Optimizing Print Media for Digital Display (part 3 of a series)

“Preparation A through G”

The first 2 segments (Part 1 and Part 2) of this series have covered the limitations of traditional print media when converted to a digital format and have also focused on a couple of the unique tools which provide for a quality reading experience despite those limitations. This segment will provide ample suggestions on how to manage and prepare for output to digital from ‘A’ to ‘G’.

Data has shown that an optimized digital edition (different layout and content) yields an average of 20% deeper engagement (as measured by publication specific data) than a print replicated version. Here are some hints and tips to consider when designing for digital print media.

Analyze – find out where your readers are going to be coming from and plan for the masses. Don’t assume the mobile tablet is your starting point since current data suggests the ratio of web readers to mobile web readers is 10:1.

Build – questionnaires, polls, call back cards, business reply cards, or customized forms that create an interaction between the reader and the publication or advertisers.

Creativity – Keep in mind that you are designing for digital. As an example, rather than providing textual footnotes or end notes within the layout provide them in the link ‘hover’ tip and link directly to the reference on the web. Or provide a simple question to your readers within the content, provide a clue in the ‘hover’ tip, and provide the answer as a link. Click here for sample.

Consistency – Once you have established how a reader interacts with your publication maintain that trend. For example, if a ‘play’ button represents embedded multi-media, don’t stray. Determine interactive elements, buttons, icons and stick with them. Also, as a general rule ‘If it looks like it should click, it should click’.

Design – focus on publication layout but also consider the interface. Toolbars and backgrounds are customizable and should be a consideration for the project. Click here for sample.

Dimensions –Tablets allow the user to rotate from landscape to portrait view with ease. This is not the case for PC and laptop users. Since PC and laptop displays are typically wide and short (especially HD) consider a layout that meets those requirements (opt for ‘letter’ over ‘tabloid’).

Educate – inform your reader of the tools that are at their disposal, how to navigate, special features, buttons etc. The reality is that the reading experience is intuitive (flipping or swiping pages) but the extra features may not be. Use a presentation page or plan for some additional content in the layout of your publication. Click here for sample.

Engage – Leverage additional content in the form of audio, video, slide shows, animations. Use the tools that are at your disposal.

 Expand – Do not restrict valid or quality content to page counts when designing or crafting the layout of a digital publication.

Fonts – It is well established that print media has typically preferred ‘serif’ fonts for newspaper and magazine layout. There is a general tendency to conform to ‘sans serif’ options for online reading. Consider both viable options but adjust the font size to prevent a reader from having to zoom – use a minimum size 12 with a preference for size 14.

Gauge –Interactive elements within a publication are tracked by analytics. The more interactive the publication the more data that can be compiled. As an example, if an advertiser  embeds a 40 second video into their spread ad, and the average time spent on that page is 72 seconds, it is safe to assume that the video content was relevant to the reader and the ad impression was significant.

New assets needed for Apple Apps!

Valued Flip Page clients, Our Apps Team has been working diligently to service your apps in Apple's app store. Specifically, we have invested time and energy in 3 initiatives that support your app:

- Preparing for the 3.1 release upgrade - Renewing your push notification licenses with Apple (this is a behind the scenes service we perform for each of your apps annually) - Preparing the app program for iOS6 - Apple's soon-to-be-released system upgrade

In order to fulfill the app upgrade and push notification license renewals, Apple is requiring some additional assets for each app for iPad and iPhone. The required assets are listed below. Please email the assets to support@flippubs.com by Friday, August 17th. Upgrades to version 3.1 will occur in the order that assets are received. Apps for which we do not have these assets will continue to be offered in App Store, however, the app will no longer support push notifications and will not receive the 3.1 upgrade.

New specifications - Large Application Icon:  - required for all Apple apps. Only one new icon is required if your app publishes to both iPad and iPhone. The specifications for this icon are now 1024x1024 pixels JPEG or PNG. Do not scale up smaller artwork as it will appear pixelated and blurry.

