Church mags on iPad

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aebrown
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#11

Post by aebrown »

djdinut1 wrote:There is some problem with the way the Ensign pdf file creators have set up their formatting since some images are blocking text when viewed on the iPad. The reason I believe it's a file formatting problem is that I have tried viewing it on three different iPad apps (iBooks, GoodReader and CloudReader) and all have the same result.

But how do you explain the fact that these PDFs all look fine in regular desktop PDF viewers? I don't see how one can assume that the PDF file creators made a mistake. It seems much more reasonable to say that the PDF viewer on the iPad doesn't fully support all aspects of the PDF format. And it's likely that the PDF viewer that is on the iPad is shared by applications (why would you write your own if one is available on the system?), so it makes sense that all those apps on the iPad would work the same way.
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jbh001
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#12

Post by jbh001 »

aebrown wrote:But how do you explain the fact that these PDFs all look fine in regular desktop PDF viewers? I don't see how one can assume that the PDF file creators made a mistake. It seems much more reasonable to say that the PDF viewer on the iPad doesn't fully support all aspects of the PDF format.
In addition to the possibility that Apple might not have fully implemented the published Adobe PDF spec on iOS devices (just like it chose not to allow Flash on iOS devices yet), it is also possible that if the Church is using Adobe's PDF authoring tools, there might be some undocumented features Adobe has implemented that are not part of the published Adobe PDF spec Apple used in iOS (or that a recent security patch has introduced a bug).

It is also possible that the Church is using non-Adobe PDF authoring tools that don't fully implement the published Adobe PDF spec, thus creating a heretofore unknown problem on iOS devices.

Bottom line is that there is a problem somewhere in the mix that is making potions of Church-produced PDF content not readable on iOS devices.
dannykos
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#13

Post by dannykos »

i thought they were using InDesign, which would mean that the PDFs were as compliant as could be?! Surely more likely a PDF rendering issue with IOS devices.
russellhltn
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#14

Post by russellhltn »

jbh001 wrote:Hear is a screen shot of how page 14 of the 2011 January Ensign PDF shows up on the iPhone when viewed from the built in Safari browser.

I see the same thing on my Droid running QuickOffice. It looks to me that whoever put the page together used some page layout tools to do the final cropping of the image in the lower right corner. (As opposed to importing a fully cropped and feathered image). Unfortunately, it appears that our mobile PDF readers for whatever reason doesn't support the layer that's being used to mask the image. (Or puts it in the wrong order).
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djdinut1
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#15

Post by djdinut1 »

Is this an issue Church Magazines could be made aware of so they could correct the way they create the images so that it works? The reason I think they should be willing to do this is that I have not viewed another pdf document on my iPad that has a problem. I downloaded an online magazine pdf a while ago that appeared to have complicated image layering and I could view it without a problem. It seems to me this may be a simple editing issue if the magazine people were made aware of it.
marnold2777
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#16

Post by marnold2777 »

Same problem here. Wonder if simplest solution for now is magazine viewer app? Either that or altering their pdf editing and publishing text and image format. Wish i had the expertise to contribute towards this.
danielbaker2
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#17

Post by danielbaker2 »

I just want to comment that all the LDS church tech seems to be aimed at supporting Apple products. Iphone, Iphone, Ipad, Ipad. Is that where you should be, supporting a specific manufacturer? Reminds me of the Romney Rambler days. There is an ever increasing number of Androids out there, you are ignoring them, and one of them is rated higher than the Iphone. By the way, I do get the mags on my android, I get all the stuff on android, and it's great.
eblood66
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#18

Post by eblood66 »

danielbaker2 wrote:I just want to comment that all the LDS church tech seems to be aimed at supporting Apple products. Iphone, Iphone, Ipad, Ipad. Is that where you should be, supporting a specific manufacturer? Reminds me of the Romney Rambler days. There is an ever increasing number of Androids out there, you are ignoring them, and one of them is rated higher than the Iphone. By the way, I do get the mags on my android, I get all the stuff on android, and it's great.

The church mobile apps are actually being developed by volunteers, not church employees. The order in which apps have been developed has more to do with how many people have volunteered to develop for that platform than any endorsement of specific devices or technologies. There have just been more developers interested in developing for Apple products.

Note, however, that there are Android versions of all the church mobile apps (Mormon Channel, Gospel Library and LDS Tools). The Gospel Library and LDS Tools are lacking some of the features of the iPhone version but the developers are working on that.
Sheila57
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Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2011 12:03 pm

#19

Post by Sheila57 »

I would like to see the Friend and New Era 2011 uploaded to the Church Library for the Iphone/Ipad. Thanks for the wonderful work you provide!
grahamf72
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#20

Post by grahamf72 »

I have a workaround for the pdf formatting issues - works on my iphone4 so I assume it would work on iPad. I use windows - i assume there would be a similar workaround for Mac or Linux.
1st - Download and install the free program CutePDF. This creates a PDF printer driver which appears in your printer list. Whatever you print to that printer becomes a PDF file.
2nd - Download the ensign from the church website and open in Adobe PDF viewer (interestingly the builtin PDF reader in Chrome has issues too, so it is not just apple).
3rd - Print the Ensign and choose the CutePDF printer. The settings to use are "Fit To Printable Area", untick "Auto Rotate and Centre", and tick "Choose paper source by PDF page size". After a couple of minutes of thinking it will prompt you to save the new PDF file - this is the file you copy onto your iDevice.
There is a drawback though - it increases the size of the files dramatically. Eg April went from 8MB to 48MB. The pages are perfectly viewable though.

It would be nice if the Gospel Library app allowed the full graphical view, and with hotlinks etc.
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