Drew Riley
Well-Known Member
Last night I finished reading through all of the articles in the very first issue of Knife Journal. Currently, I subscribe to Blade, and regularly read other knife publications such as Knives Illustrated, and Tactical Knives Illustrated, as well as a handful of online forums and blogs, so I was curious to see how this digital "multi-media" version would stack up. I downloaded the issue to my Nexus 7, which for those of you who may not be familiar, is about half the size of a fully sized iPad. I was definitely curious to how well it would translate on a screen/medium about half the size (or even less) of the magazines/publications I'm used to...
Overall, I must say, I was impressed. While it would have been nice to have been able to utilize a zoom feature on certain pages (especially the gallery page, which proved difficult to read the text in), I was still able to read the articles with ease.
To me, every article was both interesting and informative. I also found that there was a very pleasing combination of historical vs. modern, as well as articles that were useful to both makers AND consumers/collectors/end users.
Another aspect that greatly impressed me was that certain articles didn't just show the overall concept and general details of the knife/knives in question, but broke down key design features and the purpose/rationale behind them. In other words, there was a lot of real "meat" and insight to the articles. I particularly appreciated the various references to the "give and take" or "comprise" that's involved in selecting (or making) any knife with specific uses in mind.
I also very much like how the ads are interactive. In other words, you can click links or pictures and be taken directly to the manufacturers webpage (something I've often wished I could do in a paper book or magazine!).
What I didn't like so much:
As I already stated, it would have been nice to be able to zoom in on certain pictures, or even text (though the text was quite readable in most cases). I also found certain pages a little "buggy" at times, where it didn't let me scroll correctly, or in one case where the text disappeared altogether, until I had restarted my tablet.
While I did appreciate the video clips and sound bytes on certain pages, I would like to see a way to pause, or even rewind these without having to go to a different page first.
I would also liked to have seen a prompt when clicking on pictures, rather than being taken immediately to a webpage, as sometimes the click was accidental. A page explaining various features, such as the interactive ads, might be helpful as well, or at least a differentiation between interactive and non-interactive pictures/ads.
Just another small critique: I did find a handful of typos, some of which may have caused confusion if I didn't realize what the intended spelling was.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this first issue, and (price depending) definitely plan on reading future issues. I fully believe that this publication, in its interactive format, has some great potential to not just be equal to the current publications on the market, but to even surpass them. There's surely a lot of great possibilities in digital media formatting that just don't exist in printed publications, and this first issue gave a small glimpse of that. That said, I think there are even more possibilities yet to be realized or tapped into, and I look forward to seeing where things go in the future issues.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend downloading Knife Journal, Issue 1.
Overall, I must say, I was impressed. While it would have been nice to have been able to utilize a zoom feature on certain pages (especially the gallery page, which proved difficult to read the text in), I was still able to read the articles with ease.
To me, every article was both interesting and informative. I also found that there was a very pleasing combination of historical vs. modern, as well as articles that were useful to both makers AND consumers/collectors/end users.
Another aspect that greatly impressed me was that certain articles didn't just show the overall concept and general details of the knife/knives in question, but broke down key design features and the purpose/rationale behind them. In other words, there was a lot of real "meat" and insight to the articles. I particularly appreciated the various references to the "give and take" or "comprise" that's involved in selecting (or making) any knife with specific uses in mind.
I also very much like how the ads are interactive. In other words, you can click links or pictures and be taken directly to the manufacturers webpage (something I've often wished I could do in a paper book or magazine!).
What I didn't like so much:
As I already stated, it would have been nice to be able to zoom in on certain pictures, or even text (though the text was quite readable in most cases). I also found certain pages a little "buggy" at times, where it didn't let me scroll correctly, or in one case where the text disappeared altogether, until I had restarted my tablet.
While I did appreciate the video clips and sound bytes on certain pages, I would like to see a way to pause, or even rewind these without having to go to a different page first.
I would also liked to have seen a prompt when clicking on pictures, rather than being taken immediately to a webpage, as sometimes the click was accidental. A page explaining various features, such as the interactive ads, might be helpful as well, or at least a differentiation between interactive and non-interactive pictures/ads.
Just another small critique: I did find a handful of typos, some of which may have caused confusion if I didn't realize what the intended spelling was.
In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this first issue, and (price depending) definitely plan on reading future issues. I fully believe that this publication, in its interactive format, has some great potential to not just be equal to the current publications on the market, but to even surpass them. There's surely a lot of great possibilities in digital media formatting that just don't exist in printed publications, and this first issue gave a small glimpse of that. That said, I think there are even more possibilities yet to be realized or tapped into, and I look forward to seeing where things go in the future issues.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend downloading Knife Journal, Issue 1.
