Drawing

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 186

Best drawing teacher

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Now in its fourth revision, this remains the best guide for learning how to draw. I used it with my son, and his progress was remarkable. It has also helped my own drawing skills. I actually looked forward to the exercises which are brilliant and fun. In order to draw you must learn to see, and that’s what this book teaches: how to perceive. Because this perception training relies on strengthening right brain activity, it can be transferred to any kind of creative work. In each edition over the past 30 years, the author has widened the skills she is teaching, so that this current version will improve your perception skills — essential for any kind of innovation — whether or not you ever sketch. And still, it remains the best teacher for anyone — yes, anyone! — learning to how to draw. — KK

• A caution: as all of our students discover, sooner or later, the left hemisphere is the Great Saboteur of endeavors in art. When you draw, it will be set aside–left out of the game. Therefore, it will find endless reasons for you not to draw: you need to go to the market, balance your checkbook, phone your mother, plan your vacation, or do that work you brought home from the office.
  
  What is the strategy to combat that? The same strategy. Present your brain with a job that your left hemisphere will turn down. Copy an upside-down photograph, regard a negative space and draw it, or simply start drawing. Jogging, meditation, games, music, cooking, gardening–countless activities also produce a cognitive shift. The left hemisphere will drop out, again tricked out of its dominance. And oddly, given the great power and force of the left hemisphere, it can be tricked over and over with the same tricks.

• Drawing is a curious process, so intertwined with seeing the that the two can hardly be separated. The ability to draw depends on one’s ability to see the way an artist sees. This kind of seeing, for most people, requires teaching, because the artist’s way of seeing is very specific and very different from the ways we ordinarily use vision to navigate our lives.
  
  Because of this unusual requirement, teaching someone to draw has some special problems. It is very much like teaching someone to ride a bicycle: both skills are difficult to explain in words.
• Drawing as a learning, teachable skill
  
  I firmly believe that given good instruction, drawing is a skill that can be learned by every normal person with average eyesight and average hand-eye coordination. Someone with sufficient ability, for example, to sign a receipt or to type out an e-mail or text message can learn to draw.
• These pre-existing skills have nothing to do with potential to draw well. What the pre-instructions drawings represent is the age at which the person last drew, often coinciding with the age at which the person gave up trying to draw.

• Ideally (in my view), learning in art should proceed as follows: the perception of edges (line) leads to the perception of shapes (negative spaces and positive shapes), drawn in correct proportion and perspective (sighting). These skills lead to the perception of values (light logic), which leads to the perception of colors as values, which leads to painting.

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Dual pencil sharpener

Alvin KUM Long Point Pencil Sharpener

The iconic battery-powered Panasonic KP-4A, my previous favorite pencil sharpener, is no longer sold in the US. As it happens, I had been growing increasingly disenchanted by the noise and poor job the device sometimes provides. So I started researching to see what was out there in the manual small sharpener space. After ordering about six different models, I settled on the KUM Long Point Pencil Sharpener.

It’s different than other sharpeners in two respects. First, it has two holes: #1, labeled as such, trims the wooden barrel, and #2 hones the point. It also has an automatic brake built-in so you don’t waste time and lead after you’ve achieved a perfect point. Besides being silent and great fun to use, it produces a fantastically good point. There’s also a nice clear lift-up lid to easily empty shavings.

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Superior pencil sharpener

Alvin Lead Pointer

the Alvin Lead Pointer is the best way to keep this type of pencil sharpened. I am an architect and use these pencils every day. I’ve had this sharpener for more than ten years and it still works like new. The pointer is small, making it ideal to hold in your hand while rotating your lead holder around the pointer. Because your two hands are working together, I find I have more control and there are much fewer broken leads. The cutting head is sharp and lasts for a long time. It only takes a couple spins and your lead is needle sharp. Maintenance and clean-up is a snap. Take the top off the body and dump the graphite shavings into your trash and you are done If you do break your lead in the pointer, just remove the top and tap it on the inside edge of your trash can to clear the broken pieces. Lead pointers can be messy because of the fine graphite dust, but my pointer has never leaked the dust onto my desk. I have used many different types of pointers from desk mounted to ones mounted on the top of an electric eraser. The desk mounted pointers tend to break leads easily, since you are moving your lead holder in a circular motion around a pointer fixed to your desk, thus you may move in a direction that is not compatible to the pointer and will snap your lead. The electric eraser type is good, but it does not stay sharp for very long. It’s also difficult to empty the graphite shavings and jams when you break your lead inside it. This pointer really is the best way to keep you lead sharp! If you work in an office, you may want to buy two — because it is so small and useful, your pointer just might grow legs. — Donald Moore, Jr.

