1. Digital Magazines
with Adobe InDesign
Publishing with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
Preparing magazine for Issuu.com
Preparing magazine for another publishing vendor
Presented by Tim McKenna
azraelgroup.com | @AzraelGroup

2. What are
digital magazines?
Digital magazines (or more generally digital publications) are web
and mobile based formats for content delivery. Unlike a responsive
website, digital magazines usually are fixed content and they work
offline. Many digital magazines mimic traditional print media, with
the inclusion of page turning effects. Unlike traditional media, digital
magazines can include rich media, such as videos, animations, audio
files, etc. Digital magazines can be a powerful tool in the hands of
creatives, as they have multiple uses.

3. Digital magazine vs.
Responsive Website
With the advent of the responsive web and mobile first thinking, there
are some unique differences that distinguish the two formats.
• Works offline (DPS version)
• offers better subscription
• No coding
• Still require internet connection for
embedded video
• Some services still require Flash Player
(though most are moving to HTML5)
• Requires work to setup for multiple devices
Pro Con

4. What can they
be used for?
• Interest magazines (skateboarding, food, music)
• Product user’s guides
• Sales presentation tools
• Retail catalog
• Internal newsletters/organization magazine
• Trade magazines (restaurant industry/farming industry)
• Design portfolios
• Textbooks and manuals
• and many, many more

5. Method 1:
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) is their
own publishing platform that allows you to
build Ipad ready apps for your readers. The DPS
components can be added to your InDesign
installation by running update. If you are Creative
Cloud user, you already have them installed.
There are several levels of the DPS; Single Edition,
Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition

6. Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
• iOS compatible
• App like behavior
• Published on the Apple App Store
• Completely encapsulated experience
• Works offline (all rich media )
• Easy to monetize
• Expensive ( CC subscription + DPS subscription + Apple Developer Program
subscription )
• Only Mac based
• Single Edition - only iPad device
• Published only through app store
• Not readable on iPhone
Pro
Con

7. Method 2:
Issuu
Issuu is a social newsstand that allows
people to upload and publish their
digital magazines for anyone to read.
While it lacks some of the rich media
features that DPS can offer, it makes
up for being available on any device
and any platform.

8. Issuu
• Works on any device/web-based service
• highly embeddable (socia media/website/email/API)
• Easy to use analytics
• Free up to 5 magazines.
• Somewhat expensive, $40 a month once you go beyond 5 magazines
• Pay to activate addons ($10/month branded portal, $30/month customized reader)
• Cannot embed rich media natively, you link out to it
• Does not work offline
Pro
Con

9. Method 3:
Dedicated Publishing Platforms
Dedicated publishing platforms offer
the best of both worlds. Like DPS,
you can embed rich media natively
and like Issuu, you can view it on
all devices since it is web based.
There are many different dedicated
publishing platforms and the offer
different features and pricing plans.

10. Dedicated Publishing Platform
• Some can embed rich media
• Some offer branded portals and readers
• Some work online and offline
• Some offer better ecommerce solutions
• Some offer great subscription rates
• Price range varies wildly
• Some have really wonky interfaces and are not intuitive
• Some still run on Flash
• Some of real bad customer support
• Most do not offer a wide audience pool
Pro
Con

11. Which service is best?
It really depends on what you are
looking to acheive and what your
market is. The one thing that stays
the same is having complete creative
control over the design, and that’s
why building your publication with
Adobe InDesign is the best option to
create stunning magazines.

12. What about...
epub format, iBooks, Interactive PDF’s,
Javascript frameworks, Adobe Flash,
even formatted responsive web
templates.There are many, many ways
to create digital publications. Some
can created with Adobe InDesign,
others...no.
Got a question and would like some
help? Email me and let’s talk.
hello@azraelgroup.com