Speed Up Your Magazine Publishing With Pubzie
The Course Is Live
I finally finished the Newsstand Magazine course ‘How To Make A Magazine‘ course. It totals around 5 hours or so and covers every aspect of getting a brand new magazine published through iTunes via Newsstand. Checkout the magazine that was built in the course here.
In the course I showed a tool I was build to really speed up the magazine creation process and was asked if I would share it.
So here it is; just give me a social share and it’s all yours.
Caution: This software was built with just me in mind and has plenty of, lets say issues. But still, you may find it useful. I do!
Here’s a video showing how to install it and use it.
I want to know what you think so Please let me know in the comments below.
Summary Steps:
- If you have OSX 10.8 – Install ImageMagick from here
Jump to Step 6 - Install MacPorts.org from here
- Install Xcode from the App Store
- Install Xcode Command Line Tools
- Install ImageMagick using the Terminal
- sudo port install imagemagick
- Test Imagemagick
- convert logo: logo.gif
- identify logo.gif
- display logo.gif
- Download, Unzip & run Pubzie_Beta
- Marvel at the amount of time you have saved, then tell Pete in the comment section below 🙂
Enjoy!
July 12, 2013 @ 3:24 am
Hi,
I have 2 macs. Yesterday I tried to install on Mountain Lion but I could never get it to work. Today, I followed your directions and I installed everything on my Mac running Lion. I only had one problem: In the terminal, it would not work if I typed imagemagick but when I typed ImageMagick, it worked perfectly. I made all the files and everything looks great. I really appreciate you sharing your software.
Becky
July 12, 2013 @ 6:22 am
Hey Becky,
That seems a bit weird that it would only run on one of your Macs. Even so, I’m thrilled you got it working. I hope it saves you a ton time building the magazine files.
Magcast - My Preferred iPad and iPhone Newsstand Magazine App Builder | Niche SpinNiche Spin
August 11, 2013 @ 12:03 pm
[…] iOS Newsstand applications and several weeks ago I released my own course showing you how you can build your own Newsstand App for your magazine without any ongoing […]
August 20, 2013 @ 1:30 pm
Hi Pete,
Thanks for the software. I run mountain lion and I already had XCode with command line tools installed. Have installed ImageMagick but when I run pubzie, regardless of the PDF when I click on ‘Create Hpub’ it just throws up a dialog window with the word ‘Error’ and no other information!
Cheers
Gary
August 20, 2013 @ 1:53 pm
Hi Gary,
Can you tell me how far the process gets? A screenshot would be ideal. Failing that, tell me what is output in the log window on the right hand side. That will give me a clue.
One thing that comes to mind is that when Imagemagick is used it is run from the /opt/local/bin/
See if the file /opt/local/bin/convert exists. If the ‘convert’ program is located somewhere else, that will be the problem and you will need to make sure imagemagick is installed there.
Pete
August 20, 2013 @ 4:20 pm
Hey Peter,
Thanks for the quick response. The error pops up right away and no I didnt install Magick into /opt/local/bin so I guess thats probably the issue. Will retry it.
Thanks again
Gary
August 22, 2013 @ 12:18 pm
Hi Peter,
No causes more problems than it solves unfortunately. I’m on Mountain lion, I didnt have local/bin under opt and every command I have to run as sudo as it complains about permissions. It then causes issues with trying to run the ImageMagick commands.
I’ll need another route for PDF to HTML5. Thanks for your help anyway
Cheers
Gary
August 22, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
Not giving up yet!
Set directory permissions. I have tried installing ImageMagick in
opt/local/ImageMagick-6.8.6
opt/local/bin/ImageMagick-6.8.6
And the bin files (in other words not under ImageMagick-6.8.6)
opt/local/bin
same issue everytime
error screenshot is https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/0/AACUhZQp6zdvKPSo059jWnkVkM68TGgEFMztRa4ebHxclQ/12/17908247/png/32×32/3/_/1/2/ss.png/RmcVAJEaVOLGIdHXe60TinNvnfIFcb1FKfItThfSc64?size=1280×960
August 22, 2013 @ 3:54 pm
The link isn’t working Gary
August 23, 2013 @ 7:56 am
Hey Pete,
Try this: http://codewerks.co.uk/downloads/ss.png
Just one other thing does the html files that pubzie creates simply embed the images for each page or do they have an actual html representation of the PDF text?
