How to Page curl a PDF?

[MacBoobsPro]

The bosses at work want a page curl effect on the PDFs we upload to the site. You know so it looks like a real book.

Anyhoo... the site is nearing completion and we are no where near sorting this page curl effect thing because its proving almost impossible to find anything that will work as intended.

Can anyone tell me where I may find an OSX app or plugin (Quark or Acrobat) that will allow me to create a PDF with the page curl effect?

I have spent days on google looking and while there are one or two options they are ridiculously expensive including £2.50 per page and £750 for an app.

I am under the impression that Acrobat 9 has this page curl effect built in? How well does it work? Would the transition remain embedded in a PDF once we upload it to a server? InDesign CS4 also has this ability but everything is done in Quark 7 and would take a herculean effort to get everything onto InDesign.

We only have Design Standard CS3 (Acrobat 8 & Indesign CS3) and Quark 7. Is there anything I can conjure up with these apps?

I'm open to other options like using Keynote (if possible) or some other app as long as its not stupidly expensive and or too complicated and produces either a PDF or SWF that we can then create hotspots for links.

Hope someone can help!

[jeremy h]

Hi

I haven't got round to doing this yet (just gone to CS4) but it can be done in CS4 - I thinbk you'd have to export as a SWF though as opposed to staying as a PDF to allow other people to view without the latest Acrobat.

Or take a look at issuu - free and pro versions - I keep meaning to try this - a client has been using them and really rates them.

Oh sorry just read your using Quark - just a thought - is there anything in Quarks Interactive designer that can do this..?

[brad.c]

I've not used this, but noticed it just the other day.

InDesign CS4 lets you can select Page Transitions by control clicking on a page in the Pages palate. The resulting dialog shows a page curl option, but as the dialog suggests, its for .swf files only.

[MacBoobsPro]

Originally Posted by brad.c

I've not used this, but noticed it just the other day.

InDesign CS4 lets you can select Page Transitions by control clicking on a page in the Pages palate. The resulting dialog shows a page curl option, but as the dialog suggests, its for .swf files only.

.swf isn't really a problem but its the fact we dont have CS4. That being said if it seems to be the best way to create this effect i.e. export pdf from quark, drop into InD then export as swf it maybe something to look at.

Anyone think this might be the way to go? I would still need to be able to create 'hotspots' for links within the swf, or if they are created in the PDF before exported as swf would they remain once converted to swf?

Issuu.com looks good but they want £10 a month and I dont think the bosses will go for that. The PDFs need to be hosted at issuu too, as far as i can tell.

[design-is]

Originally Posted by MacBoobsPro

.swf isn't really a problem but its the fact we dont have CS4. That being said if it seems to be the best way to create this effect i.e. export pdf from quark, drop into InD then export as swf it maybe something to look at. Anyone think this might be the way to go?

I think this is the only option if you want to be able to do it yourself and have full control over it. Unless you want to buy a plugin for or learn how to do it yourself in flash... But no one wants that

Originally Posted by MacBoobsPro

I would still need to be able to create 'hotspots' for links within the swf, or if they are created in the PDF before exported as swf would they remain once converted to swf?

You can create links in InDesign to be exported with the swf, though I have no idea if the links from the pdf will be honoured.

Let us know if you find anything better and how you get on

/Doug

[MacBoobsPro]

Originally Posted by design-is

I think this is the only option if you want to be able to do it yourself and have full control over it. Unless you want to buy a plugin for or learn how to do it yourself in flash... But no one wants that



You can create links in InDesign to be exported with the swf, though I have no idea if the links from the pdf will be honoured.

Let us know if you find anything better and how you get on

/Doug

Of course no one wants to do it in flash Honestly I don't have the time to sit and learn flash to do this. If I can get away with keeping it essentially a 'print' workflow it will help me enormously as I can send the same PDF to the printer as well as upload it to the web with the least amount of hassle.

Plus we dont have Flash.

When you say I can create the links in Indesign how exactly do I do that? Is it as simple as dragging a hotspot in Acrobat? The boss wants our clients entire advert to be clickable not just a web link or email link.

I've already learnt CSS and Dreamweaver for this bloody website, created a site but apparently that isnt good enough. So now they are paying someone else to create a site but I still end up figuring out how to go about it.

[design-is]

Sorry, bit of a short reply this time ...

But yes, in InDesign CS4, open the 'buttons' panel. This will let you turn an object into a link. So you you could if you need to just draw a box with no fill or stroke over an area to make it clickable. These should carry over into any swf you export. You can also set hover and click effects using the 'buttons' panel.

Can't say I've tried it in a live project, but I've played and it seems OK.

I've attached a couple of screenies which may or may not make this clearer

Hope that helps!

/Doug

[needlnerdz]

From your description, I think you are just looking for a simple 'pageflip' online application for viewing the PDFs, similar to how some magazines let you preview their content as though it were a real book?

I've played with various freebie versions of this over the past few years:

http://pageflip.hu/

The freebie version requires the use of flash [and can probably only be used for personal sites], but for a mere 45euros I think the one user/site commercial license would be enough for your needs. I haven't done it, but supposedly you won't have to use flash at all and can dynamically add all the artwork via an XML file telling it where each page is located:

http://pageflip.hu/help.html#setupxml

Then I'd suggest allowing users to download the normal PDF version or viewing online in this pageflipping version.

Hope that helps!

[merryflip]

well, great, thanks very much for sharing your information with me. I have download the software and find it works fine, really very appereciated!