Twixl Publisher

Why use Twixl Publisher?

The tablet is the medium

For us, the medium is everything – and thé medium for which we develop is the tablet. When you design for a tablet, you design it for a specific format. And when you view a page on a tablet, you want an optimized view from the start. You don’t want to pinch or zoom just to read the text.

WHY READ AN ARTICLE ON A TABLET INSTEAD OF ON PAPER?

We live in a digital age. Reading articles on devices like tablets has become the norm – people don’t want the hassle of carrying around hard-copy publications.

A tablet offers a number of advantages:

• Delivers a pleasant experience
• Allows you to store info digitally
• Provides fast, easy access to a greater amount of content
• Offers enriched, interactive content

These are important factors to take into account when producing a publication for a tablet. Readers expect an all-round experience. They expect rich media, such as video, audio, slide shows and interactive content – all the extra stuff that traditional print can’t deliver. And in keeping with all things Apple, they expect easy navigation.

WHY NOT JUST USE PDFS?

It’s easy to make a PDF document available on a tablet, but the user experience won’t be the same. For example, you can’t easily add enriched content to a PDF. A PDF offers a quick fix, but it’s far from ideal in the long run if you want the reader to enjoy a great reading experience.

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO DISPLAY CONTENT ON A TABLET – IMAGE OR HTML5 BASED?

Right now, an image-based application with native controls offers the best and most fluid experience. This may change in the future, but current HTML5-based implementations appear unable to deliver the same responsiveness.

WHY START FROM ADOBE INDESIGN?

Because the software is used by designers around the world. So for them, it’s only a small step to switch from creating print publications to interactive tablet applications.

WILL OTHER OPTIONS BE ADDED IN FUTURE?

Today, our solution has one input source, InDesign, and two output sources, the iPad and Android. However, we may add other input options in the future, such as QuarkXPress, PDF or HTML(5). This is why we designed our solution with multiple inputs and outputs in mind. We assessed where the market is today, but it will be our customers that guide us on the direction we take in the future.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER PLATFORMS?

The iPad rules the tablet world, which is why we chose it as our first platform. In November 2012, we also added support for Android tablets. Technology moves fast and rival tablets will undoubtedly try to close the gap in the future. We intend to provide support for new platforms as soon as they become sufficiently relevant, so we may add support for Windows 8/RT etc.

COMPATIBLE WITH DIFFERENT TABLET RESOLUTIONS AND ASPECT RATIOS

The iPad 1 and 2, and the iPad mini have a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.

The iPad 3 and 4 have a retina display with a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels - this is four times more pixels and double the resolution. Our solution automatically works for both resolutions, starting from a single design. All images will be displayed at the optimal resolution on each of the devices, as long as your source materials has an effective ppi of 144.

Starting with Twixl Publisher 3 and InDesign CS6, we also support the screen resolutions and aspect ratio of the 7" and 10" Android tablets. Using the liquid layout/alternate layouts feature, we provide a quick an easy way to automatically generate these layout, once you have created your iPad version (in portrait and/or landscape format).

SIMPLE PRICING

There are many different pricing models on the market. Most of our competitors charge a license or set-up fee for their solution.
Some also charge an additional fee per issue. Some make you pay a fixed fee per month, regardless of how many issues you publish.
Others even charge a fee per downloaded issue, thus taking advantage of your hard work and success.

THIS ALL SEEMS TOO COMPLICATED…

We only charge a license fee, full stop. Depending on the type of license you purchase, you are free to publish as many issues as you want, without any additional fees. Maintenance and upgrades for the first year are included with the purchase of your license. An extension of the maintenance after the first year is 20% of the original cost per year.

IT’S YOUR APP, NOT OURS.

Some of our competitors try to control the financial relationship between you and your customers. This doesn’t seem fair. All we do is provide the tools for you to publish to the app stores easily – we never get involved with your customers.

BUILDING APPS HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER

Twixl Publisher helps you build apps that offer a unique user experience. This applies not only to the result, but also to our easy-to-use workflow. The most common feedback we get in our workshops is, ‘is it that easy?’ Yes, it really is!