Cheers
Gary
August 23, 2013 @ 8:15 am
Hi Gary,
It just embed the images.
Pete
September 8, 2013 @ 8:53 pm
Pete, was compelled to upgrade to Mountain Lion in order to use Baker Framework. (Was previously running Snow Leopard.)
Installed XCode, X11, Imagemagic. Imagemagic works in testing.
Ran Pubzie and it creates the Images folder, generates the page images, generates the thumbnail images, creates the screenshots folder. Says it is generating the screenshots but then says “error generating the screenshot images” and then fails.
Any help would be appreciated.
September 8, 2013 @ 9:01 pm
Hi John,
Did the screen shots get generated?
September 8, 2013 @ 11:56 pm
No – it just stopped working at that point. No screenshots. No HTML generated. It created the folder but it is completely empty.
September 9, 2013 @ 3:56 am
Pete, no. The folder was created but nothing was generated.
September 9, 2013 @ 6:15 am
Hmmm, that’s very strange. When it gets to that stage all it has to do is run imagemagick to create the screenshot images in exactly the same way as the other images, just with different dimensions.
Without seeing it in action i don’t know what to suggest to make it run through.
After the screenshot stage the program just creates a zip file of all the files and then renames it to a hpub file, so you are nearly there. If you don’t need the screenshots then you could just edit the issue JSON file and remove the screenshots line and then zip the files and rename to hpub. If you do want the screenshots, then you would need to generate the screenshots yourself… The fastest way would be using imagemagick yourself using the Mac terminal. Alternatively, you can grab the screenshots from your device when testing your magazine on you ios device as mentioned in the Q&A blog post on this site.
September 9, 2013 @ 7:17 pm
Pete, I re-ran Pubzie with “Generate Screenshots” deselected. It ran through just fine and created everything (save for the screenshots) – so the bug appears to be specifically in that function. Any sugesstions on how to resolve beyond just manually creating the screenshots?
September 10, 2013 @ 2:41 pm
Sorry John, I don’t know what the issue is without seeing it fail first hand.
September 10, 2013 @ 2:48 pm
Had a thought John… Send me your PDF and I will run it on my machine and tell you if I find any issues.
Or alternatively, if you are okay trying out a command line parameter, here is the actual imagemagick command that produces the screenshot images:
/opt/local/bin/convert -resize 768×1024! -density 72 -quality 89 /Users/p1/Desktop/mymagazine.pdf -scene 1 /Users/p1/Desktop/myEmptyFolder/screenshots/screenshot-portrait-%0d.jpg
You would need to replace the /Users/p1/Desktop/mymagazine.pdf with you actual magazine path and name and also change the /Users/p1/Desktop/myEmptyFolder/screenshots/screenshot-portrait-%0d.jpg to equal the folder where you want your screenshot images to be saved.
September 10, 2013 @ 8:09 pm
Hey Pete,
This tool looks fantastic, I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but it does look like it would save a lot of time! I plan to use it once I am done with the course lessons.
I would like to see more about making hyperlinks (internal & external) to work in your magazines and I would love to see how to embed videos. If you could highlight these, that would be very helpful.
Thanks,
Kent
September 10, 2013 @ 8:22 pm
It definitely does save time Kent. I wanted to make sure everyone understood how the pages are generated manually first prior to using the tool in case you want to change how you build your own magazine content.
For adding links, take a look at the very last video, that will show you how to add links and youtube videos.
Regards,
Pete
September 10, 2013 @ 10:09 pm
Thank you Pet for the actual imagemagick command that produces the screenshot images. As it turns out the particular part of the script that generates the Screenshots (Portrait Only) did not like the fact that my source directory name contained spaces.
Once I removed the spaces from the directory where the source PDF lives, I was able to re-run Pubzie Beta v0.1 and it ran perfectly.
-John
September 10, 2013 @ 10:11 pm
Sorry Pete for your name goof and also that this wasn’t appended to the right part of the conversation. Please feel free to remove / update as needed on your side since I can’t edit from here.
September 11, 2013 @ 3:38 am
That is fantastic John. I’m thrilled it is working for you.
November 5, 2013 @ 3:06 am
Hey Pete, just curious why Pubzie produces JPGs instead of PNGs which are more suitable for use with iOS? Thanks.
November 5, 2013 @ 10:39 am
Hi Larry,
A couple of reasons First, JPGs are usually a lot smaller in size resulting in less memory being taken up by the app. Secondly, I’ve noticed transparency issues with PNG’s when running through imagemagick. I worked out how to fix them but it requires longer processing time in imagemagick. The real kicker for me though is file size.
