This week we’re releasing version 3.6.0. This version is mainly focused at providing the Elements templates with improvements in text rendering accuracy. The Elements template is fantastic to use when converting PDF documents to HTML5. It now takes rendering accuracy even further by combining SVG together with HTML5. It still provides the option of animating headers/body text as well as images, shapes and other figures inside of the imported PDF document.
The template still offers great performance in improving SEO for your PDF documents as well as allowing Google to translate the converted publications if needed. We hope you’ll enjoy the improvements in this release.
Version 3.5.9 is being made available today. This version is focused on improved interactivity and also features a new sub template to the Elements template which has been requested. Please see the points below for more detail
It is now possible to import image files directly into FlowPaper to create a publication.
We’ve added a number of bug corrections and improvements to the edit mode of the desktop publisher.
Undo/Redo improved in edit mode for the Zine & Elements templates
Improved performance when dragging and resizing objects in edit mode
It is now possible to choose a ‘Flip-Horizontal’ page animation mode when choosing template under the Elements category
Improved edit mode for the Zine template with a revamped properties box on the right-hand side of the editing window allowing easier modification of properties and sizes & positions of elements
It is now possible to add ‘spotlight images’ to your publications. These will appear as clickable round links that can be placed inside pages to give an indication that something more is available to the viewer
We’re pleased to present the latest version of FlowPaper - featuring shape animations and a number of bug fixes and improvements. Here are the major points introduced to this version:
You can now apply animations to any major shape/vector illustration inside your publication. This is especially useful for charts, graphs and vector backgrounds backgrounds. Click on ‘Edit’ when you have imported your PDF using any of the ‘Elements’ templates. You will find the shape selections available in the editing area, which you then can apply animations to.
Added support for PDF widgets when importing publications into FlowPaper
It is now possible to use more generous link matching when importing Zine publications so that links without www. will be identified
It is now possible to disable search engine indexing for your publications. This setting can be found in the settings section on the left
In the next few days, you’ll see version 3.5.7 appearing in the download section of the account area.
This version of FlowPaper updates the rendering engine of the desktop publisher, which affects the aspects of document conversion related to things like output optimization, color and text accuracy as well as anything else related to PDF rendering. For most of you, this release just means that you’ll be able to import your documents and process them faster. Some of you might see slight improvements in things like color tables and font quality and some of you, will be able to convert your documents in a more optimized and more accurate manner.
If you are experiencing any rendering issues as a result of this release then don’t hestitate to letting us know. We will be monitoring our inboxes and error reports with extra attention for anything reported.
As we’re entering the new year, we want to reach out and send a special thank you to all our customers who continued to choose us as their digital publication platform for 2021! We have a number of exciting features that are due to be released this year. We’re starting off with a easy going platform update which improves stability and performance across all products.
Upgraded the electron runtime which powers the installed version of the desktop publisher to the latest version. This improves stability and performance to the installed version of FlowPaper Desktop Publisher
Improved search loader indicator for Zine
It is now possible to extract and animate image inside the Elements template
Undo/redo now available in the reflow/mobile first template
Adjustments to font scaling in FlowPaper Zine to optimize sharpness
Adjusted video embeds to make sure they play without having to click them more than once. This had to be adjusted after Google changed their browser policy around autoplaying videos
Improved page flipping speed in Zine
Upgraded the Electron framework for the desktop publisher, improving overall stability and performance
A fix was applied where the language of the UI wasn’t passed through properly to the text-to-speech functionality in accesisble elements documents
Corrections for autoplaying video clips
Adjustments to device pixel ratio for optimal image quality in Zine
A number of improvements added to the mobile first template in both stability and accuracy
With release 3.5.4, FlowPaper has added the ability to add and modify images that are imported to using the Elements template. These can be converted to both flipbook publications as well as sliding publications/presentations. This release allows you to enter edit mode and click on each individual image and apply animation settings as well as other behaviour to the image.
