Since 2007, UK-based cloud publishing support provider YUDU has been offering solutions for a wide variety of content creators in the digital sphere, creating both web-based and app solutions for their clients. But one running theme at this year’s event is the shift towards a more user-friendly and publisher-focused platform, changes that have been incorporated from a wide variety of digital companies. Good e-Reader caught up with YUDU at this week’s Frankfurt Book Fair and spoke with Charlie Stephenson and Laura Austin about some of the recent changes that have taken place within the company.
“We’re talking about the revamp of the publisher, rebranding the YUDU publisher as YUDU Pro, the self-publishing platform that we’ve launched and that has been used by different industries,” explained Stephenson, product manager for YUDU. “The interface is a migration for our back end clients who use it for digital publishing, for a simpler interface. The framework is still the same, but it includes the new featuresn such as read-aloud technology, the voice recording technology, all built into the platform in the last month. We’re migrating all of our customers to the new interface by December.”
“All existing clients need to do is log in to the new platform and they’ll find all their features, there’s no sort of registration,” stated Austin, YUDU’s marketing manager.
“Our system adjusts to PDF, and we’ve built in tools to enhance the PDF in the cloud,” continued Stephenson. “That’s the work flow that lets you create a PDF from work flow tools and to create digital designs. A lot of our clients are designing for the iPad screen sizes, then adding in HTML5 to improve the reading experience and make it more interesting. It’s all done in the cloud, and then they can immediately publish.”
YUDU can build the app for their clients in the initial stages, or clients can publish immediately cross platform to their existing apps. One of the new features that really helps out the clients is the in-app editor that lets them see the final product on screen before they see it.
“We’re working with quite a few educational publishers at the moment,” said Austin, “which enables them to use our software to incorporate extra features like note taking and highlighting to generate textbooks. And we’ve just launched a new feature which is a read-aloud, so students can actually highlight text and record their voice.” This feature is especially important for language learners and low-reading proficiency students.
A large number of digital solutions providers have taken a strong look at their platforms and worked to make them more user-friendly for a broader audience in the past year. This type of revamp goes to show that digital publishing is an endeavor that more and more companies are attempting, and are looking for streamlined systems to make it happen.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.