December 10, 2013 @ 3:07 am
Hi Pete.
Love your tutorials. They are exactly what I have been looking for past few weeks. I followed your youtube video and installed MacPorts and thereafter ImageMagick using the sudo port install ImageMagick.
I am new to the world of Mac and got MacBook air to test these tutorials. I have OSX 10.8.5.
The installation was fine. I converted the logo.gif and successfully ran the Identify logo command. The system returned following error on display logo.gif command
Error: unable to open X server `’@ error/display.c/DisplayImageCommand/426.
Is there anything I can do to fix it?
Thanks in advance
Manny
December 10, 2013 @ 11:14 am
Hi Manny,
Thanks for the kind comments about my tutorials.
I think the error is just for the imagemagick ‘DISPLAY’ command. I don’t know why it didn’t work for you but try out some of the other commands such as CONVERT or MOGRIGY and see if they work. If they do, then I wouldn’t worry too much about the DISPLAY error.
I found this through a google search. It may help but it does look a bit complicated! http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19833
I think in summary the people with similar issues had to re-install.
December 10, 2013 @ 8:13 pm
Hi Pete,
I was able to convert one publication successfully. On my second publication, I am receiving error message when the system tries to create Screenshots. It pops up “Error” in a window with no details to it.
When I uncheck “Create Screenshots”, the publication is converted successfully. Is there any reason why this is happening? Also, what are the screenshots used for?
Thanks
Manny
December 10, 2013 @ 9:37 pm
Hi Manny,
Screenshots are an Optional extra. When a user first opens a magazine on their iPad the Baker app generates screenshots of each page as they are viewed. This is to help speed up the process of viewing each page. I added this feature to the pubzie app so the baker app didn’t have to do this work maker your magazine load just that little bit faster.
There is no need for you to use this feature but I added it as an option.
As for the app failing, I do recall someone else having a similar issue and we tracked it back to the folder and/or PDF file having a space in the name. Taking out any spaces in the name fixed it. Try this out and see if it works.
Pete
December 10, 2013 @ 9:50 pm
It worked. Thanks 🙂
December 10, 2013 @ 9:53 pm
Woooohooooo, AWESOME!
December 10, 2013 @ 8:48 pm
I can forward you the PDF file if you like. Please let me know your email address.
For the first document, I do have screenshots and it fails for the second file.
Regards
Manpreet
December 11, 2013 @ 4:41 am
Hi Pete, I have a quick question regards to image size. Attached is the sample image I have uploaded on drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1tREdaaEvpwX3hCdGdHYUlMTlU/edit?usp=sharing
The dimension of the images are 1263W x 893H.
Once you open the HTML, the image is not rendered correctly due to the specs in the CSS.
Can you recommend anything which can be a simpler process to address this?
Thanks
Manny
December 11, 2013 @ 8:53 am
Hi Manny,
It is important that pages generated the way I show in my training are of the correct proportions otherwise you get this result. For a fast fix, I would insert the picture on a seperate page in my PDF befor generating the pages. Alternatively, you can insert the image over the top of a page by editing the html for the page inside your hpub, similar to how I show in the video on this page (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtByNsesSkE) – about 6 minutes in. If you choose this method, instead of using the transparent image, just include your own. You can then set the dimensions however you wish.
December 12, 2013 @ 3:04 am
Thanks Pete. Just to confirm, the book url will be the Public URL where I will place the HPub document for the magazine on the server. Correct?
Regards
December 12, 2013 @ 9:23 am
Yes, exactly Manny.
December 15, 2013 @ 6:33 pm
URGENT
Hi Pete,
I am running mountain lion and i have installed macports and then used sudo port install Imagemagick, also installed the command tools after that, when ever i try to convert a pdf document it only converts the documents into pictures and then shows a error.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/an5zmwyd2h83voi/Screen%20Shot%202013-12-15%20at%2010.36.00%20PM.png
December 16, 2013 @ 10:04 am
Hi Nishtha,
Very hard to know what the issue is but may be you can try something that will help give you a clue where the error is.
Here is the command that the program runs when trying to create the images…
/opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/p1/Desktop/mymagazine.pdf /Users/p1/Desktop/myfolder/images/image-%03d.jpg
First, change the ‘mymagazine.pdf’ & folder location to match yours. Also make sure the ‘myfolder/images’ folder exists. Then run the command in the terminal. You will likely get an error message which will then give a clue as to the error.
