Store Description:
The Fossil Guide is the ideal companion to help you learn the basics about fossils and how to identify many of the common ones. All the major groups of fossils are illustrated with clear diagrams and beautiful, pin-sharp photographs of real specimens. Suitable for beginners as well as those with some knowledge, this authoritative and helpful multi-touch book has been produced by the Open University, in collaboration with the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge. It covers invertebrates, vertebrates and plants, and each fossil group is illustrated with a gallery of photos. Some specimens are presented as 360-degree rotational objects to provide a tactile feel, and the detailed structure of other fossils is captured with high-resolution views of thin sections under a microscope. The Introduction includes useful advice and tips on responsible fossil collecting. As well as being suitable for the educated amateur, this book will also be useful for teachers and should provide a stimulus for children interested in fossils and the wonderful world of geology.
Our aims:
This was our second foray into producing ebooks in Apple's iBooks format, and as such we wanted to push the software further making heavy use of templates, Development of the book also coincided with a new generation of iPads offering screens with double the previous resolution (2048 x 1536 pixels), so we aimed to exploit this new high resolution by incorporating high quality photos of the fossils up to this new resolution. The book additionally gave the opportunity for a new custom HTML5 widget, to allow users to have high quality VR object experience. Although our second book to be started, unforeseen delays in some of the finishing stages have meant that some of our other books have taken priority, but it is hoped the book will shortly be completed.
Key features of the book include:
1) Resource reuse:
The aim was to take the existing print book (screenshot at top) and repurpose it in the iBooks format. The object was to keep the purpose of the book the same as the original print book and to maintain much of its feel by reusing the line drawings and recreating some of the look, however we also wished to expand the content considerably, adding value in a way only possible through the use of the iBook. So for instance the inclusion of the interactives and the large number of photo galleries with high resolution photographs.
2) Template driven design:
Strong use of document templates allowing quick section creation; consistent look and easy document wide design changes.
3) High resolution photos and photo galleries:
The subject matter of the book leant itself to being lavishly illustrated with photos of examples of many of the different species of the fossils. With the advent of a newer model of the iPad these photos could also be at a very high screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The photos are incorporated into the book through the use of the standard gallery widget available in iBook Author. In the book the reader can swipe through the images in page or they can make the photos fill the screen (i.e. showing them to there full clarity) and the reader can the use the swipe gesture to navigate through the gallery.
3) VR objects - custom HTML5 widget:
A custom HTML5 VR object widget was used to bring examples of a number of the fossils to life. This allowed the reader to 'grab' and 'rotate' the fossils, giving the impression of rotating the real fossil and seeing it from different directions.
4) Virtual Microsope - custom HTML5 widget:
Similar to the Moon Rocks book a number of Virtual Microscopes were incorporated into the book allowing the reader to view a sample as if under a real microscope. The samples are thin sections either of a fossil or a sample containing fossils. The reader is able to zoom and pan around the specimen and take measurements.