FlowPaper 3.7.0 Release Notes

10 July 2023

We have recently made a number of enhancements to the Zine template and we know a number of users are eager to getting access to these enhancements quickly. We’ve therefore decided to release another version of FlowPaper this week.

This release mainly focuses on the navigation panel at the bottom of the Zine template, which has been changed to now use the same navigator as was previously only available in Elements. It also improves the available reading space for mobile devices when using the Zine template so that the space is used more efficiently. In summary, here are the points addressed in this release:

  • Improved bottom navigator for FlowPaper elements so the slider now works on touch only devices
  • Improved reading space utilisation in the Zine template when viewing portrait mode on a mobile device
  • We have made the Zine mobile UI more minimalist with less controls that are shown per default and a transparent menu background which is less intrusive for small displays
  • We have changed the default bottom navigator for Zine so it uses the same navigator as FlowPaper Elements. This provides better utilisation of the screen estate and better mobile accessibility across the Zine templates.

Kia Kaha!

FlowPaper 3.6.9 Release Notes

30 June 2023

We’re glad to announce vesion 3.6.9 of FlowPaper. This version contains a number of minor corrections as well as improved support for our right-to-left readers. The Zine template now supports all functionality in RTL mode.

Here’s a summarized list of some of the noticable bug fixes/changes this release:

  • Improved support for RTL (Right To Left) reading order. The desktop publisher will now detect RTL language automatically and the bottom thumbnails are providing better support
  • Good news for our creative license holders, we have increased the cloud quota from 50 to 75 for all cloud hosted publications!
  • Improved stability for the replace/delete/add page functionality
  • Improved pixel rounding accuracy for Zine resulting in improved overall sharpness
  • Corrected a bug with the Elements tempalate where the accessibility mode would corrupt the background in some scenarios

Version 3.6.9 will be available shortly in the download area. The online version of the publisher will update automatically.

Kia Kaha!

FlowPaper 3.6.8 Release Notes

17 May 2023

If you’re in the northern hemisphere, we trust that you are looking forward to a warm and pleasant summer. Here in New Zealand, we’re getting closer to our winter and after a few weather hickups during the first quarter of 2023, we’re marching on with force. We have a number of larger updates coming this year and will be releasing things continuously when we feel there is enough value to our customers in the functionality that has passed through our Q&A testing. For this month, we’re pleased to announce a number of changes.

You now have the ability to import PDF forms and collect data from your visitors. This data will be appearing in the account area for each publication. PDF forms support text input boxes, select boxes, checkboxes and radio buttons. Initially, the Zine template provides this support but we will also be adding support to the Elements template in the next week.

Version 3.6.8 will be available to download in the next few days. You will receive the update automatically if you use the the web version which is available at https://flowpaper.com/app/

Summarized, here are the major points for this release:

  • Added support for custom form fields on pages. Form fields that are part of the PDF will be imported.
  • Updated our conversion and rendering libraries - this affects all areas with improved stability and rendering quality when importing and converting documents
  • Improved support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean languages

Kia Kaha!

FlowPaper 3.6.7 Release Notes

23 April 2023

This release of FlowPaper mainly improves accuracy in conversion throughout all templates as well as 3D performance in the Zine template for Windows. Certain configurations of Windows would perform differently than expected and this release addresses this. The performance and behavior will be more consistent across different Windows builds now.

We are working on a number of larger changes which are due in the next few weeks. This release does not contain any of these changes but we still felt it was relevant enough to release before.

Kia Kaha!

FlowPaper 3.6.6 Release Notes

26 March 2023

After a bit of a delay in releases, due to unforeseen circumstances, we are pleased to announce our latest version of FlowPaper. New Zealand had 2 significant weather events at the start of this year. The first at the end of January and another one a couple of weeks later around the 13th of February. First flooding and later on a cyclone. This affected one of our offices which set us back in time. We apologize for the delay this has caused in responding during this time.

Nonetheless, we’re back on our feet with a new version of FlowPaper this week.

