How to Create Your PDF pages, and thumbnails for your App.
Your app is driven by PDF’s which is the simplest and most effective way to control your content. It’s quick and easy to create the PDF’s perfectly, but to get the best out of your App it’s essential you follow the instructions.
1. Output PDF
When outputting your PDF from Quark X Press, InDesign, or other publishing software, you need to change your PDF settings to output as follows. Also, avoid multiple layers as they may slow down your App.
Colour mode: Composite RGB
Fonts: All Embedded
Crop Marks: Off
Bleed: None
Resolution: At least 150dpi, ideally 264 dpi
PDF Type: Single Pages (no double page spreads) in one PDF document
Size: App will make your PDF fit all screens, if creating pages especially for App, ideal aspect ratio is 1536 (w) x 2048 pixels, which is 147.4mm x 197mm at 264 dpi (the resolution of the latest iPad)
2. How to Create your thumbnail
Thumbnail of your front cover swill appear on the home page of you App. Creating the thumbnails is quick and easy using Adobe Photoshop. Just follow the instructions below and then save as a .png file ready to upload to your App.
i. Take a screenshot of your cover, or open an image of your cover.
ii. Select the foreground colour in your colour palette and change to web colour 333333
iii. Under the ‘Image’ menu, select ‘Image Size…’ and change the width to 122 pixels. Press OK.
iv. Under the ‘Image’ menu, select ‘Canvas Size…’ and change the height to 180 pixels. Select the up arrow on the ‘Anchor:’ option, and select ‘Foreground’ on the ‘Canvas extension colour:’ option. Then press OK.
v. Select ‘Save as’ under the ‘File’ menu, and save the file as a PNG file.
vi. Your saved file is now ready to upload, you can close your original image (no need to save here as your PNG file is already saved)
NB: The background colour is the same as the background of the home page of your App, and by ensuring the file is 122 (w) x 180 pixels, your thumbnails will display in the correct proportions on all known devices.
3. How to Add Interactivity to Your PDF
You can enhance the users experience of your pages by adding interactivity. It’s very quick to do and you can make web links live, add email links and embed video streaming from YouTube. If you need to optimise your PDF, do so before adding interactivity. Click the How to Optimise Your PDF link in the support tab for more information.
i. Interactivity is added using the ‘Link’ tool under the ‘Tools’ > ‘ Content’ > ‘Add or Edit Interactive Object’ button:
ii. Once you click on the ‘Link’ button, select the area of your PDF you wish to make interactive.
iii. Then click on the ‘Open a web page’ radio button as below
(note: open a web page is selected for all interactivity including email and video)
iv. To add a web link, type the domain but you must include http://www or links may cause your app to crash. As below.
v. To add an active email link, type the email address after ‘mailto:’ and then after the email address you must include a subject. You do this by adding ?Subject= plus the name of your subject, after the email address. See example below.
vi. To embed YouTube video that will bring a fantastic user experience to your App, you news to select the full web address of the YouTube link, then change ‘http’ to embed as per the example below.