Apple Newsstand Participants(Only):  New Specifications - Default Cover Art The specifications for this icon are now at least 1024 pixels on its longest side. See below for complete details.

Asset requirements : PNG Format A reasonable facsimile of the cover without representing a specific issue or App icons in use. Asset Size: 1024 pixels or greater on its longest side (iPhone, iPad) Aspect Ratio: Between 1:2 and 2:1

For additional information contact your sales representative!

Flip Page Publishing's 2012 MLB Projections (Central)

NL Central

6. Houston Astros – After the recent trade, it is official, the Astros are officially Happless. The good news is that this team is actually in a rebuild and after blowing up the roster has unequivocally dropped them to the basement of the Central.

5. Chicago Cubs – Chicago is a great place to take in a baseball game. It is unfortunate that the Chicago fans cannot get some kind of return on their commitment to their fabled cubbies. The Cubs have some great talent on the farm...the issue is the high priced lack of talent filling out the roster.

4. Milwaukee Brewers – it is hard to succeed when you lose of the premiere mashers in the league. The effects are felt up and down the lineup. There is also rumours bandying about losing Greinke. That’s a tough 1-2 punch in a brew filled belly.

3. Pittsburgh Pirates – I am not sure if Bonilla, Van Slyke and Bonds have returned to Pittsburgh under the assumed names ‘McCutchen, Presley and Jones’ a la Juan Carlos Oviedo/Leo Nunez but the results have been good. Realistically, this is a team that has received great pitching out of a number of castaways. Unfortunately, I think that the Bucs ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach won’t last another 50 games.

2. Cincinnati Reds – Kind of surprised to see the Reds leading the Central but someone has to be in first. The bullpen has been untouchable though. It will be interesting to see how the Reds fair without Votto in the lineup for an extended period although Frazier has filled in nicely. I anticipate a slight fall from grace without the Canadian clubber.

1. St. Louis Cardinals – Lightning always strikes twice. Isn’t that the saying? The Cards are just far enough out of the divisional lead to mimic last year’s comeback. Although it seems as though the Cards should have suffered offensively considerably without Pujols it has not been the case. Players have stepped up in his absence and it would not surprise me to see the Cards sneak back into the top spot.

Al Central

5. Kansas City Royals – A wealth of young talent scattered across the roster and more waiting in AAA with Myers but not ready to contend yet. This team will challenge shortly assuming they are able to fence in all of the talent long enough to put the jersey numbers on the same roster.

4. Minnesota Twins – The Twins have had a couple of bright spots (Plouffe, Revere) emerge among what has unfortunately been a lost season. Injuries to starting pitching coupled with a slow return to health have kept the Twins in the basement. However, they’ll manage to get out of the gutter as health and performance concerns fade.

3. Cleveland Indians – On paper, this team presents more like the teams it stands above. The OF has been solid (Damon not included) even without Sizemore for the 8^th straight year. Kipnis has been a solid MI as a rookie. Starting pitching has been anything but spectacular and aside from Chris Perez rants the bullpen hasn’t created much buzz either.

2. Chicago White Sox – Welcome back Adam Dunn and Jake Peavy. What a difference a year makes. Strong performances by De Aza, Rios, Pierczynski coupled with the above make you question Ozzie’s managing style. Sale has been dynamite as a starter and the bullpen has not faltered too often with Addison Reed closing shop.

1. Detroit Tigers – Charlie Sheen is not the only prominent member of society touting Tiger blood. The recent acquisition of Infante and Sanchez should only strengthen this team for a playoff push. They may roster a Prince but the Tigers will finish as Kings of the AL Central.

Got Variable Data? Announcing a new service - On Demand Editions

Valued Flip Page clients, Flip Page is pleased to announce our newest service - On Demand Editions. On Demand Editions utilize the same flip book technology used to deliver magazines and catalogues - but reflect customized content designed for an individual. We take a custom pdf - compiled from your variable data system - and convert it to a flip book that you can then email to the recipient or embed in a PURL.

