RESPONSE: Mag+

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

During the VOX Staff meeting on Monday, we had a Skype session with a developer/designer from Mag+, a program designed to create iPad application for magazines, directly from InDesign files. Going into the presentation, I thought the program seemed too good to be true. Really? A program that will create iPad pages from InDesign pages? I was skeptical.

After watching the presentation, I came away impressed with the program, but I don't think it's as simple as it sounds. One aspect I was really impressed with is the way it's able to convert all the images in an InDesign file to be formatted for the web. That was pretty cool. Also, I liked how you don't have to design two different documents to account for both the horizontal and vertical display on an iPad. However, the "pinning" solution to that problem seemed way more complicated than the presenter seemed to make it.

Overall though, I think this is a program we can make work at VOX. I was shocked when the presenter said Popular Science launched their iPad app the day the iPad went on sale. Now that's forward thinking. I hope we get the chance to work with the software this semester. As Jan said, magazines will hire you in a second if you know how to work with iPad design.