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The best pencil eraser

Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser

Mars plastic erasers are the best. Abrasive erasers tear up the paper surface too much, and unless you have mastered pressing really hard without breaking the lead a mechanical pencil doesn’t draw that deep anyway.

The plastic erasers can also be cleaned with a wet thumb or a rub on scrap paper for neat work. I always find the “gritty” or “gummy” erasers get so dirty you spend half your time rubbing out their own mess. The Mars compound is stiff enough that corners can be used for fine work, or large areas erased with the flat end. The dirty, used portions just roll off as you use it and are cleanly blown/swiped away. I like the idea of putty/moldable erasers, but they get filthy, crumbly and horrible if kept in a pocket or bag. — Alan

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

04/20/26

Paint pens / Budget espresso / AI bird feeder

Recomendo - issue #510

Digital colors

My book of 800 unusual images from Asia — arranged by colors — is now available as an inexpensive digital book. Because it is so graphic the digital version works best as a PDF. You can order and download the digital Colors of Asia, anywhere in the world for $3.99. — KK

Wireless wild bird watching

My mother used to tell me stories about her favorite great aunt in Mexico who had an aviary, and I’ve always dreamed of having my own but can’t imagine keeping birds caged. And then for Christmas, my husband gifted me the Birdfy AI Smart Bird Feeder, and it’s totally made that dream come true in a way I didn’t expect. My backyard has never been more active, and I’ve gotten to know all the visiting birds that the AI identifies, plus collect and download clips of their cute eating and fighting. The images are crisp and clear, and it feels like a whole hidden dimension of the world has opened up for me. Birdfy is the brand we have and I’m very happy with it, but I know there are more out there, and I’m really recommending the experience of a bird feeder camera more than this one specific product. — CD

Budget espresso machine that punches above its weight

A friend bought the under-$200 Casabrews CM5418 Espresso Machine for her boyfriend’s birthday because they were tired of paying inflated prices for Nespresso pods. I had my doubts that a machine this cheap could make decent coffee, but I have to say it’s excellent. It has a decent pump that pulls a rich shot and has a steam wand for frothing milk. Pair it with a burr grinder rather than a blade grinder — fresh, evenly ground beans make a big difference. I use a Capresso Infinity grinder. — MF

Paint pens

Sharpie makes pens that lay down a heavy layer of paint, instead of a thinner layer of ink. With these paint pens, you can make very visible marks on virtually anything. Sharpie Creative Markers work on glass, dark plastic, rusty metal, stone – surfaces that ordinary markers fail on. They come in lots of colors, and 3 different tip types. Artists like them on paper because they are very opaque yet don’t bleed through the other side. There are fancy brands of expensive paint pens made for artists, but the Sharpie versions are very affordable, about $1 per pen. — KK

A reminder to “Play”

This opinion piece on The Next Web titled “The most radical act in an age of outrage is to play” is a navigational reset for where we should put our energy. The invitation is that in a culture addicted to outrage, choosing to play—freely, creatively, and with others—is itself a radical act of resistance and repair. Which is such a good reminder. Play—along with Kindness, Truth, and Love—is a core tenet of mine. Play as a radical act is the quiet, subversive way we can reclaim our own nervous systems, our attention, and our capacity to connect. — CD

Explore Wikipedia by map

The Wikipedia app (free, iOS/Android) has a locations feature that shows Wikipedia articles on a map. It’s a fun way to discover interesting spots when you travel. I’ve been using it around Los Angeles and have found things I never knew existed. My favorite find so far: the Hollywood Freeway chickens, a colony of feral chickens that have lived under the Vineland Avenue off-ramp of the 101 since around 1970, possibly descended from a truckload of poultry that overturned. — MF

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04/19/26

Young Adult Destinations/Bag Check Hikes/Hotel Labor Shortage

Nomadico issue #202

Living Abroad Destinations for Young Adults

I got quoted in this Travel + Leisure article about some of the best destinations in the world for young adults to consider for moving abroad. This is not meant to be a definitive list, but it’s a good article if you want 8 options to consider instead of being overwhelmed with choices. You don’t have to be young to enjoy these places, but they’re strong on the vibrant qualities people look for when they’re in their 20s and 30s, plus the cost of living is another favorable factor.