  • New detailed analytics available for your publications when you have analytics turned on
  • 3D performance improvements to FlowPaper Zine
  • Improved timing of flip sound that can be played when pages are turned in the Zine template
  • Added “superscript” support via button to mobile-first editing
  • Chrome performance improvements
  • Various minor bug fixes
  • Added a new shadow setting for the Elements template (Drop Shadow)
  • Added page-level analytics for all publications to the account area
  • Added audio started and video started events for in-page level analytics

PDF page turners explained with examples

14 December 2022

Page-turners have existed for a long time, with most products staying pretty static on how they animate pages and how things look. We think that FlowPaper has the most comprehensible set of page turning animations available on the web today (prove us wrong!).

We, therefore, decided to put together a demo page with the most commonly used styles of page turning animations that you can achieve. We're also listing some pros and con's so that you can find out which animation that works best for your scenario. All these animations can be enabled using FlowPaper's flipbook maker functionality.

Click on the image thumbnails on the right of each text to see an example of each animation style

What's a page-turning animation?

First and foremost, what do we mean by a page-turning animation? Put simply, it's the animation that makes pages imitate a realistic magazine, catalog or otherwise. Generally, these are also called flipbook animations. The illustration on the right shows one of the animations frozen in time just as the page is performing its animation.

The classical page-turning animation

This animation uses CSS3 to get to its result. This is the animation most flipbook makers are using out there. It's not bad by any means but also pretty vanilla. It offers some interactive features such as interactive page corners that you can drag as well as the ability to zoom in and out of the document.

  • Pro: It's fast with low CPU usage
  • Pro: Pages are optimized with great text sharpness
  • Con: Not super realistic

Here's how you enable this effect:

  1. Launch FlowPaper Publisher in the browser or download the app
  2. Select a PDF to import
  3. Select the 'Zine' template
  4. Choose 'Classic Flip Effect'

The accelerated 3D animation

This animation style uses the latest bells and whistles to make the page transitions look as realistic and good as possible. It uses a combination of CSS and WebGL to reach all browsers, even those without a 3D graphics card. It uses the same 3D effect even when browsing on your mobile device, even if you're in portrait! Give it a try by clicking on the flipbook on the right.

  • Pro: Fantastic realism
  • Pro: Downgrades gracefully if your device isn't 3D enabled (so it still works)
  • Con: Doesn't support text animations

Here's how you enable this flip effect:

  1. Launch FlowPaper Publisher in the browser or download the app
  2. Select a PDF to import
  3. Select the 'Zine' template
  4. Choose 'Realistic 3D'

Landscape flip with text animations

This flipbook mode is great for brochures and presentations that don't contain a huge amount of text and where you want to add a bit of flare to the presentation. The text and image animations will start just as the viewer enters each page of the presentation.

  • Pro: It's fast with low CPU usage
  • Pro: Amazing text sharpness
  • Pro: You can combine image and text animations together with the flip effect
  • Con: Only has the more 'harder' page-flip animations (no 3D effect like Zine)

Here's how you add text and image animations with this flip effect:

  1. Launch FlowPaper Publisher in the browser or download the app
  2. Select a PDF to import
  3. Select the 'Elements' template
  4. Choose 'Flip Book'

From top to bottom

Last but not least of the page-turner animations change things around by letting the user browse from top to bottom instead of left to right. This template is another great choice for PDFs like business presentations, brochures and landscape publications.

  • Pro: It's fast with low CPU usage
  • Con: Not super realistic

Here's how you enable this page-transition effect:

  1. Launch FlowPaper Publisher in the browser or download the app
  2. Select a PDF to import
  3. Select the 'Elements' template
  4. Choose 'Horizontal Flip'

How to restrict where your PDF flipbooks are embedded and displayed

5 December 2022

One of the key features of FlowPaper is its ability to easily embed your flipbooks on your website. To do this, you simply need to use the “Publish” feature in FlowPaper to generate an embed code for your flipbook. This code can then be copied and pasted into the HTML of your website, where it will automatically display your flipbook.

