MagWorld AIR application

The publishing industry is in turmoil, for years the death of the paper publishing was announced as the internet would replace traditional media. But with the introduction of Tablet computers the publishing industry finally seems to have found a business model that could work and are hard at work to reclaim their position. MagWorld helps publishers to make their transition from pure paper medium to a digital enriched medium.

De Monsters created an AIR application that can be used on Windows, OS X, Linux and Android devices to read digital magazines that can be enriched with video, audio and interactive content. MagWorld first started with an iPad application that laid out a great benchmark in terms of a reading experience. We set out to bring this same fluid experience of browsing through a magazine on Windows desktops, OS X desktops and Android tablets all from one application. The result is one AIR application that works on all these platforms and let's users access their magazines from any of their devices.

Gallery: Digital magazines

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With the MagWorld AIR and iOS applications, hundreds of magazines are available to readers on all major digital platforms.

High resolution versions of popular magazines are available for digital download. All the content that is available in the paper version of the magazine is also present in the digital copy.

You browse through the magazine by simple dragging the pages in a horizontal motion. This can be done with the mouse on your desktop, or with your hands on touch devices.

We spent a lot of time tweaking the user experience. A flick of the mouse or finger is enough to navigate to the next page, but only when it is intended to do so. Unfortunately these small details are left out by most other agencies, heavily crippling the user experience.

If the device you are using supports multi-touch, you can zoom the page by pinching. On a desktop you can zoom the same way by scrolling. Double tapping or double clicking both zooms and centers the page.

All texts are rendered within the app, giving a very crisp reading experience on any zoomlevel. Since the images have been prepared for printing, they also remain of very high quality when you zoom in.

On top of the normal page, publishers can add video, audio and interactive content to enrich the reading experience.

All video's can be viewed fullscreen whether they are embedded in the magazine, streamed from a publishers website or streamed directly from youtube. If it is available, the video will be displayed in HD quality.

The standard way to read a magazine is as a spread. If a user resizes the application to a narrower size, the application wil switch to a single page view. On tablets this switch is made by rotating the tablet.

To give the magazine the focus it deserves, the interface when you open a magazine hides as soon as the magazine is loaded. With a single touch or click you can get the interface in view again. Using the slider on the bottom you can navigate through the magazine in a quick way.

With Adobe AIR we were able to create one application that serves Windows, OS X, Linux and Android devices. On desktop systems traditional input such as the mouse and keyboard can be used. On touch enabled devices gestures are recognized and used. There is only one code base needed to support these different platforms which makes the application easy to develop, test and support.

One cross-platform application

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The publisher does not need to edit their workflow at all to get magazines into the MagWorld application. The same pdf that goes to the printer is converted to SWF that is then enriched with extra content.

On OS X the application acts as a native application using specific desktop features Adobe AIR offers, the base code is pure ActionScript 3.

The application can also use full screen mode to really let you focus on the magazine itself. This also works for video.

On Windows the application looks and behaves exactly the same. The only difference you can find are the differences between OS X and Windows, such as folder structure, installation directory and the way the window itself is displayed.

Full screen mode works exactly the same on Windows and Linux as it does on OS X. And if your Windows device supports multi touch, gestures can be used to navigate through the application as well.

The same AIR application can also be installed on an Android powered device. All the mouse gestures are then replaced by touch gestures. The functionality of the application is exactly the same though.

The rotation of the device triggers whether you see one page or a spread, on desktop systems this is determined by the aspect size that you give the application.

As one code base was used to target all these platforms, MagWorld is now able to offer their service to a much larger range of customers without having to invest huge numbers of hours for each individual platform both in the initial phase as for future developments.

MagWorld offers a very easy way for publishers to make the transition from a traditional distribution process to a digital distribution. The same pdf that is used for printing, is used by Magworld to convert to a digital magazine. Magworld converts the pdf to a special swf file which is enriched by an extra layer of dynamic content. The main advantage for the publisher, is that they do not have to alter their magazine at all, all they have to do is add content that is unique for the digital platforms. As these costs are minimal, the magazines can be offered for a reduced price to the consumer which means everybody wins.

5. Case: Nemo 7. Case: Wall Illustration

Return to projects Gallery: MagWorld Gallery: Cross platform

MagWorld

Client:	MagWorld
Project:	A crossplatform application to read digital magazines on your desktop or tablet.
Work:	Adobe AIR
Platforms:	Windows, OS X, Android

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