Adobe Digital Publishing

Are you an InDesign user new to Digital Publishing Suite or an experienced user looking for fresh ideas? No matter what your background is, there are plenty of resources available online to help you create interactive tablet applications.

For all users
The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Help page is constantly updated to provide accurate, up-to-date information about tools and to answer your questions. Bookmark this page and refer to it no matter what your level. Go here to get started. Resources not mentioned in this post are on the Additional Resources page.

For users new to Digital Publishing Suite
If you are taking your first step into developing tablet apps, there are several overview videos that walk through the workflow and show interactive features. Terry White, Worldwide Design Evangelist for Adobe Systems, guides users through uploading, viewing, and sharing applications in this video. Colin Fleming has created three videos to show how to build folios using the Folio Builder, preview folios using the Content Viewer, and assemble design folios into a larger publication using the Dashboard and Folio Producer.

Download the Digital Publishing Suite Tips app from the iTunes store or Android market. Bob Bringhurst, Adobe Senior Technical Writer and author of InDesign Docs, provides real world examples to help you create engaging apps.

Online Tutorials
The following three sites provide online tutorials with assets so that you can practice using the tool without having to build InDesign files first.

• The Adobe Help site provides three free tutorials with InDesign assets. One is designed for pre-release customers making a transition to the updated suite. Two are for new customers wanting to create a simple folio and incorporate interactive elements.
• Video2Brain is a comprehensive tutorial hosted by Colin Fleming, Digital Publishing Suite Evangelist at Adobe Systems Incorporated. This 4 hour, 45 minute training costs $40, and helps you develop folios, layouts, and interactivity. In addition, you will learn how to monetize content using distribution and analytics.
• Lynda.com tutorial is hosted by James Lockman, Solutions Engineer for desktop products at Adobe Systems Incorporated. This 2 hour, 42 minute tutorial includes a video outline with transcripts and is intended for intermediate InDesign Users with a Professional or Enterprise account who want in-depth exposure to the DPS tooling and tablet publishing workflow. Subscriptions cost $21-$37.50/month and provide additional access to tutorials for all CS5 or CS5.5 products.

Experienced Users
The Adobe Public Digital Publishing Suite Forum is where you can post questions that are not answered in the Adobe Help site. Testers and experts are on board to respond to your questions when you get stuck.

Looking for inspiration? Peruse the iPad and Android galleries and download apps designed by other publishers and businesses.

This year’s Adobe MAX event takes place October 1st through 5th, in Los Angeles, CA. MAX brings together top designers, developers, and business minds in the industry to celebrate, explore, and shape the future of digital experiences and stay on the forefront of the device revolution. At MAX, you will meet and collaborate with industry leaders and influencers, build relationships that promote new ideas and business opportunities, and learn from those on the cutting edge of innovation.

Digital Publishing Suite will be featured in the Adobe booth on the expo floor, where you will be able to ask specific questions and get one-on-one demonstrations of the entire DPS workflow, from content creation to publishing to analyzing and optimizing your tablet content. You’ll also get the chance to interact with titles built with Digital Publishing Suite on a range of tablet platforms.

At MAX, you can choose from over 200 sessions and 100 labs to dig deep into your areas of interest, meet Adobe team members from every product line (including Digital Publishing), and take advantage of numerous networking opportunities. Stroll the expo floor to get hands on with the latest hardware and software products from Adobe and our partners, and enjoy the unforgettable Max Bash party. Also, you won’t want to miss the two general session keynotes on Monday and Tuesday, October 3rd and 4th.

Here are some specific DPS sessions and labs that you’ll want to register for in advance:

Interactive Labs
Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and Creative Suite: Yes you can! (full day preconference lab)

Hands-on With Adobe Digital Publishing Suite

Using Folio Producer Tools in InDesign CS5.5

Sessions
Building Tablet Applications Using InDesign and Digital Publishing Suite

Pushing the Boundaries of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite in Academia

Publisher Panels
Digital Publishing: Looking Back and Forward

Digital Publishing: Riding the Next Wave of Corporate Publishing

Don’t delay – register for MAX now, and reserve your spots in the above sessions. We look forward to seeing you at MAX, and stay tuned for some exciting new announcements around DPS!

Marines, an award-winning magazine produced by the United States Marine Corps recently adopted Adobe Digital Publishing Suite and SiteCatalyst to create an interactive, branded iPad app. Doing so has allowed the staff at Marines magazine to expand its reach to a broader audience, add cutting edge interactive content which enhances the value of the editorial, and leverage analytics to better understand user engagement.

Marines magazine releases seven print issues per year to 75,000 readers. Since the release of the iPad application in Fall 2010, audience has been growing at 2,000 people per month, reaching a higher concentration of senior leadership and families of Marines. Because the US Marine Corps needs to recruit 43,000 people at a given time, an iPad app bolsters its strategy of reaching younger audiences. It contains exclusive stories that readers cannot get in print and web format, as well as high definition video, 360 degree rotation of equipment photos, and links to social media web pages all resulting in a much more engaging and informative reading experience.

For the first time, Condé Nast has released sales figures for the iPad edition of The New Yorker created with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. In a story published in Monday’s New York Times, Condé Nast revealed that it now has 100,000 iPad readers of the digital magazine. Conde Nast released the first digital edition of The New Yorker in September 2010, and subscriptions on the Apple mobile platform were enabled earlier this year. So far:

• Approximately 20,000 people have purchased digital subscriptions at $59.99 per year
• More than 75,000 additional existing print subscribers have activated their free iPad subscription
• On average, several thousand iPad users buy single issues for $4.99 each week

It’s exciting to see publishers having success in this early but growing market. Magazines are experimenting with layouts and interactivity that work best to deliver the optimal reading experience on digital devices. The New Yorker went with simple interactivity while WIRED makes innovative use of dynamic content and sophisticated interactivity to draw readers more deeply into stories. While the publishing industry continues to try different business, editorial and advertising formulas for sustainable success, we expect that readership of digital content on devices will only continue to expand. Clearly, when publishers are able to offer subscriptions coupled with print + digital bundles, the number of readers can quickly multiply into a sizable number. Our goal with Digital Publishing Suite is to provide tools and features that enable publishers to innovate and build a profitable digital publishing business long-term. As an example, the Enterprise Edition of Digital Publishing Suite supports multiple options for monetizing content including in-app single issue purchase through Apple’s iTunes store, subscription sales through iTunes or Condé Nast’s website, and print subscriber authentication through support for direct entitlement in the publisher’s application.

This is just the beginning.  There is a general expectation that reading content on devices will continue to grow over time.  We look forward to many more success stories in the near future!