The New Yorker's text appears pixelated on the new iPad (viewed at 100%).
But what will the 'optimization' process entail? How much will it increase file sizes? (We noticed, for instance, that Vogue's premiere issue was a full 408 megabytes on the new iPad, and less than 300 on the iPad 2.) We spoke with Zeke Koch, senior director of product management of Adobe's digital publishing arm, to find out. Adobe's software powers all of Conde Nast's editions for tablets.
Magazine publishers who use Adobe's software all begin with InDesign to develop layouts, Koch explained. Those layouts can then be exported in three different kinds of formats: as images (.png or .jpg), PDF or HTML. Different kinds of files -- images, for instance, or video and audio files -- are embedded within those larger file types.
Since magazines began publishing on tablets, "virtually all" publishers have chosen to export their digital editions as PNG (.png) files, Koch said. "The primary reason they did that is because the fidelity is perfect. What you see on the desktop when you're designing is exactly what you see on the iPad when you're finished. Images are the fastest thing to load, and if you're trying to create a quick, effortless browsing experience, images are the way to do that," he explained.
"That was okay when there was only one screen size -- when you were just working with the iPad 1 and 2," he added. "When the [new] iPad came out, you were now dealing with a device with four times as many pixels." The new iPad applies an anti-aliasing filter to all low-resolution content, which blurs images ever so slightly. As a result, photographs still look about the same on the new iPad, but the text looks a lot worse -- i.e., visibly blurry, or pixelated.
But what about file size? I pointed out to Koch that Vogue was nearly as large as Wired's first issue for the original iPad. Unfortunately, he said, magazine files will be larger for new iPad readers because the image and video files need to be delivered at a higher resolution. Owners of first and second-generation iPads will still be able to download smaller, lower-resolution files, however. A magazine that is around 400 megabytes on the new iPad will be around 280 megabytes on the iPad 1 and 2, Koch said.
But why not render in HTML? I asked Koch. Wouldn't that make the files smaller, and give readers the added benefit of selectable text?
Koch claimed that publishing in HTML wouldn't substantially reduce the file sizes. "In both cases, you have a bunch of words, and descriptions of where things should be, and multimedia. Those multimedia files are still the same size." He said the big disadvantage with HTML is that it's "not very good at layout out things predictably and perfectly." Rather, it's optimal for helping people create content that will adapt to any size screen.
Ultimately, however, Koch believes most publishers will move to HTML as standards improve and as publishers move to publish on a wider range of tablets.