Many people still wonder about how to create a magazine or a magazine cover. Particularly in the digital world where there are so many online magazine makers, websites and guides all purporting to be the best to make magazine creations online. With all of this information out there how do you make a choice as to which software to use and which one is most suitable for your business? In this guide we will outline what you need to look for before you start producing your digital magazine.
Long before the design process begins, you need to make a number of decisions and the importance of planning cannot be emphasised enough. You should identify the platforms or magazine makers that you would like to use and the devices that you would like to target. Perhaps you want a magazine look that offers a single or multi folio digital magazine app, a subscription model or several ways to distribute your magazine app. You also need to decide how interactive the magazine will be, the format, whether you are looking to produce a digital replica magazine or a fully interactive publication. Depending on your graphic design skills, you can choose an appropriate software.
Digital Replica Magazines
The most popular format for the development of an electronic magazine is the digital replica. When learning how to create a magazine, it is important that you understand the different variations of online publication. Sometimes referred to as a print replica or interactive replica, it is very close to the style of a printed magazine but it is presented as a PDF. Very simple to make, they can include as much or as little functionality as you wish. At the most basic level they can simply read like a print magazine. The more advanced digital replica publications can include elements such as audio and video, hyperlinks and slideshows. One of the major benefits of this type of publication is that it’s great for those on a budget. Digital magazines can be costly to produce but a digital replica is a great way to test the water before you roll out a fully interactive publication using some of the more advanced technologies.
New: Interactive Magazines; How to Create a Magazine Online
If the funds are available and you have the time to learn how to create a magazine, the fully interactive, feature rich programs can help you make a really impressive, new magazine. These magazines are most suitable for tablet devices or mobile devices in general. And the best thing is you can make a quality magazine without any technical knowledge of HTML5 or other programming languages. Please follow my introductory article on apps if you want to get further information on how to create magazine apps. These types of magazine can take advantage of tablet touch interface along with capacity to support media rich publications including video, web content, zoom, rotational images, slideshows, games and social elements such as commenting or contacting the magazine directly.
Device, Resolution and Display Revolution
Once you have developed a plan and decided what features that you would like in your magazine, you should start to think about which devices that you would like to target. Which tablet devices do your target readers prefer? It is impractical and too costly to come up with magazines that cover every single tablet on the market. There are numerous new devices including iPads, Galaxy, Kindle and Nexus, each of which rely on a particular operating system. The best way to decide is to cover the best selling tablets and aim for a few of the most popular which typically have a 10 inch or 7 inch screen. If you are on a limited budget designing for a 10 inch screen is ideal. But keep in mind that there are also platforms available that help you to convert your PDFs into digital magazines which are optimised for all the devices.
The next step is to decide on the screen resolution. Make sure to get the right resolution by working with a print ready resolution of 300dpi. Images should be big enough to fit the full screen size of the iPad. Once the screen resolution has been confirmed you need to decide on the best display aspect ratio. On many iPad devices the ratio is 4:3.
If all this is too technical and you don’t know your aspect ratio from your resolutions don’t worry. Many of the programs and apps that show you how to create a magazine will either walk you through it step by step or adjust the resolutions and aspect ratios accordingly. The last element that you should take into consideration is whether you want the magazine to be on a single or multiple app. This will often be determined by the frequency or nature of your publication. Learning how to create a magazine for digital readers is quite different to publishing a magazine for print because there are so many different technologies and new factors that you need to know. So you’ll need to do some research. If you take the time to do your research, however, there is no reason why you can’t learn how to create a magazine that is both professional and popular.
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