How can I create a real magazine?

How to create a tablet magazine

• Converting a paper magazine to a tablet magazine: What do you have to keep in mind, and what are easy ways to do this? I've been asked to evaluate if an existing company magazine could be converted into a tablet magazine version. The magazine already exists in PDF format. The goal would be to have a simple, electronic version that looks nice and is easily browsable/readable on tablets; I am not looking to completely overhaul the paper version with interactive bells and whistles. It may, but does not have to be an app. Do you have any pointers on how to do this? What are the pitfalls?

• Answer:

  Please use an app or a web app. PDFs are nice for their universal compatability, however we must keep in mind what PDFs were designed for: document portability. The container is attached to paper sizes. This is coming from the user side, not the professional side. Thus I cannot tell you how to do it, rather I can tell you that from the user side, PDFs are not ideal, at least on iDevices, as the text does not automatically reflow. Perhaps a better way to put it is that reading a PDF on an iDevice is like looking at the PDF through a rectangular cutout that has a document beneath it. Lots of finger acrobatics involved. As far as interfaces go, it's hard to beat Pulse for navigation of sections (vertical scrolling) and articles (horizontal scrolling). Also, TheBrowser has created a mostly-usable app that aggregates content from a variety of sources. It's a different animal than what you are looking at, however I use it every day and find it to be a highly functional of reading newspaper and magazine content. Cheers on not wanting to overhaul it. I can't think of a great example where that has worked. Please ensure whatever your solution, that it reflows the text based on the device being used. Content fans everywhere will thank you. Oh, and the other big feature I would say (coming from London) is offline reading. It's really annoying to read services without offline reading in a place where data access is not present on the tubes, and questionably present on trains.