I like your clue (although I might have found it difficult because that sense of “trick” is completely new to me).

I would have understood it as follows: a performing magician often purports to be using a spell (e.g., waving his hands and saying “Abracadabra!”), but is in fact using a trick.

One could classify it as a d&cd — a double definition, of which one of the definitions is cryptic.

The resolution could certainly stand improvement, but I find it to be readable if I print the puzzle so that it occupies a full page.

In case anyone has not worked out how to do this, the way that I have found is to right-click in the middle of the puzzle and “save picture as” a file to, say, My Pictures. Then go to My Pictures, right-click on the file name, and choose “print.” This (on my computer, at least) launches the Microsoft Photo Printing Wizard, which steps you through the printing process and lets you choose, among other things, a “full page” print. Because the .gif picture of the puzzle is generally wider than it is long, this option will print the picture in landscape view (i.e., it will turn the page sideways so as to allow the picture to be expanded to a greater degree).

It’s still blurry, though, and there’s no question a pdf would be better.

At the top of my wish list would be a pdf printing option for the Indy, since I much prefer solving on paper (which I can then do on the train) to using the crossword software.

Rufus, could you please recommend the FT editor to change over to JPEG (hi-res) or PDF, it would make a lot of people happier.

Very nice puzzles though.

Thank you for your art Sir.