Creating Magazine Digital Publishing Platform

The Client

This project was completed for a publishing agency based in the UK, which specializes in both print and digital communications, mainly focusing on magazines and catalogs.

“We are growing fast at the moment and become one of top 3 app companies in Norway. A stronger partnership and growth with Azoft has become a crucial part of our growth strategy. We shifted our business from our Egyptian partner to you.” — CEO, Top 3 Mobile & Web App Development Company in Norway

The Scope

Our client asked us to create a digital magazine publishing that would make it possible to automatically convert a PDF version of a magazine into a mobile version for iOS and Android platforms, as well as automatically generate a web version in HTML5 format.

The Solution

Azoft came up with a new PDF publishing framework and proceeded to develop all necessary components of the system to make it run smoothly and effectively. We developed back-end for the publishers and client-side mobile apps for the readers.

More specifically

• The back-end is designed to work with documents, process PDFs, as well as process billing and transactions
• The client side (iOS, Android, HTML5) is aimed at the end-user and allows users to preview magazines and make in-app purchases

In addition, a server-side application was developed for content managers and administrators to add new magazine issues and create interactive layers with widgets. The resulting electronic versions of magazine articles are then automatically submitted to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

The system also includes a billing platform that allows publishers to sell magazine content and automatically display invoices to companies who are logged in the system.

The Challenge

At the moment there is only one system available, called pdf.js, that allows displaying PDF on a web page using Javascript. This system was recently introduced by Mozilla and could still use some improvements. It was designed for Mozilla Firefox, and doesn’t work that well on other browsers like Opera, Internet Explorer, and Safari.

The Outcome

As a result, our client was presented with an innovative solution for converting PDF files into digital content for mobile platforms. Because magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals are so often distributed in electronic from these days, this publishing platform is an indispensable tool for a publishing agency.