“Let’s Get Prigital” Using the Right Tools to Accommodate Digital Print Media
Thank-you Olivia Newton-John for the inspiration.
The reference to ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ used in Part 1 of our series on optimizing for digital (click here to read Part 1) may be a little antiquated but hopefully the concept was conveyed – something that is designed for print doesn’t always render well in digital. So does that mean that all print publications must be redesigned for digital display? Not at all. Understandably, not every publisher or business has the resources to ‘go back to the drawing board’ with their digital layout. For that reason, we offer a plethora of tools that allow the publisher to adapt their print version for their online readership. Some of these tools are outlined below.
400% Vector Zoom – Vector zoom provides a scalable representation of your content without losing any data. In laymen’s terms that means when a reader ‘zooms’ they are getting the exact same quality of image or text with no degradation even when viewing it at 400%. Even better, once a reader has selected the preferred zoom level (from 100% to 400%) our software remembers that information and maintains the same zoom level for future usage. Vector Zoom is particularly suitable for newspapers and other large formats. The legibilty of pages and fonts will be remarkably improved using Vector Zoom. When in zoom mode the reader is able to use familiar ‘push and pull’ navigation across the entire page or spread.
Article Links – An article link provides the reader with an alternative to zoom functioning when reading smaller fonts. An article link usually manifests as a ‘button’ (in the sample below a ‘magnifying glass’ icon was used) on the page of the digital edition which when clicked will provide a ‘text only’ representation of the article inside our media deck. The text based version can be translated using ‘Google Translate Tool’, shared via social media and email, printed, and even offers three type sizes for optimal reading. Article links also populate the ‘Contents’ button in the toolbar. The ‘Contents’ button provides a dropdown of all article titles in the issue and provides a ‘page-jump’ directly to that content. Article links open to our media deck which means the reader is not opening a new browser tab or window which keeps them focused on the content in the publication.
Full Screen View – Full screen view allows the reader to maximize the dimensions of the publication within their display. It is our version of ‘biggie sizing’. The publication will envelope as much of the display as possible (while maintaining proportions) aside from the space required for the toolbar and perimeter buffer. In some cases, this small adjustment is all that is needed in order to relieve legibility concerns.
Slide Shows – Sometimes layout and design restrictions leave artwork and photos on the floor beside the editing table. A slide show provides an opportunity to provide a larger version of an image, or multiple larger versions of an image or multiple different images to complement the image content within the publication. See for yourself in the video below.
These four tools will help ease the transition from print to digital when layout changes are not options. Part 3 of this series will focus on the uniqueness of tablet device layout in comparison to traditional display monitors. See you next month!