Wow, Roger Black is at it again. After releasing the controversial magazine and newspaper design templates Ready-Media he’s got his hands on a platform for publishing content online that will automatically adjust the layout to the size of the screen. With the recent announcement that Kmart is selling a 7 in. tablet for $170 bucks and the Android OS being sold in every size and shape of phone available the hand made rigid templates media companies use to publish content online are looking to become a very costly portion of the bottom line. In comes Roger with Treesaver to save the day:
Adaptive Page Sizing Demo:
Continuous Reading Demo:
17 Comments
This looks like good stuff. Any clues on the pricing? If this stuff is cheap enough it has implications that extend way beyond magazine publishing. For example there might be some interesting possibilities for presenting portfolios, projects, etc.
@Tom, Pretty intuitive thinking Tom.
This is one alert blog. We’re just starting to sneak word out about Treesaver. Tomorrow there’s the official announcement about our first client, Nomad Editions.
Treesaver is an HTML5 app, and the main cost now is figuring out the templates that adapt photos and text to any size browser. It is a non-trivial task, working with the algorithms, and perhaps the way we’ll all be doing design in the future.
Stand by for details at Treesaver.net.
Amazing what is constantly coming out, but I still prefer the feel of a good book most of the time.
One of my (back of my head/mind) concerns is this: yes we’re saving trees, I’m all for it, but aren’t we using A LOT of petroleum-base resources to make the next cool tool (gadget)? Seems to me there’s ALWAYS some sort of impact to our lives, be it by pen, stylus or light sabre…..
Trees are a renewable resource also. Not so worried about trees getting cut down to make paper.
I don’t see how this is any different than WordPress, which is free and open source, except that Treesaver.net templates will not be free.
Also, forests are not clear-cut to produce paper. Many paper companies have been around for hundreds of year (check out Stora Enso). Major paper companies manage sustainable forests, and used a large volume of recycled paper. There is an independent organization that verifies sustainable forestry. More information at the following link –
http://www.fsc.org/
@Gordon Moat,
Have you seen the Wired and Sports Illustrated ipad apps? How they read like magazine and scroll with touch?
View those apps and then you will that it is not like WordPress.
For those of us looking to do more a print/web hybrid as opposed to just a website… I’m loving this solution.
@Hoodgrown Magazine, Unfortunately I don’t know any of the less than 10000 subscribers to the iPad versions of those magazines. Just because you add swipe motion to change pages, instead of just touch, does not get away from the fact that it is a template. Anyway, how much over the cost of WordPress is it worth to have swipe to change pages?
@Gordon Moat,
I agree about the subscriber amount but the majority of what’s out there is simply not worth subscribing too. I think the bigger companies are trying to replicate the print experience a little too much and that the real innovation will come from the smaller guys.
As far as the worthiness as opposed to WordPress.. I love WordPress.. i use WP and Thesis to build the majority of my non-ecommerce sites… but I would pay more to view pages with a swipe and if I’m using an ipad or touch enabled device i’d prefer to have. I guess i’m just a bells & whistles guy. :)
@Hoodgrown Magazine, Actually, I mentioned your comment to a webdesigner friend of mine, and he forwarded a link to me for swipe on WordPress.
http://padpressed.com/
Okay, so it looks to me that if you added that to your WordPress layout, that you would get a nice iPad compatible zine. Definitely vastly cheaper than that quote Wood Wing gave you.
@Gordon Moat,
WOw, you’re fast. Lol. I’m going to check this out RIGHT NOW.
@Gordon Moat,
I’m loving what i’m seeing in Pad Pressed…. wow! Thanks a lot i’m downloading this tonite!!!!!
@Gordon Moat,
I think you may have proven your point.. lol
@Hoodgrown Magazine, Glad to be of help.
@Gordon Moat,
Just purchased it… THANKS!!!!!
I’m loving this. My magazine originally started as a print magazine but due to the rising cost of printing I had to go the web only route and sacrificing the great layouts the magazine had.
Now I see a return to that. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile and I contacted Wood Wing and the cheapest quote I received was 14K. That’s right… $14,000!!! Really?
This pricing effectively locks smaller publishers out and I feel that if these are ever going to take off.. it’s going to be the small publisher who truly merge web and print together.
Bravo to Tree Saver for this accomplishment and a middle finger to Wood Wing…. lol
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