The problem with flipbooks
Flipbooks can’t replicate the print experience; the best digital magazines provide something more immersive. Here are some disadvantages and alternatives to flipbooks.
by Ben Ice
by Ben Ice
Before my first editorial role, I worked subscriptions and circulation at a small media company, mostly telemarketing renewals.
We offered digital-only subscriptions, too. They were cheaper, greener, and very unpopular. A few students, the odd tablet enthusiast, and some environmentalists living paperless were the only takers.
The tech had kinks. I had to upload new issues to a platform that looked like malware. No idea what I was doing, I worked from handover notes written by some equally clueless long-gone employee.
It was one of my most dreaded tasks, and don’t forget my job involved telemarketing.
When subscribers (often) had trouble accessing digital issues, I’d sometimes email them a PDF copy; it was just easier. One eco-conscious consumer simply gave up, switching back to paper.
Flipbooks have progressed since then, but I haven’t shaken the ick I feel when I think about or try to read them. They can’t deliver the experience of enjoying a beautiful print magazine.
Instead of trying hard to replicate the things print can do, the best digital magazines get immersive, and do the things print cannot.
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Digital magazines: necessary
Digital magazines are the perfect way for brands and content teams to hit their goals with beautiful storytelling that engages readers. For media, the benefits of avoiding high print costs while still guaranteeing wide reach are hard to ignore.
But it’s important to get your digital magazine right.
If you're reliant on flipbooks, or just looking for better ways to host your beautifully-designed articles, it’s worth weighing up the disadvantages and alternatives to platforms like Issuu, Flippingbook, and HTML5.
If you’re still working with PDFs, perhaps check out our thoughts on why you need to stop.
Three disadvantages to using flipbooks
Flipbooks struggle with mobile experience, underperform in SEO, and are not truly interactive.
1. Accessibility issues
Flipbooks don’t guarantee the best reader experience.
The best practices for publishing digital content apply to magazines, too. Remember to check how your work looks on a mobile screen.
In their landscape layouts, flipbooks may be optimised for desktop monitors, but once viewed on a mobile, can run into some of the same problems as PDFs — not fitting properly to the screen, text and images not joining up or flowing, or requiring the reader to scroll around or zoom to see the right spot.
The page-turning experience can be suboptimal too. As magazine pages are often aligned side-by-side or in one double-page-spread landscape, they may force the reader to rotate their phone.
2. S. E… No
Flipbooks are at a disadvantage in search.
If you’ve put the work into producing your beautiful magazine, you want people to read it!
Proper digital magazines unlock bountiful opportunities for reaching new audiences. SEO consideration is a must here.
It’s true that search engines are getting better at crawling copy that’s contained in PDFs and static flipbooks, but the speed and ease at which they can pick up and surface text and images that are inserted directly into a web platform are still miles ahead. Content published inside flipbooks and PDFs remains at a disadvantage.
3. Flipbooks are not interactive
Immersive digital magazines are just better.
If you’re publishing online, you (and your readers!) should at least enjoy some of the interactive capabilities the web makes possible.
That means scrollytelling, animation, rich data visuals, video, and interactive embeds.
For serious web publishers, these should not be seen as fun nice-to-haves, but necessary tools for improving engagement with brilliant experiences. They are a must in a world where readers are bombarded with infinite options and distractions, and are quick to click away.
4 flipbook improvements and alternatives
1. Responsive PDF
Flipbook technology has advanced; Adobe Liquid Mode, for example, automates taking copy and images and reformats them to be responsive for screen size, effectively enabling a better mobile experience in digital magazines.
The content is still static, though.
We just think examples like ‘The revolutionary rise of UCL Press’ from University College London’s Portico magazine are far more beautiful.
Take notice of the animated title section, the copy that floats as you scroll, and the animated data visuals that make this story a delight to scroll.
2. .Epub
Epub files are mainly designed for ebooks. The technology offers improvements on PDFs, such as reflowing text to fit various device sizes. Disadvantages, though, include their inability to always get it right when reflowing material that’s included in complex and rigid designs — users report design elements losing alignment, small parts showing up in the wrong space, and so on, as the documents are reflowing.
3. Online articles, CMS, WYSIWYG
High output sites, like daily news mastheads, for examples, publish articles using their content management system, forgoing rich design elements. On these systems they can add text, images, audio, and video — and maybe some basic multimedia if their team has the right coding skills.
Many great publishers find a mix, using these platforms for their high-frequency coverage, but producing something a little special for things like digital magazines, deep dive investigations, longform feature articles, and partner content.
Take a look at CITY magazine by Manchester City. The football club's homepage contains a constant feed of news updates, but the monthly magazine provides something extra — including magazine must-haves like a word from the manager, player highlights, and broadcast guides — for its growing global community of fans.
4. Immersive digital storytelling tools
Giving your readers something truly immersive is the only way to guarantee a knockout digital mag.
Shorthand stories can be embedded right onto a webpage’s existing masthead and nav elements, enabling you to find the balance you choose between web articles and immersive stories.
The best option for your digital magazine
The way they combine rich design, words, and striking media is what makes digital magazines special. The enjoyment of sitting down and flipping through a print magazine has been cemented over generations, and digital flipbooks only go so far in recreating this experience — often at difficulty and with the shortcomings covered above.
Advancements in digital technology offer something new. Immersive elements can be added, to create stories that the print mags of yesteryear couldn’t come close to.
That’s what Shorthand makes possible. Why not check out some more of the beautiful digital magazines our users have created in these examples.
Choosing the right digital publishing tool for you
Digital publishers need platforms that let them publish their fantastic work and designs quickly, without advanced coding knowledge, in a way that is easy to distribute, and makes the most of the capabilities of the modern web.
Only a brand publishing platform like Shorthand can help media organisations tell captivating visual stories, on any device, anywhere on the web, in a collaborative, no-code platform.
Check out our guide to the Top digital publishing platforms →
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