More Airlines Raise Baggage Fees

The airlines never met a fee they didn’t like and when one of their competitors raises the price, the execs usually match them in lockstep. So after JetBlue went first, as mentioned last week, many of the other lemmings followed, with $45 for the first bag being the most common amount now, blamed on fuel costs. For budget airlines, you’re going to pay extra to bring anything unless you travel with just a “personal item,” but for the legacy airlines you can usually still get away with bringing a carry-on into the packed cabin. Otherwise, Alaska Air, Air Canada, JetBlue, and United all offer credit cards with free bag checks on all flights, not just a subset of them. This includes at least one companion if booked together. The current United sign-up bonus with Chase is huge too, enough for a round-trip ticket to almost anywhere.

Are You Buying Bottled Water out of Habit?

“You’ve got a bottle in your bag pocket, remember?” the woman said to her significant other in the line at the airport coffee shop in front of me yesterday. He put it back and saved $4.99 (plus tax) because he was 20 steps away from a filtered water dispenser. I saw another guy pay $6.89 for bottled water in our second airport of the day while being equally close to another dispenser. Since numerous studies have shown that bottled water is more contaminated than your average tap water, paying a premium and then throwing away more plastic seems like a bad idea all around if you’re flying in the USA or Europe.

A Looming Worker Crisis for US Hotels

If you’re having trouble finding a hotel staffer when you need one, it’s probably not your imagination. We’ve already seen the reduced influx of immigrants to the USA impact the food industry, but the next big hit will be where you lay your head when traveling. According to those in the industry, there’s already a serious worker shortage and it’s going to get worse. “The hospitality industry ended 2025 with 98,000 fewer workers than the year before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” With immigrants making up one-third of the labor force for hotels (and more for the construction of new ones), don’t expect rates to go anywhere but up in the coming years stateside.

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

04/16/26

What’s in my NOW? — Augie Nielsen

issue #250

August is a husband, father, runner, practical Midwesterner, and HR executive currently serving as Chief Human Resources Officer at Central Trust Company in Jefferson City, Missouri.

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PHYSICAL

• Garmin Forerunner 965 — After a decade of loyalty to Fitbit, my wife finally talked me into making the switch to Garmin — and I haven’t looked back. As someone running about 30 miles a week, the depth of data it provides is genuinely useful: VO2 max, HRV, sleep scores, route maps. I’m not just collecting numbers — I think it’s actually made me a better runner and healthier person.
• Rogue Hoe/Pick — If you live in the American Midwest, bush honeysuckle is basically a villain — invasive, stubborn, and once you know what it looks like you’ll see it absolutely everywhere. I picked up this hoe/pick while volunteering with the Missouri Conservation Corps and it’s the best tool I’ve used in a decade for chopping, pulling, and hacking these things out at the root. Simple, brutal, effective.
• Urban Chestnut Brewery — My cousin owns this St. Louis gem, and I have it on good authority that he’s a good guy. But the beer stands on its own — Urban Chestnut leans into classic European styles done really well. If you’re in St. Louis their two taprooms are worth your time, and you can find their beer at retail locations across the region. You won’t be disappointed.

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DIGITAL

• Waking Up — I’ve been a Sam Harris fan for over 20 years, so I was thrilled when this app came out. Harris once wrote that spending every waking moment lost in thought leaves us at the mercy of wherever our minds wander — and that meditation is a way of breaking that spell. This app makes that accessible without being intrusive. From 30-second mindfulness moments to daily quotes to a vast library of guided sessions, it meets you wherever you are and whenever you’re ready.
• NotebookLM — I hadn’t interviewed for a job in nearly 20 years, so when I decided to get back on the market I started with NotebookLM as a thinking partner — uploading personality assessments, personal reflection notes, and an honest account of what I wanted from my next role. Once I landed an interview, I shifted gears: fed it company research, the job description, and all that personal data, and it helped me figure out where I could genuinely add value. It synthesized everything into a custom podcast I could listen to on my runs, and during cooldowns I’d switch to Gemini Live for mock interview questions. After a few weeks of that I felt genuinely ready. And wouldn’t you know it — I got the job.

