With more Business Meeting being done online, there is a need for convenient display with a Flipbook view that reads like a magazine. Fortunately Google Docs, Microsoft Office and Open Office plus many art and content creators provide PDF, mage, and HTML output for flipbook use. And WordPress Flipbook developers have provided a wealth of plugins to meet those needs. Here is a sample from 3DFlipBook – click on the thumbnail slide to popup the the full flipbook:
- Flipbooks have a diverse number of features – here are the key ones:
- Display a PDF file or show separate stacks of images or HTMLpages;
- Display pages as flipbook or vertical stacked layout;
- Flip pages with or without sound;
- Grab view to center pages and some allow flipping by grabbing & swiping to a corner;
- On page margin use chevrons to flip to next/previous page or use icons on flipbook control just below the displayed page;
- Show or hide a left sidebar with thumbnails of all the PDF/image pages;
- Control bar has magnify/shrink controls for page display size;
- Control bar icon to switch between single page versus double page dispaly;
- Control bar icon to pop up share with Facebook, Twitter, instagram, email, etc;
- Contol bar icon to allow or prohibit local download of the pdf or imagesor HTML pages;
- Settings for display page width, height, background, etc;
- Settings for thumbnails triggers, color or backgroud image of the display,etc
- But choosing among these features depends on the target use of theflipbook. For some users having a Magazine cover epaper is the goal while others will want control over the sizing of the flipbook and allowing downloads. Other users will look to offer side of page thumbnails. So this review will list the best flipbook plugins, with a screen shot plus key features. To see the full Flipbook review Click on the toggle chevron
3D-DFlipBook Lite WP Rating 5.0/5 has best set of free features for PDF and Image display. DearPDF-lite WP Rating 5.0/5 provides 2 display modes for PDFs – vertical reader or flipbook but no flipbook images, no PDF downloads, no PDF links are active. 3D Flip WP Rating 5.0/5 offers PDF, Image or HTML flipbooks with advanced styling and controls.
Offers images and supposedly PDF flipbooks using shortcodes. But there are 2 major flaws – despite efforts with Kadence and Astro themes plus Gutenberg and Elementor page editors, I could not insert PDFs nor could I control the display width, height, and sound. Also Booklet does not have a robust control bar with single page to double page display, panning and sound control plus NO download control. A colleague likes this plugins, so maybe a zoom session is all we need to get it working.
For $49US/site with unlimited updates unlocks a lots of premium options. These include user designed Table of contents or imported PDF table of content thumbnails. Also there are PDF hyperlinks and search functions, interface color customization including dark mode plus print, download, and popup light box for full screen operations. In sum the free version gets users well started while the premium version provides acces to key display capabilities.
The PDF version has more settings but the full set is impressive. Dflip delivers thumbnail Table of Contents on/off switch same for page flip sound. Users can set Download and print permission on or off plussinglpage or double pagedisplay. Layout settings include background color, control bar position, use of static starting image. Control settings include turning on autoplay and its duration plus control of page size and image fit.
Dflip users can get even more features for $39US/year/site with the following:
All Popup Light-Boxes: Buttons, Link and Custom type light-boxes,
PDF Links: Links inside PDF will be clickable and open the links attached.
Global settings: You can set settings for all flipbooks
Controls Customization: Add or remove controls in the flipbook.
Paper Stiffness: Set the rigidity of 3D flipbook pages. Flat pages on resting positions are possible with lower values.
Zoom Scroll: Enable or disable zooming on mouse scroll.
Translation: Change the text of controls and share text
Google Analytics: Log flipbook load and first-page flip to detect basic user interaction
Padding: Set left and right padding between the flipbook and the container
Zoom Ratio: Control the value of zoom.
Share Prefix: Change the prefix to your need, the default prefix is -dearflip
Links Target Setting: Set the links to open in the current tab or new tab.
Plus a variety of other specialized options.
So DearPDF delivers a slimmer set of options then DFlip-lite. But there are goodies like thumbnail Table of Contents switched on/off along with the page flip sound, full page display on/ff, along with switching single versus double page display. Layout settings include background color or image, height of PDF and type of dispay code.
Dear PDF users can get even more features for $34US/year/site with the following:
More Popup Light-Boxes: Buttons, thumbnails, Links
Links in PDF become clickable.
CSS class allowed in flipbook styling
3D flip delivers thumbnail Table of Contents on/off switch same for page flip sound. Users can set Download and print permission on or off plus single page or double page display. Layout settings include background color, control bar position, use of static starting image. Control settings include turning on autoplay and its duration plus control of page size and image fit.
3DFlip is free and has so many advanced features there is no need for a premium version. But it is complex in setup – so a video tutorial would be helpful.
Summary
Look what has happened. Wordress plugin developers have taken the jQuery and then CSS+JScaipt flipbook technology and brought it with full features for WordPress users – PDF, images, or HTML pages with more than a half dozen styling options like single-page vs double page switch. Or full page display or container frame with styling options. Download, print, and share options are enabled. Even the Gutenberg Embed blocks and EmbedPress plugin are hard pressed to match these features. And best of all, the bulk of the flipbook features are free. Come to the free Feb 22 meetup at Toronto WordPress Solutions which will be featuring favorite tools similar to the flipbook plugins.