Adobe reviewed its latest release of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite yesterday, announcing several new enhancements focused on the continual improvements it’s been targeting. Zeke Koch, Adobe’s Senior Director of Product Management, explained the new features and why this release cycle took 13 weeks rather than the expected nine.
Version 26 is focused on several platform and quality changes. One key change since the last update is that Adobe has moved its distribution servers over to Amazon, which, according to Koch, occurred on April 14. All new folios being delivered are now distributed directly from those servers.
In addition, a structural change to viewer and tool dependencies allows a bit more leeway in how publishers can update. Publishers who aren’t ready to update their tools, whether for risk or resource reasons, can now stay on the older tools for an additional release cycle. New releases will allow publishers to keep their older tools at one release back.
Free Article Preview
This new Free Article Preview feature allows readers to preview content in an issue that’s for sale. This is an interesting new way for publishers to offer sample content to readers without having to create a separate, free sample issue.
Publishers can decide which articles within an issue folio can be offered for free by selecting Enable Article Preview in the Folio Producer Dashboard. This enables a Preview button for that issue, which appears in the library view below the cover, allowing the reader to download and read the free article. When readers navigate to a different article in that issue, they are prompted with a paywall to purchase the issue. Readers are able to switch to browse mode so they can see “thumbnails” for other content in the issue, further enticing them to purchase.
Note that there are a few other library viewer enhancements that help clarify which issues are free, available, or purchased.
Web Viewer Enhancements
This is a long-awaited feature that will allow many publishers to broaden the reach of their content. There are several components to this enhancement:
- Allows for articles to be embedded and viewable within a web site using iFrame HTML tags.
- Adds the option to create Web Viewer-only renditions.
- Allows custom libraries/storefronts to be used in Web Viewer.
- Provides analytics to track Web Viewer metrics.
PDF Article Support for Android Viewer and Desktop Viewer
This enhancement allows for PDF articles to be viewed in the Desktop Viewer and Android Viewer, with pinch and zoom functionality. Note that the app must be updated to v26 in order to take advantage of this feature.
DPS App Builder
Improvements to the App Builder are also included with this version:
- Links to App Builder assets are now stored on the server, making it much easier for app creators in different locations to work on an app.
- Hot Zones can now also be defined across the top and bottom of a page.
iPhone 5 Support
DPS now supports the creation of renditions specific to the iPhone 5, which requires articles to be created at 1136 x 640.
Analytics and Reporting
New rollup reports are available that will combine download data across multiple publications.
What’s Expected in v27
Adobe hopes to include the following enhancements in the next release:
Mobile Safari Viewer will allow a user to click a shared link and view it in Safari via the Web Viewer. Paywall settings would then direct the user to the app. Additionally, a smart app banner that is part of the new iOS would also prompt the user to download the viewer.
Content metering will allow publishers to define how many free articles a reader can view on the tablet, similar to what’s been defined for the Web Viewer.
Additional social sharing options are expected that will allow Pinterest users to pin pages. Support for Sina Weibo, China’s most prominent social sharing tool, is also being considered.
First Folio Free will see additional changes, including the potential to capture emails at the delivery of a free folio.
On Sale Date options will provide additional parameters for defining when a folio is available for the public.
Crash reporting enhancements will allow users to choose to send crash reports to Adobe so the company can more proactively address those issues.
Find a complete listing of v26 release features on Adobe’s DPS Help site.
Posted by: Margot Knorr Mancini