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INVISIBLE

“Proceed as the way opens” — Quaker Proverb

I first encountered this Quaker proverb in William Least Heat-Moon’s River-Horse, where he called it his “precept of last resort” while navigating 5,000 miles of American waterways. It stuck. There’s something in it that echoes what evolutionary biologists call the “adjacent possible” — the idea that each step forward opens up the next one, even when you can’t see very far ahead. I find it grounding. It’s never hopeless. There’s always something you can do, and one move usually reveals the next.

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04/15/26

Beautiful Birds / The Botanical Treasury

Issue No. 113

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS – FLY FROM A TO Z WITH DOZENS OF FEATHERED FRIENDS

Beautiful Birds
by Jean Roussen (author) and Emmanuel Walker (illustrator)
Flying Eye Books
2015, 56 pages, 8.9 x 12.2 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

In Beautiful Birds, author Jean Roussen and illustrator Emmanuel Walker fly through the alphabet with dozens of feathered friends. It begins, of course, with “A is for albatross, the admiral of the skies,” and progresses all the way to “Z is for zos-ter-o-pi-dae…” with details about all kinds of avians in between. The writing brims with clever rhymes and colorful words (ogling orbs, polychrome quills) making it delightful to read out loud. If I had to guess, I’d say Roussen is a fan of E.B. White’s idea that “children are game for anything… They love words that give them a hard time, provided they are in a context that absorbs their attention.”

Walker’s vibrant illustrations give kids all the context they need. His graphic, full-bleed drawings feel like those of mid-century masters Saul Bass and Charlie Harper. As an added bonus, the book’s design is also gorgeous. It’s bound in a neon salmon linen, with patterned endpapers to match. The neon color can be found on almost every page in varying doses, giving the optical effect of spying a ruffle of feathers in the wild. – Sara Distin at Tinybob

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THE BOTANICAL TREASURY CELEBRATES 40 OF THE WORLD’S MOST FASCINATING PLANTS

The Botanical Treasury : Celebrating 40 of the Most Fascinating Plants through Historical Art and Manuscripts
by Christopher Mills (editor)
University of Chicago Press
2016, 176 pages, 8.5 x 11 x 1.6 inches (softcover in clamshell box)

Buy on Amazon

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England has just come out with a sumptuous collection of “40 of the world’s most fascinating plants.” What makes them the “most fascinating”? For some it’s their appearance or structure, for others it might be their medicinal properties or economic impact. But from the bizarre-looking banksia to the quinine-packed cinchona to the functional bottle gourd, what they all have in common is a fascinating story.

The Botanical Treasury, which comes in a richly textured cloth-covered box along with 40 reproduced frameable prints, devotes four pages to each plant. Each entry includes an interesting tale pertaining to the plant along with copies of historical drawings, photos, letters, maps, journal entries and newspaper clippings. Most of the stories are about the naturalists and explorers who hunted for and studied these plants, but the book also celebrates the plants themselves, highlighting their unique features, uses, and capabilities. This makes a gem of a gift for any botanical nerd. – Carla Sinclair

04/14/26

Music Production

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 185

Best guide to music production

Tape Op Magazine

Tape Op is the only music geek magazine worth buying — and it’s free. Widely eclectic and ever encouraging, the main premise seems to be “Try, and trust your ears.” Pro, semi-pro, and DIY info sits comfortably side-by-side. Pros read it, hobbyists read it, some kids read it, all get something from it. Tape Op will give step-by step demos of, for instance, modding a certain low-cost microphone to get more bang for the buck written by a guy who sell his own mics for thousands. Or they talk to a guy with a barn full of home-made analog synths or someone who makes music out of sounds from antique recordings. The mag offers information in all kinds of directions, but it only wants you to do your own thing with it, what ever that is. Tape Op’s philosophy: use your ears and twist some knobs, learn all you can, then forget about it. Standards are explained, history is explored first-person, but rules might be thrown out the window. An undercurrent regarding how unrealistic and difficult it is to run a studio coexists with inspiring tales about the pleasure and pride that comes from recording music. The contributors work hard in their own studios and know what they’re talking about. A large community of recordists supports contributing articles and a lively online Q and A page (later edited and published). Recent profiles have run the gamut from legendary producers/engineers to seriously indie/outsider recordists; all have a jones for doing what they do their own way.

