CatStone's blog. Good info about green publishing, digital publishing and the future of reading...
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Design Tips for a More Enjoyable Online Magazine
I recently participated in a LinkedIn discussion about the enjoyability of reading online magazines. There were a lot of reasons, beyond mere nostalgia, for people to love their paper. Some of these…
Partnering on Digital
As a publisher considering your options in going digital, you have the choice of expanding your capabilities in-house or pairing up with an outside designer to help make the transition. At CatStone,…
CatStone's new Design Portfolio
We've posted a secondary website to show off the design and editorial skills of our team. While we specialize in digital publications, our team is available for other design needs as well. Please…
Making Your Annual Report Sing
Your company's annual report is likely one of the highlights of your brand portfolio. You want it to stand out, command attention and sing to your audience. With that in mind, I wanted to outline…
E-book, Flash page flip, PDF - Which One is Best?
There is a lot of confusion out there about what constitutes a digital book or magazine. Some references are even to websites that call themselves magazines. And I'm not going to slam that idea - if…
Trying to Decide About Using Video in Your Digital Catalog?
A new whitepaper (linked at the end of this post), produced by Adobe Scene 7, a video software, has some great facts on its pages about how much consumers love video. While you do have to supply some…
An App in the Right Direction
I got a great announcement from Amazon today - a free iPhone and iPod Touch app is now available for reading Kindle books on those Apple devices. No more Kindle required. If you already have a…
Great Statistics on eBook Buyers & Readers
Came across this great blog post by Charlotte Abbott with statistics from a conference, Making Information Pay. One digital publication stat - Ebook sales grew 125% overall in 2008 with a surprising…
When you really want paper...
...I discovered some great tips from Eco-Libris on environmentally friendly printing practices. Check to make sure your zines or business cards are printed on POST Consumer Waste. The higher the…
Getting Your Digital Magazine More Views
One of the biggest challenges with a new digital publication is how to get noticed. With traditional paper, businesses knew where to place it, mail it, wave the physical item under someone's nose.…
Form and Function with the Vook
I just recently read a short article about a new form of digital pub called a "vook" - a combination of video and book. The article 
highlighted a couple of fiction novels that had tossed in video…
How do You Read Digital Publications? Our videocast...
New CatStone Screenr screencast
We've discovered a great tool for making short screencasts. Go to Screenr.com and check it out - it's completely free and each can be up to 5 minutes long. You can…
Comparing Digital Costs to Print Costs
Knowing that costs change over time, and sometimes rapidly these days, I'm going to attempt to give a reasonable analysis of some print costs (based on 2008 figures of a small run color glossy…
Less is Not More - Designing for Digital
Lest I bring down the wrath of all the best designers, let me clarify what I mean with that title right away. In publishing anything, whether paper or digital, less IS usually more - refinement and…
Best Practices for Digital Catalogs
Showcasing your product line in a well designed, even luxurious, printed piece and mailing it to your community has been a beloved marketing tool from the moment print became accessible to the…
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