Flipbooks are one of the most popular ways of publishing your content to the web. The page flipping technology allows people to view your documents online just like flipping through a book.
To get started, register your free account at PhotoAlbum.com, simply provide your name and email address and then click the confirmation link in the message sent when you register.
Before starting your design you should take some time to gather up your digital photos, artwork, PDF's, and text and think about the subject and design that you are interested in. Also consider the layout and size of book that you want to build. Remember that you will have the opportunity to order a printed copy of your book, though this is not a requirement. For traditional "Scrapbooks" you will most likely want to select one of the square sizes such as the popular 12" x 12" or 8.5 by 8.5. If you are planning to use your flip book as an online info source - such as in an ebay auction - then you might find the portrait 8.5 wide by 11 tall book to fit better and provide more traditional look. If you are looking for something to use as a header or footer to your website or blog - then the landscape letter size or pocket book size will take up less height.
Now you are ready to start building your book and cover design. Each Flip book consists of two componets, the inside pages of your book - and the cover. At a minimum you have to provide the inside pages and you can select from one of the material cover designs, however for maximum impact we recommend that you prepare a custom designed cover as well.
Click the "My Designs" link to start. This page will show all of your projects in progress. You can click to open a project for more work or click the "Create a New Design" link to start a new project. This will open the online design tool to your browser. Select either the Pages - or Covers and then click on the size and click the Create Blank Design.
Using the online design tool you can upload your artwork in a wide variety of formats, images as JPEG, PNG, or TIFF and other artwork as EPS or PDF. Using the drag and drop interface you can position, scale, rotate, crop, and layer your artwork along with text and shapes from the Page Objects tab. Save your work often using the Save Design menu item. When you are finished or want to pause - just save your design and close the design tool window.
You can work on your design as much and as long as you wish. You can even have others work on your design as well - they just can't work on it at the same time as you do.
To make your Flip Book the first thing to do is to press the "Publish" button under the link for your "Pages" design in the My Designs page. This will open the Create Flipbook page and will show all of the cover options. If you have created a custom cover design then it will show up on this page - simply click the small radio button under the design to use it. Otherwise you can select from one of the various material options.
Once you have selected the cover then press the button "Create Flipbook". This will start the server process of building your flipbook and will take you to your Proofs page. You will see an "Under Construction" image for new projects. Behind the scenes, PhotoAlbum.com first creates a high quality print ready PDF file of your online design. This is then converted to the online Flash Flipbook application. Depending on the number of pages and the complexity of your book, this can take from 2 to as much as 20 minutes to finish, so if you don't see your flipbook right away then just keep checking back and refresh your proofs page.
Once your flip book is ready then you can click the "Open Full Size" button to open the flipbook configuration and ordering page. Under the flipbook is the Free Sharing tab, this is where you can adjust the overall size of your flipbook. The Width [ ] and Height [ ] boxes are pixel values and the book size is updated when you press the "Apply" button. Consider that typical monitor sizes are 800 to 1024 pixels wide by 600 to 768 pixels tall. For instance Width [ 800 ] Height [ 500 ] is a good starting point for square book designs in a large size. You may want to post your book into a very small area on your blog, in this case your size might be Width [ 200 ] Height [150 ] to make a very small book.
Once your book size is as you want it - now you are ready to "Embed" your book into your website, blog, ebay auction, or wherever you want it. You will see the text box labeled "Embed:" simply click in this field to select it. Copy (Ctrl C or Right Click and select Copy) the contents and then go to your blog or website and select the option to "Edit or View HTML" and Paste this code where you want your book to appear. Save your work and Preview your page to see the flipbook.
Viewers of your blog will have the option to click the link to view your book in a full page mode.
You can also simply click the "Link:" field to send someone a direct link to your flipbook, or you can enter their email and a message and we will send it to them for you.
We would also love to see examples of how you are using your flipbook, we plan to start a page with links to users flipbooks so please send us links to your blog or other examples where you have a flipbook posted to " info @ PhotoAlbum.com"