Readmode: Required data and PDF requirements
To ensure that your content can later be displayed in Readmode in the app and on the website, your (PDF) content must be provided meeting the following requirements. These guarantee a smooth conversion of your content and an error-free result.
To ensure that the data can be processed and the automated process works smoothly later on, we need some information from you once at the beginning of the project. These serve the purpose of coordination between you, the XML service provider and us. For this purpose, we will contact you personally and ask for this information.
In addition, the delivered PDF files must comply with certain specifications in order to exclude processing errors.
In order for the initial setup to run without delay, a table must be filled out and returned to us before processing begins.
The table consists of the following columns:
- filename
- pubcode
- issue name
- delivery date
- publication date
- estimated page numbers
You can download the template here:
The filename is the name of the PDF data that must be delivered as a ZIP file. Filenames should be formed from the PubCode and the publication date. This makes it possible to assign the file precisely and ensures smooth processing of the data.
If you have an edition
- Atlas of Zoology (Pubcode: ADZ)
- for the month of March in 2020
- with a publication date of 01.03.2020,
the file name would look like this: adz_20200301.zip
In order to add a Readmode to a PDF issue, it must contain a pubcode that is linked to the publication. This is assigned by us, usually PubCode is assigned based on the name of the publication. This PubCode is important for allocation by our service provider and is used as part of the file name when it is sent. We will inform you of the specific PubCode after consultation with the service provider. For example, if your publication is called Atlas of Zoology, the PubCode could be ADZ, if it has not already been assigned.
The issue name is the name of the issue as the reader will see it later in the app or on the web, for example "Atlas of Zoology March 2020".
The delivery date is the date on which the zip file is made available by you on our SFTP server. This date must be before the publication date.
The publication date is the date on which the issue goes live and is made available to readers.
Estimated page number stands for an approximation of the page number of the issue. This value is necessary for estimating the processing time, costs and for checking correct processing.
- No read-only PDFs may be used.
- All pages must be single pages
- All pages must be in the correct order.
- Trim boxes should always be set correctly, i.e. contain only the relevant page information without bleed and not overlap with the opposite side of the double page.
- The data must be delivered as a zip file.
- All text and fonts must be fully embedded in the PDF.
- The text must not be rasterised or have paths.
- All text is extracted as it appears in the PDF. If glyphs or special fonts are used that change the appearance of a character, only the character is extracted.
- Images should not be reduced to the background so that they can be extracted as separate objects.
- Down-sampling should be avoided if possible. For file size reasons, some down-sampling is preferable.
- The aim is to ensure a sharp display for large images with a maximum width or height of 2400px.
- Images with 300DPI+ are preferred as long as the output size does not exceed ~300MB. If the output is larger than 300MB, please reduce the resolution to ~150DPI and/or use better compression.
- RGB colour space