Pete
December 19, 2013 @ 10:16 am
URGENT
i did that and got this error
Last login: Thu Dec 19 14:20:47 on ttys000
Vivek-Kumars-MacBook:~ kumarnishtha10$
Vivek-Kumars-MacBook:~ kumarnishtha10$ /opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/p1/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf/Users/p1/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg
convert: no images defined `/Users/p1/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf/Users/p1/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg’ @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3145.
Vivek-Kumars-MacBook:~ kumarnishtha10$
December 19, 2013 @ 10:30 am
You need a space between youspecific the PDF:
Example:
/opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/p1/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf /Users/p1/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg
December 19, 2013 @ 10:46 am
Urgent
Is this the correct way
Last login: Thu Dec 19 14:51:02 on ttys000
Vivek-Kumars-MacBook:~ kumarnishtha10$ /opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/p1/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf /Users/p1/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg
convert: unable to open image `/Users/p1/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf’: No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2643.
convert: no images defined `/Users/p1/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg’ @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3145.
Vivek-Kumars-MacBook:~ kumarnishtha10$
December 19, 2013 @ 11:26 am
Yes, the command line looks okay but as you can see, the imagemagick is reporting an error because it can not find the PDF file you have specified.
Note that the /Users/p1/Desktop… etc.. is refering to MY desktop. Yours should be different. The P1 part is my user name on my computer. Yours is different. Look in your USERS folder and to get your USERNAME (Possibly it is kumarnishtha). You command should look something like this:
/opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/kumarnishtha/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf /Users/kumarnishtha/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg
December 19, 2013 @ 11:29 am
Urgent
I made the changes and this is what i got
Last login: Thu Dec 19 14:59:44 on ttys000
Vivek-Kumars-MacBook:~ kumarnishtha10$ /opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/kumarnishtha10/Desktop/TheStudentIssue.pdf /Users/kumarnishtha10/Desktop/September-November/images/image-%03d.jpg
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
**** Warning: considering ‘0000000000 XXXXX n’ as a free entry.
December 19, 2013 @ 11:30 am
this is the other half of the error shown
**** This file had errors that were repaired or ignored.
**** The file was produced by:
**** >>>> Mac OS X 10.8.5 Quartz PDFContext <<<<
**** Please notify the author of the software that produced this
**** file that it does not conform to Adobe's published PDF
**** specification.
December 19, 2013 @ 11:35 am
Look complicate to me!
I think there is a problem with your PDF. I don’t know what it is but there are many recorded issues if you google the error message. Here is one I found… http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20156293/how-to-convert-a-pdf-with-a-filled-form-to-a-jpeg-image-using-imagemagick-and-pr
December 19, 2013 @ 11:41 am
Urgent
I tried it with another pdf and it worked, i dont understand why it is acting like this because i use my mac to convert my iwork pages document to pdf
December 19, 2013 @ 12:41 pm
I don’t have a specific answer for this but I do recall something a little odd with pages (from some time ago).
I think when making certain embedded images transparent or semi-transparent the conversion to a PDF generate ‘invalid’ PDF files (sometimes). I can’t recall exactly.
Try this… Save individual pages of your document as PDF files and run them through the convert process. For the pages that do not work, figure out which elements of the page are causing the issue. Are there embedded graphics? What type of graphic… PNG or JPG? Are you setting some elements as opaque?
Just some things to try.
December 19, 2013 @ 1:57 pm
Urgent
Thank you Pete, your advice worked!!!!
I really appreciate it!!!! 🙂
December 19, 2013 @ 2:49 pm
That’s great news. I’m really glad you are able to get back on track.
AWESOME!
December 19, 2013 @ 7:56 pm
Urgent
Hi Pete,
it works great but on iphones it shows up like this is there any way to fix that?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aeprtyk8wcx8oex/iOS%20Simulator%20Screen%20shot%20Dec%2019%2C%202013%2011.58.10%20PM.png
December 20, 2013 @ 9:26 am
I think you would need to workout a different design for iPhones.
December 20, 2013 @ 12:09 pm
URGENT
So how would that be possible if I want to launch the app for iPhone and iPad?
