Magazine Framework

Virtual Magazine Shelf

Swiping left and right on the shelf shows earlier and later issues. By default, the application opens on the most recent issue.

Buttons on the bottom show the purchase price, whether the magazine is saved offline (or the progress of the download as a percentage) as well as a “help” button that flips the cover over, revealing a list of frequently asked questions and ways in which your customers can contact you and our support desk with any enquiries regarding the application.

The optional subscription button launches an in-application window, allowing readers to pair an existing subscription to the iPad or iPhone application – pairing the subscription removes the paywall from all the editions in the magazine shelf.

Searchable Contents Page

At the press of a button the contents for each issue is brought up on screen. Users can scroll through the list of features in the magazine or choose to search. The search queries the titles, introductions and keywords for totally comprehensive results.

After clicking on a story the contents window closes and the application loads the first page (or spread if the device is in horizontal mode) relevant to that feature.

Flag articles with exclusive content by assigning appropriate tags in the Stonewash delivery area. This helps your readers understand which features have been enhanced for the iPad so they can jump straight to the best content.

High Resolution PDFs

Whether in portrait or landscape mode our PDF rendering engine can quickly display PDFs at the optimum resolution for the iPad, iPhone or iPhone 4′s Retina display.

Quick zoom and pan with the pinch and pull multi-touch gestures is fully supported and the PDF files re-render at the selected zoom level instantly, keeping text and images sharp and high quality.

A single tap anywhere on the screen to show the navigation bar, tap again to hide it for undisturbed reading and browsing.

Easy Read Articles

Provide your articles in an easy to read HTML based format within the application. When your readers are trying to read a feature or article, the relevant button in the navigation bar will allow them to load the text in a separate window. This easy to read format will ensure that even the longest of features can be enjoyed on the device.

The window allows users to alter the text size and reflow the article within the window. Publishers and editors are able to easily embed tables, graphics, images, and other formatting items into this view through a WYSIWYG editor in the Stonewash delivery area.

Intuitive Browsing

Turn the device landscape and the application will load the appropriate spread. The same pinch and pull features are available as in portrait mode, as are the article, contents and gallery in the identical frame.

Enabling the thumbnails toggle in the bottom right hand corner reveals the thumbnails pane (also available in portrait mode).

Flicking left and right over the thumbnails pane quickly shows users the makeup of your magazine and clicking on pages loads the appropriate page. In portrait mode, the thumbnails window is sensitive to which side of the spread the user clicks, loading the either the left or right single page.

If a reader views a page that does not have an article, video or image gallery associated, the corresponding buttons in the navigation bar are disabled and dimmed. This also means that on loading a page with these functions enabled, the illumination of the icons draws the user’s eye, ensuring they are aware of the extra content available to them.

Immersive Galleries

Allow readers to make full use of the iPad’s impressive display by placing assets into an optimised gallery.

The gallery can support an unlimited number of images per feature, optional captions and also supports high definition videos.

Using the tools and interface items perfected by Apple in their ‘Photos’ iPad application we have created a full screen photo browsing mode that allows users to view images full screen, rotate and zoom.

Gallery assets are created on the fly by scripts we have custom engineered for this specific application. It allows fine tuning of the image quality and download size to achieve the perfect balance between download time and quality instantly, even after your issue has been published.

Cross Platform

Our highly skilled, in-house developers are already working on the platform for Android tablets, the Blackberry Playbook and a number of other tablet, smartphone and web-based devices.

Thanks to the highly flexible way in which each issue’s files are stored and prepared for the current iPhone and iPad edition, we will be able to roll out the very same editions on new devices without the need to repurpose any content.

For information, development news and progress on new devices and the magazine framework, please visit the news page.

Development Roadmap

If you are looking to launch your magazine on tablets and smartphones then you should feel confident that the framework you choose will be under constant development.

We offer our clients the opportunity to shape future versions of the framework as well as have access to our development roadmap, showing what changes and updates we are adding and which platforms we’re working to support.

Setup

Tablet