In addition to being easy to embed, FlowPaper also allows you to restrict the display of your flipbooks to a specific domain. This means that you can choose which websites are allowed to display your flipbooks, and block them from being displayed on any other websites.

How to restrict your flipbooks to your domain

To restrict the display of your flipbooks to a specific domain, you simply need to use the “Publish” feature in FlowPaper to generate an embed code for your flipbook. When you generate this code, you’ll have the option to specify the domain where your flipbook can be displayed.

Once you’ve added this restriction to your embed code, your flipbook will only be displayed on the domain you specified. This can be useful for preventing unauthorized use of your flipbooks, or for ensuring that your flipbooks are only displayed on websites that you have approved.

Overall, FlowPaper makes it easy to embed and restrict the display of your flipbooks on your website. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, FlowPaper allows you to create engaging and visually appealing publications that will enhance the reading experience of your audience.

FlowPaper 3.6.4 Release Notes

30 November 2022

Christmas is getting closer and we’re working hard to get the most requested features out to you in time for events and shopping campaigns. Version 3.6.4 has a number of improvements and fixes that we know some of you’ve been waiting for.

  • Updated the FlowPaper 3D rendering library providing improved performance and stability for the Zine template
  • Improved handling for zoom keys in the browser (+/-)
  • Improvements in positioning of the fisheye icons at the bottom of the Zine template to better accomodate different zoom levels when embedded in iframes
  • Improved the functionality for renaming publications from the dashboard
  • Improved handling of OCR documents to make sure text is always searchable via the “Export Invisible Text” setting
  • Included “Generate Promo Video” on the sharing dialogue window accessible from the dashboard.
  • Improved overall exception/error handling in the desktop publisher
  • Various minor improvements to the interactivity editor
  • Minor improvements to the flipbook video maker (promotional video generator)
  • Bug corrections to the setting of image animations in Elements
  • A new icon set for the Zine template!
  • It is now possible to protect publications so that they are only displayed when embedded on your specified domain

Kia Kaha!

A fresh look for your promotion videos

6 November 2022

Generating promotional videos for your publications that can be shared social media feeds such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok has been shown to be popular among our users. We have improved the promo video generator further to help you catch even more attention for your newly published documents. The video below was generated using the upcoming version of FlowPaper.

You can see how we have used the video below in one of our tweets.




How to generate promo videos for your publications

You can find this promo video generator in the desktop publisher. Simply click publish and upload your publication to FlowPaper cloud. The promo video settings will appear at the bottom of the dialogue after you have uploaded your publication. There are now three texts you can supply the promo video with, as seen in the image below:



Keep an eye out for FlowPaper version 3.6.3!

Kia Kaha!

FlowPaper 3.6.2 Release Notes

25 October 2022

Our latest 3.6.2 release is targetted on improving the conditions for editing and adding interactive elements, with particular focus around hotspots for links, images and video elements. Hotspots are essentially links that appear as pulsing points of interest. These complement traditional link areas where you want get the visitor’s attention.

The list below summarizes the set of changes affecting this version:

  • A number of smaller improvements in relation to animations for the Elements template
  • Corrected an issue related to videos not playing as intended on some mobile devices after a image gallery had been clicked on
  • Improved the video quality for publication previews
  • Improved edit mode with easier to understand edit buttons
  • It is now possible to animate images using the Elements template without the risk of breaking the layout when the image is “detached” from the PDF page
  • Improved lazy loading of image thumbnails in very large reflow publications
  • Spotlight images now available in FlowPaper Elements
  • Hotspot links, images and videos are now available in Zine and Elements
  • A number of corrections and improvements for importing image files as well as the ability to drop image files into the drop zone
  • Fixed an issue where table of contents wouldn’t close properly on some mobile devices when using the Zine template
  • Improved the look and behavior of the image/photo spotlight feature

Example Publication with Hotspots

You can see a demo below featuring the hotspot features mentioned in the release notes above