A recent, typical issue reviewed a mic you can buy for a steal on eBay for $40 and a mic that streets for $7,000. They don’t waste time writing slagging reviews; they review only what might be useful to someone on some level. On one hand, you can learn a lot by reading about something you may never be able to afford. On the other, you see that despite how amazing, desirable and beautiful that thing is — and this where most music mags stop — you don’t really need it. It might be a great tool for someone, but you don’t have to need it. Record reviews, written in the same “we like this” spirit, lean indie and outside, but might go anywhere. I always read about something I don’t know, but wouldn’t mind hearing. It’s independently published and paid for by ads from all kinds of audio-related concerns, but beholden to no one, so it’s neither slick nor slimy. Other recording magazines often seem to be trolling for sales or hyping an image. Their editorial decisions are suspect, noising on about last year’s retreads, repeating a press release, offering the same tutorials you could find in another magazine — or the library(!). The ‘net offers a lot of basic DIY sites you can learn from, but will they print an interview with Rupert Neve, as issue by issue, you learn about the products that riff on his designs? How about talking to Rudy Van Gelder (who recorded all the classic Blue Note jazz) about taping John Coltrane in the living room of his parent’s house in New Jersey?

I’ve been subscribing since 1997-8 when a producer I met turned me onto it. There is absolutely nothing out there like it. Nowadays my job is production manager/soundcheck and rehearsal substitute/backline tech for a three-time Grammy winning artist. I work with and have hired top-notch audio pros and I learn a great deal from them. Tape Op has often given me insight that keeps me apace in our discussions and what I learn from them takes me deeper into the magazine. However, Tape Op also has allowed me to nourish a side-line in sound designing/composing for theatre when I am off the road. When no one’s paying me and I’m home with the kids asleep, I record my music or occasionally, friends. That is where the knife really gets sharpened and what I have taken in from Tape Op gets put to the test. — John Stovicek

• I finished a session the other day where I went 10 hours without eating anything and kept suggesting breaks. It never happened.
  It’s funny you brought that up. That happened to me last week. A person came in to record five or six songs for basic tracks in two days. It was that sort of scenario. It felt like if they weren’t doing something every second that an opportunity was being wasted. I can deal with that for two days or so. The longest session I worked on was 3 1/2 months. It was four people, and their mom, who never wanted to take any breaks. It was a trial. I remember saying, “You know, I’ll do this again but I need a significant amount of money.” The studio salary didn’t cut it.
  You lost three months of your life!
  Exactly. I broke up with a long-term girlfriend. Everyday was noon to midnight. It was a mixed blessing. Usually the types of bands that come in here are short and quick. They’re paying for everything themselves. We never got into that stride of a big studio getting big sessions that last for months and months. But our main fuel is bands that come in from three to twelve days. No one’s had to give up six months of his or her life to babysit.
• Seating a new head
  Here’s a good way to quickly seat a new drumhead (which allows the drum to better conform to the specific contour of the drum’s bearing edge): Put the head on and tighten it slowly, making sure to maintain even tension around the head. When the head is fairly tight (and evenly-tensioned), take a heat gun or blow dryer and slowly work your way around the outer edge of the drumhead, just inside the hoop and along the bearing edge. Don’t try to get the head hot, just warm to the touch. The heat will make the Mylar conform to the bearing edge almost instantly. Be careful not to get the head too warm, as too much heat buildup will deform the head in a destructive way.
• Tape down one end of the Slinky inside the cone of an expendable speaker (eithera raw loudspeaker or one in a cabinet) – gaffer’s tape works well – and place thespeaker on the floor as shown in Figure 5. Clamp your contact mic to the otherend of the Slinky with a strong spring clip and attach this assembly to the end of a mic boom 3-6 feet up from the speaker, with the Slinky stretched between (Figure 6.) Plug the contact mic into your mixer or a guitar amp and pluck the spring to check your level. Now play some audio through the speaker and listen to the contact mic as the speaker shakes the Slinky – you may want to use headphones so you can distinguish the sound of the Slinky from the music coming directly out of the speaker.You should hear a “spoingy,” vaguely spring reverb-y cloud around your originalsignal.

