System Update: Google+1, Vectorization Beta, Improved Print/Download

We’ve updated our system again with some great additions!

Google+1 Page Widget Helper

You can now integrate the fastest growing social sharing network into your digital editions with the addition of Google+1 page widgets.

Using the page editor>page widgets, enter a URL to share, and choose the layout of the button and end users will be able to share that URL from a page of your Flipbook Edition pub.

NOTE:  Currently Google+1 is not supported on mobile devices.  This lack of support is currently Google’s decision, you can find more information on this subject here:

Supported Desktop Browsers: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1151309

No Support on Mobile Forum:  http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=6da5296e3d7207e2&hl=en

Forced Vectorization of PDF pages

When you upload a PDF, our system breaks down the objects of each PDF page and rebuilds a SWF page for view on the Flipbook Desktop Flash experience.  Our system tries to find a happy medium between quality of conversion and file size to ensure optimal performance.

Sometimes this means our system needs to rasterize (convert to image copy) complex areas of the page, which sometimes produces less than optimal results (ghost lines, font display problems, pixelated areas of pages not seen in)

We have now implemented an option you can turn on/off at the title level, which will tell our system to force to convert those vector objects, within acceptable limits to make sure file sizes don’t get to large and affect performance.  This should lead to crisper lines on your vector graphics and less conversion problems.

This is a private beta phase feature so if you do not see this option, please contact support who can turn it on for your account.

The Force Vectorization option can be accessed by (refer to below screenshot):

1. Edit your title and go to Advanced>Parser Defaults
2. Select Checkbox “Force Vectorization to a maximum page size of” and choose your maximum size from the dropdown menu.
   • You can choose from 400K to 1MB
   • This size defines the maximum page our system will try to create to render all vector objects
   • If the attempt leads to a page that is larger than the max size defined, the system will simply convert the file as it normally would (rasterizing complex areas)
3. Vectorization Engine
   • Choose the standard engine as a default
   • Choose the alternate beta engine if you continue to see conversion problems with the standard vectorization engine.  This engine references a difference conversion library that may help in some areas.

IMPORTANT NOTES ON FORCED VECTORIZATION:

• The forced vectorization tool will only apply to future uploads only (new PDF uploads or page replaces)
• If you initially see problems with an upload, you can delete the issue right away to get the license back and retry with Vectorization turned ON
• You can also perform page replacements (up to 30% of total pages) with vectorization turned ON to fix any conversion problems
• If you don’t want to force vectorization any more, simply UNCHECK the “Force Vectorization” checkbox

Improved Viewer for Print/Download

Now when you choose to print or download select pages, we’ve made it a lot easier for users to select the pages they want

• The current page viewed in the flipbook will be auto selected in the page selection thumbnail view
• Page numbers display below the thumbnails to make it easier to find the page of interest
• NOTE: There is still a limit of 24 pages for direct print and download select pages

As always, we encourage your feedback…