December 20, 2013 @ 1:50 pm
Personally, I think magazines on iPhones are a waste of time… the screens too small. But if you want to go down that route then you would likely have to produce a separate version for the iPhone. If you did just want a universal app to work on phones and tablets, then you would need to design you magazine with this in mind and more than likely have to create your pages using html 5 only – making sure they are using a responsive design too.
December 15, 2013 @ 7:05 pm
Got my publication up and running. Whoohoo 🙂
Is it possible to add a splash screen? I would like to display my company logo for 2-3 seconds prior the Publication loads.
Thanks Pete
Manny
December 16, 2013 @ 10:16 am
Hi Manny,
You would need to dig into adding some code into the xcode project I think to get the splash screen going. Not something I have done.
Congrats on getting your publication up and running 🙂
December 19, 2013 @ 3:24 am
hello,
thank you very much for this tutorial.
but where I can download Pubzie_Beta
merci
thx
December 19, 2013 @ 9:12 am
Just visit this page http://www.nichespin.com/speed-up-your-magazine-publishing-with-pubzie/
December 29, 2013 @ 5:00 pm
hello pete
thank you very much
merci beaucoup.
July 7, 2014 @ 11:50 am
helo, there is no where i can find the beta zip on this page, can i know where can i get it? cheers
July 7, 2014 @ 7:46 pm
It’s at the top of the page. Search for the text ‘PUBZIE_BETA DOWNLOAD LINK’.
July 8, 2014 @ 11:26 am
thank you
August 11, 2014 @ 7:44 pm
Will this work on Mavericks?
August 12, 2014 @ 2:02 pm
Should do
September 13, 2014 @ 2:52 am
Any resolution to the problem at the top of the comments. I have tried several PDFs with the same results. I installed ImageMagick and the test conversions work.
I run Pubzie and it shows:
Checking PDF & Destination folder
Generating the Page Images
Error generating the Page images
at that point it pops up a dialog with the word Error.
Any thoughts?
September 15, 2014 @ 12:28 pm
Hi Brad,
It’s tricky to workout the issue but from the steps you show it looks like the process is failing when it first tries to us ImageMagick.
Can you open up a terminal window and try typing in the following command to see if it generates any images:
/opt/local/bin/convert -density 72 -quality 92 /Users/p1/Desktop/issue01.pdf /Users/p1/Desktop/myfolder/images/image-%03d.jpg
You would need to replace the /Users/p1/Desktop/issue01.pdf with your actual magazine path and name and also change the /Users/p1/Desktop/myfolder/images/image-%03d.jpg to equal the folder where you want the images to be saved. Make sure the folders exist and do not contain any files.
If the command doesn’t work it points to Imagemagick not working correctly. It should give an error message that we can look at to help identify the issue.
September 22, 2014 @ 3:04 am
It installed, but not to that folder. Mine installed in user/Brad/ImageMagick-6.8.9
Is there a way to change the folder the app is looking at?
September 22, 2014 @ 9:10 am
Not really Brad. It needs to be in that folder. You could try to create the folder yourself and copy the files in there. I don’t know if that will work or not though.
September 22, 2014 @ 3:05 am
In case it matters, I am running Mavericks. I chose the install option and not the rebuild one.
September 13, 2014 @ 2:58 am
Also, did you ever do the video on adding links?
September 15, 2014 @ 11:53 am
Take a look at the video here: http://www.nichespin.com/make-a-magazine-course-qa/
May 22, 2015 @ 9:48 pm
Hello Pete,
I run Pubzie and it shows:
Checking PDF & Destination folder
Generating the Page Images
Error generating the Page images
I have been trying to fix it, but no luck. i have gone through all the post and tried everything there but nothing changes.
What else can do ?
May 23, 2015 @ 2:59 pm
Difficult to know what the issue is without seeing it. I haven’t used it in quite some time myself. May be something with the latest Mac OS (just guessing) already no one else is reporting any issue.
June 18, 2015 @ 10:19 am
Hi Pete,
Been at it for hours now, but no joy.
ImageMagick was working fine on its own, but apparently you need it to be in a different location.
Moved all the ImageMagick files and folders to the opt/local/ location
adjusted the $MAGICK_HOME, $PATH and $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
still PUBZIE starts with an error when generating the page images.
June 18, 2015 @ 10:33 am
When I try the command mentioned above I get:
dyld: Library not loaded: /ImageMagick-6.9.1/lib/libMagickCore-6.Q16.2.dylib
Referenced from: /opt/local/bin/convert
Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5