On Demand Editions are useful for a variety of customized content:

• Request for Proposals (RFPs)
• Insurance Benefits Documents
• Travel itineraries
• Other types of custom publications

For more information, contact your sales representative!

Optimizing Print Media for Digital Display (part 2 of a series)

“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!

Flip Page 2D Feature Update

Valued Flip Page Customers,

In April of 2012, The Association of Magazine Media (MPA) released an article that outlined a set of voluntary guidelines to help publishers promote advertising on tablet devices. Also released was a set of recommended tablet metrics and data-released time frames.

We are pleased to announce that Flip Page has now included these MPA recommended tablet metrics in our analytics suite.  Each report contains a complete historic account of activity and can be accessed by selecting the Reader Profile tab under each account and selecting the subcategory, MPA-Suggested Tablet Metrics.

MPA Suggested Tablet Metrics included in Thermostats™:

1. Total Number of Readers: The total number of visits by a visitor who had not previously visited this issue during the calendar month.
2. Total Number of Sessions: The total number of times a user views any page of an issue for the first time in this session. A session begins on the first page view within a given domain and ends after 4 hours of idle time or when another issue is viewed or when cookies are cleared (or blocked).
3. Total Amount of Seconds Spent Per Reader:  The average number of seconds spent by a Reader per Session. This metric is calculated by summing the difference in time between two consecutive page views so long as that time does not exceed 1 hour. No time is recorded on the last page viewed because there is no subsequent page to measure against. Consequently, if only one page was viewed in a publication, there will be no time recorded for that view.
4. Average Number of Sessions Per Reader: The 'Total Number of Sessions' divided by the 'Total Number of Readers.'

A sample screen capture can be found below...

Please contact your account representative for more information.

Flip Page 2D Feature Update

Valued Flip Page clients, It is a little early to spill the beans but we will soon be launching a new tool that will integrate Variable Data capabilities with our Flip Page digital editions. If you are unfamiliar with the capabilities of Variable Data printing we suggest you consult with your local printer or you can gather some additional info here. We are excited about the launch of this incredible new direct marketing tool!

Stay tuned for more details!

Optimizing Print Media for Digital Display (part 1 of a series)

“Square Peg, Round Hole”

Have you ever witnessed a child playing with the educational toy pictured above. The concept is simple. The circles, squares, crosses, stars, triangles etc have a corresponding hole which allows the shape to slide through the lid into the container. However, each shape only fits within the ‘hole’ to which it is respectfully assigned.  There is no amount of ramming, jarring, or smashing that exhibits otherwise – I can verify from experience.

So how do Fisher Price and Flip Page relate? The principles guiding the toy and digital print media are very similar. You simply can’t fit a square peg into a round hole (assuming you don’t have a group of NASA engineers on staff).

We won’t bore you with technical gibberish. Instead, we’ll travel the Layman’s route. Let’s take, for example, an 8.5” x 11” layout since it is a common size for a variety of different print publications. In order to view an 8.5” x 11” publication in its native dimensions you would require a monitor that can account for at least 17” W x 11” H (as spreads) but that would not leave any ‘real estate’ for additional features made available in the top/bottom or side toolbars. Additional buffer space is needed to accommodate those items.  Let us consider the display options. A 21.5” monitor offers the dimensions 18.75” W x 10.5” H. In this case, the peg will not justifiably fit in the hole. On a slightly larger display device we could likely view it in its native dimensions but on anything smaller we cannot.

So where do we go from here? Ramming, jarring and smashing is inherently difficult in the digital realm.  But we are not at a total loss. Flip Page Publishing has purchased the rights to Wayne Szalinski’s ‘electromagnetic shrink ray’ to help with publications that are ideal in print but don’t tailor to digital. But even Wayne couldn’t prevent some issues with reduction based technologies. The shrink ray can manipulate the PDF down to fractions of it size but in doing so everything gets smaller. Images and text included. And really, that doesn’t make us any different than any PDF viewing software on the market. Depending on your personal settings PDF viewers either open the file in zoomed mode or full page mode. We prefer to load a publication in full page mode with the idea being that the reader will find the content and zoom as required.