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Pocket-sized sound manipulator

Korg Kaossilator Synthesizer

For a number of years I’ve been into sound art and electronics, but never had the cash and space for an ARP 2600. I recently acquired a Korg Kaossilator, a fabulous little dynamic phrase synthesizer, which, for all intents and purposes, now serves as my main musical device. Pocket-sized and touch-operated, the Kaossilator is comprised of 100 sounds: electronic beats, synth chords and pads, squelchy bass tones and the odd acoustic instruments. The Theremin sounds alone are worth the price tag. The fun part is creating 8-beat loops in which you can control the tempo and the scales of the instruments selected. I’ve already “composed” a few pieces using just the Korg and will most likely start incorporating it into GarageBand or, perhaps, Max/MSP once my visual programming chops get happening. My only complaint is you can’t edit or remove instruments/sounds as you layer them or control individual volumes. Still, I highly recommend the Korg for beginners and semi-pros that haven’t got a cache of gear and/or software. For standalone equipment, I don’t think there’s anything really comparable to the Kaossilator, except it’s cousin, the Mini Kaoss Pad, which is more for effects.

A hobbyist that was a session drummer in another life (before children), it’s limiting to how often I can make music. Drummers have to deal with the confines of noise volumes (the neighbors), the amount of space required and the portability of your gear. Plus, your output is restricted to mainly the rhythmic aspects of music as well as performing in the more traditional acoustic genres. With two small children, I don’t get to play with the Kaossilator as often as I’d like, but the one-year-old loves to see and hear it in action. While you can use the sounds to record with in your audio software, you can also just plug in headphones and experience your public transit commuting time diminish exponentially. I’ve taken it out of the house a few times. It runs on either a 4.5V adapter (not included) or 4 AA batteries (included). I have yet to really clock the amount of time used with just the batteries, but it’s been a lot longer than you’d get on a laptop. — Gord Fynes

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Software synthesizer

Moog Modular

I remember the first time I encountered a Moog Synthesizer: Switched-On Bach. I was all of 14-years-old and absolutely captivated. All those knobs and patch cords. And then there were the sounds that it made. To an adolescent boy growing up in the mid-late ’60s whose hero was Mr. Spock, it was like a futuristic dream come true — my own musical version of the Starship Enterprise and for only a few thousand dollars. The Last Whole Earth Catalog even featured a review of it by Wendy Carlos herself!

Then I learned how much a few thousand dollars actually was. I tinkered with resisters and capacitors, transistors and chokes, but I couldn’t do anything like that. But this is what led me inexorably to a career in music and recording. Well, and the Beatles helped, too. Flash forward 41 years and many synthesizers, guitars and amps later, I still could not seem to afford that big gleaming Moog dream.

Then a company called Arturia released a virtual software version of my childhood Holy Grail, the Moog Modular V. And there were nine — count ’em, nine! — oscillators. Filters, envelope generators. A fixed filter bank. A sample and hold module. A bank of configurable mixers. And with enough computer firepower, I could finally make the sounds I’d heard Wendy Carlos make. The software even has stereo chorus and delay lines, a very neat addition to the package to fatten up your sound without having to use any outboard effects. And did I mention polyphony? Yes, unlike its hardware predecessor, the Moog Modular V offers up to 32 voices, if you have the processor power to deliver them.

I’ve been using this powerful, flexible piece of software for almost four years now and I have to admit that it does almost everything I ever wanted a music synthesizer to do. It does things the hardware version couldn’t even do. My only complaint is latency (delay). I would never use it live, but then again I haven’t been playing live these days, and if I did, I’d probably sample off the sounds I want to use and do it that way. The software can be used stand alone or as a plugin, for Mac or Windows OS. — Jeff Bragg

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

04/13/26

What’s in my NOW? — Augie Nielsen