Are there any examples of the mag in these digital formats? I found http://premier.singletrackworld.com/promotional/Issue54/ and it looks crap on my tablet. Just want to check that the other formats would look better.

The PDF version looks great on my iPad’s retina display. Just make sure you D/L the high quality version.

PDF format in high in current issue looks like this on Mac Book, I’ve cropped it a bit though.

Direct link here for full version

View post on imgur.com

That link takes you to a desktop version of issue 54 and not a pdf version. The desktop version uses flash but renders an image based version if you happen to look at it using a tablet. Our iPad PDF copies are rendered at 225dpi for the hi res version and 72dpi for the low res versions.

Hmmm looking at my image again that doesn’t represent what it looks like at all, it’s far better quality. I guess the screen grab is crap.

Our iPad PDF copies are rendered at 225dpi for the hi res version and 72dpi for the low res versions.

That makes no sense. The DPI/PPI will be governed by the screen I look at the file on, not what you save it as.

The quality will depend on either the DPI and the number of inches or just the actual number of pixels.

Mark which link? My link? I can read that on my tablet (Samsung Galaxy) but it looks awful, like a photocopy of an origonal. So if I buy a digital sub I download the HiRes PDF? Do you have a sample article I can have a look at first?

Cheers

Yes the link you posted is of the lower quality format. I’m not sure if there’s high quality sample.

Yes the link you posted is of the lower quality format. I’m not sure if there’s high quality sample.

That seems a little silly. Shouldn’t you try and wow people with a sample?

There may be one but as I say I’m not sure, I’ll check in a bit.

Jfletch, it makes good sense. Our hi res versions are output from Adobe Acrobat Pro at 225dpi. If you look at that version on an iPad the images are lovely and sharp and you can zoom in lots and the images remain pretty good. If you open the low res version that has been output at 72dpi from Adobe Acrobat pro it looks reasonable but as soon as you zoom the images pixelate badly. The low res version is useful and quick if you like to have a copy of the mag on your mobile or if you want to download a copy using your mobile data plan and don’t want to blow 50mb on the high res version.

BTW £2 for a months access and you can download the entire Singletrack back catalog including all our ebooks and ePub mag versions plus toucan even enter this weeks Tuesday Treats competition 🙂

Jfletch, it makes good sense.

Missunderstanding. It makes good sense to have 2 sizes for the reasons you state.

I simply meant the language you use to describe what you provide is all muddled. A dots per inch number is meaningless without context and is actually a function of the display, not the file as you had used it. A 3 inch 72 dpi file is identical to a 1 inch 216 dpi file for example.

I assure you that if you download the PDF and examine the properties of the file itself you will see it is really, actually defined by its DPI. I do accept that in the world of screen resolution the dots per inch is a bit of a mixed metaphor but since PDFs were designed primarily for printing it’s a legacy we are still saddled with while the only control settings available with PDF production are document size and dots per inch. Similarly photoshop still allows you to change an image’s DPI settings even though very few photoshop outputs ever see actual print. So DPI is more of a convention in terms of digital publishing 🙂

In an unrelated but related manner, if I download the PDF version of an older issue on Ipad, how do I save it so I can view without Wifi access?(on a plane to the Alps tomorrow for example?)

Eh, I’ve managed it, thanks…

the only control settings available with PDF production are document size and dots per inch

exactly. And my, admittedly petty, point was than in you original explanation you didn’t quote the document size making the number of DPIs pretty meaningless.

The file’s data may say 225 dpi but a display won’t read this data, it will simply stretch the available pixels to the screen size. On a digital display a 5 inch 225 dpi image will be lower quality than a 10 inch 225 dpi image.

since PDFs were designed primarily for printing

No they weren’t. The were intended as a method of sharing files in a standard format that would render consistently on different machines. A kind of digital paper.

Similarly photoshop still allows you to change an image’s DPI settings even though very few photoshop outputs ever see actual print

Ps allows you to alter the resolution either directly via changing the number of pixels or indirectly by changing the size and PPI setting. This is just as some people are more comfortable this way rather than it actually having any impact on the way the file is used.

Any way it’s just petty semantics and the high quality version does look awesome on the new iPad screen.

Just an update.
I went and got the digital subscription. I am very happy the high definitely pdf looks great on my galaxy tab, now I can read the mag wherever I am, and go back through old versions easily.
Most pleased

Just to confirm that this is absolutely true:

If you look at that version on an iPad the images are lovely and sharp and you can zoom in lots and the images remain pretty good.

The mag looks luvverly on the new retina iPad (iPad 3) and is very readable.

Having the high-quality 225dpi file makes a lot of sense when the iPad display is 264ppi.

Sim (designer) has said to me that the iPad version in pdf is the only version that comes close to how he ‘sees’ the mag when he designs it. Print has all kinds of not great effects on colours. The hi-res pdf version on an iPad 3 is, so far, the closest the look of the mag comes to how it’s meant to look.

Mark: any chance we could see automatic delivery of new issues in the future, possibly via the existing Newstand app?

Or is that not feasible?

Sim (designer) has said to me that the iPad version in pdf is the only version that comes close to how he ‘sees’ the mag when he designs it

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows?

The hi res version is usually over 50mb We couldn’t automatically deliver that size of file to thousands of subscribers. That’s why it’s put in our mag archive where you can come and get it. I know that’s not the most convenient method but it’s the only way it can work for us outside of the app store. The app we use is developed for us by a third party (magazine cloner). That system delivers an iPad version of the mag that is not based on PDFs. W ecan’t use that system at the moment to deliver the PDF files as well. Sorry.

We couldn’t automatically deliver that size of file to thousands of subscribers.

Yeah, that’s why I wondered about the Newstand thing cos, as I understand it, the point of that is that it goes and automatically downloads the mags & newspapers you subscribe to while the iPad is charging on standby.

W ecan’t use that system at the moment to deliver the PDF files as well. Sorry.

Bum. Oh well, the existing system isn’t exactly onerous to be honest.

Thanks for the answer anyway.