And you may or may not be aware but we have tools that make the conversion from print to digital incredibly seamless even with the use of the ‘shrink ray’. We’ll cover those in the next newsletter.

Flip Page Publishing's 2012 MLB Projections (West)

NL West

5. Colorado Rockies – Even Tulo and CarGo can’t atone for the mess that the Rockies starters have put forward at this point in the season. Current starters are putting up a paltry team ERA equal in value to an Arian Foster TD scramble. Ageless contributors such as Helton and Scutaro need to be moved before their value R.I.M.’s out.

4. San Diego Padres – Never a good sign when the ERA of your starters who spend half their time pitching in PETCO closely resembles the starting ERA of starters who spend half their time in Coors Field. There is some promise in some of the younger positional players but the gaps in their lineup are as cavernous as their home ballpark.

3. Arizona Diamondbacks – a couple of years away from making a real impact in the West with some solid pitching in the minors, the D’backs have some holes to fill in the middle infield (Drew’s return should help).

2. Los Angeles Dodgers – an unheralded back of the rotation has been stellar, bullpen is solid, and if Kemp can regain or maintain health their lead in the West should take a while to be overtaken.

1. San Francisco Giants – Lincecum is currently weakest starter, bullpen is strong, positionally sound and although they lack a bonafide superstar they will finish atop the West.

AL West

4. Seattle Mariners – A couple decades have passed since the heydays of Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez. There is lots of hope on the horizon as Seattle has some great young talent on their roster and has ample available on the farm as well. Not going to contend in 2012 however.

3. Oakland A’s – Lowest payroll in the league makes for a good big screen story but does not make for consecutive years of success in MLB. Great scouting and talent finding just not able to afford it come pay day.

2. Los Angeles Angels – This is a two horse race and looks to be for years to come. The Angels brought in two of baseball’s prized free agents and although they started slow they have been lead recently be a rookie phenom. Will make a good run for the division crown, which will endure until the final couple of regular season games, but will suffer as a result of the poor start.

1. Texas Rangers – Not a surprise they have made 2 straight World Series appearances. Best group of bats one through to nine in baseball. And although they will reign victorious in the AL West a third straight trip to the final days of October will be daunting.

Rollovers...Not the Vehicular or Canine Command type

The word rollover has a number of different connotations or associations. In this case, there is no reason to call an ambulance or to break out the treats for Fido. In the realm of digital print media there is a single meaning that refers specifically to a unique interaction between a Flip Page publication and the consumer. Product Rollovers are identified by a pop-up or zoomed window as a consumer rolls (or maybe more accurately ‘mouse’s) over a highlighted product. A rollover generally provides another view of a product and also provides additional textual information (such as price, dimensions, weight etc) pertaining to the product that may not be included within the actual publication. The rollover feature is typically integrated into retail publications.  

What is a Retail Publication?

Retail is generally defined as the sale of goods or commodities directly to consumers or other businesses. Unlike publications that contain information, news, entertainment, editorial, or journalistic content, a retail publication typically focuses on the sale of goods or commodities. Accordingly, the official Flip Page definition of Retail Publication is any publication that focuses on the sale of goods or commodities. Common indicators of a Retail Publication are the presence of product images, product descriptions, prices, sku or product numbers, and the desire to have links to an e‐commerce portal. Common types of Retail Publications include flyers, inserts, and catalogs.

Product Rollovers offer a variety of options aside from simply linking a product to its corresponding product page. Click here for a Product URL sample.

               A basic rollover provides additional graphical and textual information that when clicked will add the product to a ‘virtual wishlist’ (click here for sample). The ‘wishlist’ is populated in the toolbar as each product is added by the consumer.

                A rollover to URL option provides additional graphical and textual information that when clicked will link to an external product page or e-commerce page (click here for sample).