Each image in your PDF will be marked out as “Embedded Image” once imported. In order to apply animations to an image, the image needs to be extracted into an individual object by the publisher. Because images are sometimes embedded using clipping, some of the image properties may change when this happens, so in case you see differences, this would be why. Once the image has been extracted- it will appear under its own filename in the images/ folder in the publication.
Steps to apply an animation to your flipbook publication
To add an animation to an image, follow these steps:
Open the desktop publisher and select a PDF document to import
Select the 'Elements' template once you have picked the PDF document to import. The document will now import. Fonts and images will be converted to HTML5 elements. This usually takes less than a minute to complete.
Click 'Edit' on the top right corner to enter edit mode
Select one of the imported images. If this image was imported from the PDF then the label will read 'Embedded Image'.
Apply your image animation. You will be asked if you want to apply the change to the embedded image before proceeding
Do you want to create a hotspot for your catalog when publishing your PDF Catalogs online?
For starters, a Hotspot is an active area in a document that you can link to different areas of the document, to another document, or to a URL. You can apply hotspots to graphic objects, images, anchored frames, graphic frames, text frames, text lines, equations, and even to your PDF catalogs when you are publishing them online.
Make your PDF Catalogs more customer engaging by adding Hotspots with FlowPaper. It is guaranteed swift work! Fast and easy!
Simple steps to successfully add Hotspots to your PDF Catalogs:
Open the publication on the page where you want your hotspot link to appear.
To do this, start by switching to the edit mode in the top right corner.
Select the add-link button and a pop-up menu will appear.
Paste or write your unique product URL link in the top field column and under the style settings, make sure both the show link icon and the show mouse over fields are selected. Then add your desired mouse over text in the appropriate field and lastly, click ok and you will be brought back to your catalog.
Draw the area where you want your hotspot link to appear in the publication using your mouse.
Preview your added hotspot link.
To do this, switch from edit mode to preview mode and hover above the linked area and you will see it being active.
Adding Hotspots to your catalog is a great idea because it does not only increases customer engagement but it also adds the ability to track link clicks, which means that when someone clicks on your product with a hotspot link, it will appear in google analytics.
If you want to add more Hotspots, just repeat all the above steps. Do not forget to set up your Google Analytics tracking code!
It is now possible to adjust/add ALT tags to Elements publications for improved accessibility
Quality improvements in output for the flatten/compress functionality
The Zine & Elements templates now supports output in WEBP image format. The templates optimizes quality and loading time further while at the same time supporting old browsers which do not yet support WEBP
Performance optimizations to the Elements template to be in line with the latest updates to the Chrome browser
It is now possible to add and adjust the Zoom Read Snap areas in the Elements template via the edit mode inside the desktop publisher
Added more settings to the GDPR form for the Zine and Elements templates
Tighter integration with the account area with the desktop publisher has added a new dashboard list view. This makes it easier to access analytics, heatmaps and options for sharing/embedding
A number of improvements for text conversion accuracy to the Elements template
Fixed an issue where thumbnails were not showing properly in landscape publications when using the Zine template
Fixed a number of issues related to manually importing text using the reflowable template
Fixed an issue where Zine was rendering text from the next page in very specific scenarios when optimizing the output using flatten
Improved support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai language in the Elements template
It is now possible to share a publication workspace with another FlowPaper user (available for the installed version of the desktop publisher). This is available for Creative and Team license holders.
Improvements to the ‘read on’ mode available in the Elements template
Fixed an issue where added iframe content wouldn’t use the “maximize on click” functionality properly
Fix for Right to left publications not loading properly in some scenarios when using the Zine template
It is now possible to add and customize a GDPR/Cookie Consent message prior to showing your publication
Compatibility corrections for Apple’s latest EPUB3 format
Fixed an issue where downloading an Elements publication as compressed zip file for custom domain distribution failed in the web version of the desktop publisher
A number of WCAG 2.1/Accessibility improvements added to the Elements template
Improvements to text grouping which improves reading order detection
