Macintosh User Group (MUG) may re-print, free of charge, any of the articles written by Nicholas Pyers found at http://www.nicholaspyers.com/articles. There are just a couple of conditions, which basically boil down to letting us know - for the full terms and conditions, please visit http://www.nicholaspyers.com/reprints.

© April 2003, Nicholas Pyers