You've probably heard the hub-bub about new, digital frontiers in the publishing industry, but if you're an artist who likes to spread her magazines out near her easel and paint from the step-by-steps, you're probably wondering what all of this has to do with you.

One advantage of purchasing magazines in a digital format is that they're extremely portable (you can pop a copy on a zip drive and take it anywhere you want to go without worrying about damage or loss). They're also easily searchable (you can use bookmarks and hyperlinks to navigate within the issue and online). And they're easily printable if need be (you can print high quality copies of your favorite articles right from your desktop printer). Some call digital issues "green alternatives" and some call them "space savers" and some call them "tech candy." We just want to give artists every possible means of enjoying our fabulous watercolor content.

To that end, we've made a committment to digitizing our archives. If you're interested, but still a little skittish, think about downloading a free sample of our April 2009 issue in its digital format. You'll get watercolorist Scott Zupanc's gorgeous cover image, our table of contents and the opening spread of our cover artist's full-length feature, in an easy-to-search PDF format that works on almost all computers equipped with a free Acrobat Reader program. If you like what you see, click here to order the full issue from our handy online store.