United Colors Of Maximum PC
I’m a long-time subscriber. Like many older people, distinguishing text in low- contrast situations is problematic. I was pleased to see in your first issue that green was the predominant accent color. In earlier issues, orange on gray was common and that was hard for me to read.
I note in the letters section, that black text is highlighted by orange, a reasonable presentation, whereas the low- contrast orange text on a gray background is difficult for me to read— it may not be a problem for you now, but wait a few decades! Best wishes for your success as Editor and for the continued excellence of the magazine.
– G. Gokel
EDITOR- IN- CHIEF, GUY COCKER, RESPONDS: I have somehow managed to make it to 40 with my eyesight intact, even though I work all day every day with computer screens. You are right Mr. Gokel, we need to do more to make the magazine as accessible as possible to all of our readers. I’ve spoken to our designer Fraser about this and we will do everything we can to bear this in mind for future editions.
Out Of Order
Many letters and columns in MaximumPC refer to back issues by the issue number. But I’ve scoured the magazine and can’t find an issue number printed anywhere, just volume and number. How about putting a discrete issue number on the spine or the editorial page? Thanks! – B. Patton
EDITOR- IN- CHIEF, GUY COCKER, RESPONDS: This letter wasn’t the only one I received this month on this subject, and while it wasn’t a problem to help these readers match up issue numbers with months and years, it’s not something I want to be doing regularly!
So, now that you’ve had a peek behind the curtain at how we refer to the magazine internally—we do use numbers to refer to issues when making MaximumPC (this one is 203). However, when we publish, we use the month and year of publication, with a 13th “Holiday” edition each year, with no reference to the issue number.
To keep things simple, we’ll keep this time- based issue referencing system going forward. Apologies to anyone who was left confused!