Repurposing Print Projects and iBooks Author

You can see my iBooks project at http://1hutch.com/digital-publication-project/

This week we were introduced to digital publications and how to create one using iBooks Author.  The assignment was a 10-page project to be created in iBooks Author.  After starting the project, it appeared to be as simple to use as PowerPoint with its drag and drop method to embed images and media.  Widgets can be used to implement the structure of iBook’s title page, chapters, sections, and pages.

A digital publication vs a print publication has a different workflow when it comes to how the content is displayed.  Printing publication is published as one entity, whereas digital must allow for the technology used by the person reading it.  Creating it in XML early on in the workflow will help to provide content for multiple channels.  Consideration also must be given to whether it will be displayed in landscape or portrait view.  Of course, there is also the concern with the application used to published it and propriety software.  iBooks can be read only with the iBook reader application or Apple products.  iBooks may be exported as a PDF, but this may have limitations on the embedded material; such as an image gallery will only show the first image.

The following tips from research about digital publication, increase leading, black font slightly larger than web for easy readability, splitting large graphics into several pieces, using lots of white space for eye rest, and adding interactivity were helpful.  I think the most interesting advice was to use fewer words and more image because we have become a more visual-content culture.  I always baulk and exit websites that are text heavy with no images to peak my interest.

A few internet articles that I found helpful on iBooks were Bakari Chavanu’s, “How to Write and Publish Your First iBook Using iBooks Author” written March 31, 2015, which can be found at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/write-publish-first-ibook-using-ibokks-author/.

The other is Harry McCracken’s, “iBooks Author is the Most Interesting Apple Software You Aren’t Using” with Time Magazine written May 30, 2014 at http://time.com/107725/ibooks-author/.