affinity publisher Flipbook

[RedSnapper]

Is it possible to create a Flipbook in Publisher? If not has anyone have recommendations how to do it? I write a monthly newsletter for my photographic society so only interested in free options. Thanks. 

[GarryP]

Many people will have different ideas about what a ‘flipbook’ should look like so it might be good if you can say more specifically what you want.

[RedSnapper]

The newsletter is in  PDF and I thought it would be nice to email it so it can be opened like a book where you turn each page like a magazine.

[GarryP]

That’s not what I would have thought of as a ‘flipbook’, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_book

That aside, Publisher can’t add any ‘special effects’ to your PDF, such as page turn animations. Static pages only, at the moment.
I have no idea if any such functionality might be planned but I can’t see it being a high priority given all the other feature requests.
Having said that, feel free to make a feature request and see what happens. You never know.

Personally I wouldn’t waste much time on doing that sort of fancy stuff that people might not notice (and may have overridden in their PDF Reader or browser for personal reasons). Better to use the time getting the content correct and looking nice I’d say.

[MikeW]

You could get a free account on Issu, upload it there, and have a downloadable version from Issu for those that want a pdf.

While there are free ways to create a flipbook, none can be emailed and need to be hosted on a web server because of the shear number of files needed. Some flipbook software (not free) can make executable versions but are meant to be used via a cd, usb stick, etc.

[RedSnapper]

Thank you Gary and Mike for your comments. 

The idea came to me when I received an email from my local theatre saying the new season's brochure was available. But the link takes me to their website.  https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/brochures/autumn-season-2019/?utm_source=NewWolsey.Updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10569179_19 autumn - MAIN Full Brochure Email&utm_content=A19&dm_i=1P0N,6AJ8B,9QV1YZ,OU6T0,1 

It seems too much hassle to pursue further. It was worth investigating though. I've learnt something new. Thank for your advice.

[MikeW]

Yep. They have a paid Issuu account. 

QuarkXPress has a self-hosted html5 export. But you still need a website for hosting it.

I suspect that at some point in time, APub will have html5 output. How long until such a thing is implemented is another issue. 

[RedSnapper]

Thanks.

[v_kyr]

Quote

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks allow you to jump to specific pages, files or web addresses (URLs) with a single click.

About hyperlinks

Hyperlinks make it easy to navigate between areas in your publication or to access external resources – web pages, or files stored on the reader's local storage. Email addresses can be also linked to, which will launch the reader's email app and set up a message to a specified email address.

Hyperlinks created in Publisher are included when your document is exported as a PDF. Additionally, if you create a TOC or index and request hyperlinks on export, the TOC or index will be furnished with hyperlinks as appropriate.

• APub help - Hyperlinks

[Fixx]

On 5/2/2020 at 5:06 PM, GarryP said:

Publisher can’t add any ‘special effects’ to your PDF, such as page turn animations

I have not yet seen any solution for having page turn effect in PDF. If you can point to an example, please do. So far all have been HTML5, not PDF.

[thomaso]

> "I have not yet seen any solution for having page turn effect in PDF. If you can point to an example, please do. So far all have been HTML5, not PDF. "

Flash/.swf was able to get embedded in a PDF. – Or a bunch of movies, one for each page turn, started by user click actions. – Both not quite useful, but possible.

[MikeW]

Flash is dead and doesn't work for mobile devices. 

[v_kyr]

There are a bunch of services like this here (flipsnack) or software (Flip Builder) which do take a PDF as input and then try to build some HTML5 based flipbook out of it.

[Wosven]

The interesting point in those services, is to not send or give a link to a PDF file, so people won't share it (interesting  if you sell your issues), and will have access with a subscribtion for exemple.

Another interesting feature is for the app to be able to display text/articles like flowable text without images, that you can easily enlarge and read on a smartphone, and adding a TOC to navigate the content if you don't want to look at the pages (for example with a newspaper edition).

If it's only to get fancy effects in the corners or shadows to simulate a real magazine, that's really not needed and will just impede the reading experience.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, Wosven said:

The interesting point in those services, is to not send or give a link to a PDF file, so people won't share it ...

Some online services like Google Books or specific online IT-Magazines etc. do use images for showing up book/article pages in such cases.

[Wosven]

7 hours ago, v_kyr said:

do use images for showing up book/article

Long ago (I don't use it anymore), Zinio had a similar way with magazines in its apps from what I saw with backup of my phone, but was able too to show the articles as text. Depending of the services (and work you want to do), you can choose different options.

The problem with images or fixed size text, is the need to zoom appropriately to read, and if you need to zoom more on a phone, to switch to landscape view and zoom again. Not always easy to go to the next page.

With PDF, at least Adobe reader on phone can automatically show the text as reflowable on some document.

With reflowable text, you can have a different font, like a serif one that'll be easier to read on screen. Font optimized for readability on screen are different than usual fonts for print.

[GarryP]

Fixx: I didn’t say that PDFs could have any ‘special effects’. I just said that Publisher couldn’t add any. I hope this makes it clearer.

[Fixx]

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

Fixx: I didn’t say that PDFs could have any ‘special effects’. I just said that Publisher couldn’t add any. I hope this makes it clearer.

I know, sorry. I just emphasized that using "special effects" is not common or easy task with any other tools either. Currently the fad is to make such effects to a web-based lookalike HTML5 publication, which is PDF no more. (And not really usable, IMHO.)