Tutorial for ISSU

A tutorial about ISSUU.

1. TUTORIAL FOR ISSUU

2. To publish on Issuu you just need to upload your
documents. Please be aware, that you cannot
combine pages once you have uploaded the
pages to Issuu. You have to combine the pages
to form a book beforehand, and then upload the
book to Issuu.
Publishing on Issuu
1. Sign up for an Issuu account to host your
publications under.
http://issuu.com/home

2. Once you're logged in, click the 'Upload' button
or simply drag your file(s) into the browser
window. If you use the drag and drop method,
you can upload up to 20 publications at a time.
3. Add the title of your publication, a short
description and the original publishing date of the
document. You can check the preview button so
readers know that the publication is a preview
version, and you can also enable downloads for
the publication by selecting that checkbox.

3. 4. Click on the down arrow next to the "Publish
Now" button, and select whether you want to
publish your document now, later (and select the
date you want it published), or publish now as
unlisted.

5. Once you've made your selection, click on the
green button to publish your publication.

4. What kind of documents can you upload?
You can upload most common document files,
including PDF, DOC, PPT, RTF, WPD, ODT and more.
- Documents must be less than 500 pages and 100 mb
if you are on the Free or Pro publishing plans.
- On the Plus plan, you can upload documents up to
250MB and 500 pages.
- On the Premium plan, you can upload documents up
to 500MB.
The conversion service offered for both free and
accounts with Paid Services is currently the same.
If you experience problems with uploading your
document to Issuu, please try these troubleshooting
tips:
 Please make sure that your flash player is up
to date for the browser you're using by
visiting this link: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-
player.html

5.  Check the Known Issues Forum
http://help.issuu.com/forums/22781197-Known-
Issues
3. Please check to make sure your document is
within the document size limits. These are:
Pro and Free plan: 100MB and up to 500 pages
in size
Plus plan : 250MB and up to 500 pages in size
Premium plan : 500MB and up to 500 pages in
size.

To ensure that your publications will run perfectly
on Issuu we have set a maximum upload size of
100 MB per document. However, should your
PDF exceed this limit, reducing the file size.

To compress your PDFs, you can use your
normal PDF software (e.g. Acrobat, Scribus, or
Quark) to minimize the number of fonts,
bitmapped images, and (possibly) substitute
vector based-graphics with bitmap. Furthermore,
consider minimizing the number and complexity
of forms in your PDF document and flatten layers.

Guide on reducing file size by flattening layers in
Adobe Acrobat. Learn from it and use the advice

6. to perform similar actions with your favorite PDF
software.

1. Open the document in Adobe Acrobat.

2. Flatten all the complex pages into single-
layered bitmaps (JPG).
3. Do a text-recognition (OCR scan) before
uploading to ensure your document is optimized
for search
And you're done!

Problem with conversion

Normally conversion is a smooth process.
Converting your documents into Issuu
publications

If conversion fails
OK, probably one or more of your pages are too
complex (contains too many vector objects). Find
them by looking for pages that loads slowly in a
PDF reader. Remove those pages and upload a
test to see if conversion will succeed. Finally,
simplify the design of the complex pages or
simply flatten them to bitmap graphics. Note:

7. Often you can't see on the page if there are too
many vector objects, as it's normally something
the design program does when you work (a little
too much) with your layout.

You can also try simply generating your PDF as
'optimized for web' or 'linear PDF'. This can often
be achieved by printing your PDF (instead of
exporting it).

Tips for Adobe Acrobat
Try flattening all the complex pages into single-
layered bitmaps (JPG)
Do a text-recognition (OCR scan) before
uploading to ensure your document is optimized
for search

Problems with links
Make sure long links are added before upload.
Make sure links in your text are not separated by
line breaks or placed directly next to non-link
characters (add a blank space on each side of
the link/email-address). If your links are displayed
in the wrong place you need to export your
document for viewing on the screen (not for print).

8. Problem with full-page links
If you are turning full pages into links, e.g. for full-
page ads, make sure the link area is smaller than
the actual page. Issuu is not able to work with link
areas that are bigger that the page size. So, the
best approach is to leave space for a margin
around your link area.

Problem with fonts
Make sure your fonts are embedded in the
document you upload (export with fonts). Note:
Your document may look correct in a desktop
PDF reader, because the reader will
automatically substitute the missing fonts (Issuu
can't do that).
If you make sure all your font elements are
outlined they will appear as you intend them to no
matter what. You will however not be able to edit
your text after this, so a good advice would be to
save a "Ready-for-publishing" copy of your
document and outline the fonts in that one.

Try googling "how to outline fonts in indesign" or
similar. There's a couple of links here that may be
helpful:
http://indesignsecrets.com/converting-text-to-
outlines-the-right-way.php

9. http://www.theonlineprinter.com.au/info/How_to_
Outline_Text_in_InDesign.aspx

Layout problems
Try a different PDF version (e.g. v 1.3) or a
different PDF printer. Or change your layout so
you're not using unsupported design features. If
nothing works replace your vector graphics with
bitmaps.

If your text is 'bleeding though': You are using an
unsupported layout feature (e.g. 'soft masks').
Please use a different layout feature or replace
that page/item with bitmap graphics.

If images are not showing they are probably
inserted in the publication using unsupported
features, e.g. frames/forms. Try to simplify or
'flatten' your layout.

Problems with Crop Box
A friendly users shared this with us, regarding
positioning of hyperlink areas on pages being off:
"It appears to be related to the "crop box" specs
in the PDF. I'll explain: It turns out the pages of
the title that demonstrate the above anomaly did
indeed start life as a print title, i.e. when they

10. were output from Quark XPress, they were output
with marks, bleeds and 1/2-inch around the trim.
Then, when we repurpose those pages for digital
editions, we crop those pages to trim in Acrobat.
So, the offset of the hyperlink boxes
corresponded exactly to that 1/2-inch offset.
When I set the crop box on each page to zero the
hyperlink boxes are no longer offset but the
marks, bleeds and 1/2-inch around the pages are
visible. Not acceptable. Alternatives: 1) re-output
the pages from XPress/Indesign withOUT marks,
bleeds and extra space around the pages, i.e.
output the pages to trim or 2) figure out what the
Top and Left Crop Box coordinates are set to in
the PDF pages and then go to each page of your
document and select all the links and move them
by that amount. In our case 1/2-inch up and 1/2-
inch to the left.

Problems with vector graphics / crashing
A helpful user shared his way of solving a
problem with too complex vector graphics that
caused the browser to crash:
 I upgraded CutePDF and turned-off ICM and
ICC profiles when printing to PDF.
 I turned off Rasterization, so this was a normal
PDF conversion.

11.  I down-sampled bitmaps to 150dpi.
 Compatibility was set to Level 2 with Conform to
DSC deselected (not selected)
 Font downloaded was selected, so fonts were
NOT flattened or converted to curves.
 Apparently, I did something right because it now
works.
So, the problem was that I converted a doc to
PDF without downsampling to 150 and WITH ICC
profile on. Colors were set to CMYK conversion.
No JPEG compression. Fail. The document
crashed in the ISSUU viewer.
I went back and manually downsampled to 150,
turned-off ICC profile, set output color for RGB,
set JPEG compression to 10%. Win.
If nothing else works, try re-saving your PDF in
Preview for Mac (or similar software on a PC) as
it can remove unknown errors. If you are
uploading Word or Powerpoint, try exporting to
PDF before upload.

Reference:

http://help.issuu.com/home