The Best Way to Create an HTML Flipbook

The Best Way to Create an HTML Flipbook

There’s a flurry of online flipbook making tools. Nearly all use an uploaded PDF to generate HTML output. Sometimes the tools let you download those new files, but most often they have to be hosted on the service’s website.?

Let's talk about why you're better off creating a flipbook directly from InDesign using a tool called in5.?

PDF is a great end point, but a limited starting point

PDF is inherently an output format, optimized for distribution, so in many ways it is flattened and contains less information than your InDesign file. Thus, online flipbook creators are starting with limited information when creating your HTML5 flipbook.

PDF doesn't support InDesign's native animation, Object States, embedded HTML, audio, or video.?

Many flipbook builders have extra tools that let you add interactivity on top of the flattened PDF content. This limits your interactivity to the static items that exist in the PDF layout, and things that you can place on top of that layout using the PDF flipbook builder software.

This screenshot shows interactivity being added inside an online flipbook tool after uploading a PDF...forcing you to build interactivity on top of your flattened designs, which have to be redone if you make changes to your layout or content.

Native InDesign interactivity, animation, and responsiveness

By contrast, in5 can export a flipbook directly from InDesign, letting you take advantage of

  • InDesign’s native animation tools
  • Hidden Object States that get revealed by buttons
  • Audio and video directly in InDesign
  • Responsive Layouts built in InDesign

in5 takes advantage of InDesign's built-in animation that gets saved with the document. Creating a new animation is as easy as applying a preset, but can also be customized.

Not only that, but in5 exports the files to your local machine, so you have full control over your content (rather than it being locked up on a 3rd-party site). You can take the output and host it on your own server or distribute it however you like.

In addition to InDesign’s native tools, in5 adds additional interactive options, such as

  • 3-D Flip cards
  • A “control” frame that you can custom brand
  • Slideshows
  • Interactive Image Sequences
  • Pan and Zoom
  • Pop-ups
  • Scrolling Frames
  • Custom menus and navigation
  • Fixed (aka “sticky”) menus
  • Easy-to-use Google Analytics tracking

in5 lets you customize the branding of pre-built controls that can be added with a checkbox. You can include a logo and use brand colors directly from your InDesign swatches.

In5 adds all of these extra features, while still creating all of the flipbook features you’d expect: an animated, draggable page peel effect; a 3-D transition as pages flip; and page shadows.

Updates to your content—in5 takes out the middlemen

In5 is an add-on that lives directly inside of InDesign, which makes updating your content simpler too. Instead of editing your InDesign file, re-exporting to PDF, re-uploading to the PDF builder site, and re-adding your tacked-on interactivity...in5 lets you simply make the changes in InDesign and re-export. And since you own your output files, you can always crack open the HTML and edit it directly (but only if you like that sort of thing).

More than just a flipbook tool

In addition to creating flipbooks with in5, you can also use it to create

  • Web banners
  • Digital magazines with sliding or fade page transitions
  • Presentations
  • Scrolling websites
  • Mobile and kiosk apps
  • “Save to Home” Web Apps

In5 puts these options in your hands, without having to code, so you won’t have to rely on a developer to keep your designs intact.

To find out more, check out How to Make An HTML5 Flipbook with Interactivity from InDesign.

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