                A rollover to Product Detail page provides additional graphical and textual information that when clicked will open a Product Detail page. The product detail page offers the consumer an opportunity to share the publication, add products to shopping list, view the shopping list, or return to the publication. The product detail page also provides additional product details such as price, category, brand, and details. The product detail page also populates similar products that fall in the same category as the product being viewed (click here for sample).

                The final rollover option involves linking a product to a corresponding Product Detail page as well as a URL link. This essentially provides the benefits of both the ‘rollover to URL’ and ‘rollover to Product Detail’ page options (click here for sample).

Rollovers can do a lot more than just provide additional textual content or images. Our rollover suite provides three optional external link locations. This means that a retailer can really expand on the description of the product with links to video, brochures, warranty information, nutritional information, a vendor’s website and more! (click here for sample).

Application

The interactive nature of a product rollover tucked inside a Flip Page edition provides a unique opportunity for retailers. Not only does the Flip Page version have the potential to reach consumers outside the traditional avenue of print but it now also offers an additional element to spur online and retail sales via 'wishlist' and 'shopping cart' functionality.

Offering expansive media to a consumer in a rollover in the form of video and linked content provides an avenue for furthering product knowledge and appeal.

In App RSS feeds!

Valued Flip Page clients, Do you have an RSS feed that you want to include In App? Or even multiple RSS feeds?

Now you can include direct RSS feeds using the InfoDeck feature of your branded App.

If you are already using the InfoDeck for another website - no problem! The Cover Gallery and Issue InfoDecks now operate independently and can be setup with different site information.

This feature is available to all App versions and does not require an upgrade to take advantage of this too.

Contact your account representative for more information!

The Third Generation iPad and App version 3.0

Many of you have been asking about the New iPad and how Flip Page's Apps perform on this new device. You'll be happy to know that our Apps already look good on the New iPad. You may have read recently that some magazines look pixelated on the New iPad. That's because some Apps are using a JPEG designed for the exact dimensions of the iPad 2. Flip Page has been providing readers with a higher resolution JPEG all along - so right out of the box our Apps look better than they did on the iPad 2.

And yet, this is not the time to rest on our laurels!

Flip Page Announces App 3.0

App 3.0 will serve New iPad readers a crystal clear, full vector zoom pdf - without the initial JPEG, which is no longer necessary given the enhanced performance of the New iPad device. And even better, all of the archive issues will be presented in the same way - without the publisher having to do a thing.

And that is just the beginning of the enhancements we've made to the App. See below for the full announcement, as well as several resources for you in preparation of this new release.

These features are available to readers on the New iPad. Readers on earlier iPad versions will continue to receive content optimized for their device:

Crystal clear display – Your readers will flip through a full vector pdf with startlingly clear text and images. Apple calls the New iPad “Resolutionary” and this App will take full advantage of the color and clarity afforded you by this new device.

Auto update of archive issues – The App now will automatically serve up the full vector pdfs to your back issues as well. So there is no work on your end to apply these features against your older issues. Once again, we’ll do the heavy lifting.

Smaller file size –New iPad readers will appreciate that your App respects their space – storage space that is. Flip Page’s App 3.0 file sizes are actually SMALLER than earlier versions of our iPad App. For comparison, an issue that previously weighed in at 180 MB on the old App will now total about 80 MB's with version 3.0!

Faster download time – Smaller file size = Fewer megabytes to download.

Higher pixel resolution graphics – We were already planning an upgrade to our graphics and we took this opportunity to amp them up even more in App 3.0.

These features are available to all iPad devices:

Enhanced graphics – The New App has an upgraded Cover Gallery and contextual menus

Slide Shows – Slide shows setup in the digital edition now render In App as part of the base service.

Catalog rollovers – Sticky rollovers now render In App.

Download while asleep– No more waking up the iPad to “UnPause” issue downloading. Your screen may go dark but your App is continuing to work in the background delivering that new issue to the reader.

Want more information?

If you already have an App with us, you will receive a free upgrade to the new App. We just need some additional assets and information to we will be upgrading your App to this exciting new version for free.

If you have any questions with regards to the above, please contact your account representative!