Tag: Read

Issue #3 of Jabber Now Available

Digital Publishing, eBook, LearnNo Comments

Quark’s third quarterly issue of their free iPad magazine app Jabber is filled with useful information and inspirational articles. It’s also a showcase for how people are using QuarkXPress to create impressive iPad apps.

This issue focuses on the business of digital publishing, including articles that illuminate the current landscape for anyone interested in making iPad apps and EPUB-based books.

I was especially impressed by the real-world explanations of “the tech hype cycle”, and delighted that they included my article about their acquisition of Mobile IQ. (It’s also nice that they included an ad for my free book on digital publishing.)

If you’re at all interested in digital publishing, I encourage you to soak up the valuable information in issue #3 of Jabber! Further information is in Quark’s press release is below.

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Quark’s iPad Magazine Dedicates Third Issue to Enterprise Digital Publishing

Jabber Explores the Challenges that Corporate Publishers Must Overcome to Create Sustainable, Relevant, and Successful Digital Experiences

DENVER, CO – June 21, 2012 – Quark announced today the availability of the third issue of Jabber, the iPad app for designers and creative professionals that rethinks the digital magazine. Built with QuarkXPress® 9 and App StudioTM, the third issue features even more interactivity that takes advantage of what’s possible with the iPad. With scrollable layouts, slideshows, video, pop-ups, and HTML5, Jabber issue three includes:

  • Advice on getting started with digital publishing and the most important questions to ask when selecting a digital publishing vendor
  • Insight on how the financial services industry is leveraging XML to automate tablet publishing
  • Instruction on how to integrate HTML5 into an iPad app
  • Digital publishing best practices from a leading German retail catalogue publisher
  • Tips for designing for the iPad and much more

Jabber is now available for free on the iTunes Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jabber/id477757782?mt=8.

To learn more about QuarkXPress and App Studio, please visit: http://www.quark.com/Products/AppStudio/.

About Quark

Founded in Denver in 1981, Quark’s vision was to create software that would lay the foundation for modern publishing. For 30 years, Quark has delivered on that promise. Quark’s dynamic publishing solutions are setting new standards in automated cross-media publishing by combining the power of XML with flexible layout and design to automate the delivery of customized, intelligent communications across print, the Web, and digital media.

Dynamic Publishing IS Your Future

Commentary, MediaNo Comments

For those of us who are responsible for the direction of our workflows (and that includes freelancers and in-house production people!), the final few weeks of the year often provide time for reflection and planning.

With all the changes now facing publishers and designers (e-books, websites, Web graphics, content management, multiple output channels, etc.), I’m feeling like we’re experiencing a second “desktop publishing revolution”. Here’s why:

• The tools are different from those previously included in our workflows

• The needs of our clients have expanded dramatically — along with the possibilities for our shared success.

That’s why I feel it’s vital to educate ourselves about new tools to handle the current reality of our workflows — which are quickly becoming out of control. The best term I’ve heard that describes our new publishing reality is “dynamic publishing”.

I’ve been deeply enjoying reading the brief series of articles by Georg Obermayr that concisely explains the challenges and solutions for dynamic publishing. Georg Obermayr is the Technical Director for the ADVERMA agency and a user of Quark Publishing System 8. His articles appear in the German-language Cleverprinting Newsletter, and are reproduced in several languages here:

Introduction

Template Creation for Dynamic Publishing

The Power of Publishing Systems

Each article takes just a few minutes to read, so I encourage you to sit with your favorite beverage and enjoy feeling simultaneously relieved and inspired to embrace our new dynamic publishing revolution (or DTP Revolution, part 2). Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

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The advance of “dynamic publishing” cannot be stopped. It will fundamentally change the work done by agencies and designers.

Dynamic publishing systems are not intended to spit out monotonous industrial catalogues, but rather to create products with ambitious graphics and typography without compromise.

Traditional publishing processes suddenly seem inconvenient and old-fashioned.

Working with a publishing system offers agencies and clients many advantages and makes collaboration fun in a new way.

Below the surface, a publishing system’s workflow mirrors the conventional project workflows that are already familiar to content creators.

After a short time, people will expect these capabilities as the norm.

Inspiration for Package Design

Book, MediaNo Comments

Package design can be fraught with challenges. It has to be an attention grabber, it needs to look good and make consumers want to buy it or learn more about it. For inspiration, pick up a copy of For Sale: Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design by John Foster. This $26 book features many successful designs for CDs, books, beverages, and other products, and gives you insight into the designer’s creative process.

Other useful resources include 100 Visual Packaging & Labels by Ann Ford and 100 Visual Formats, Folds, & Bindings by Matt Woolman.