Best PDF to Flipbook Converter Software? [Review & Guide]

Best PDF to Flipbook Converter Software? [Review & Guide]

Here's the deal: as a content producer and marketer, I was so frustrated because I wasn't able to find an easy-to-use Flipbook converter to promote my ideas. That was until I discovered the Free PDF to Flipbook software YUMPU Publishing.

YUMPU Publishing is a free flipbook web application that is working in the cloud. It allows you to easily take your standard PDF file and convert it into an interactive Flip Book for free. You can also make multimedia-enhanced mags.

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Table of contents:


How to convert PDF to Flipbook:

Signup for a Free Account below. It's pretty straightforward: Register your account to take your first PDF to a Flipbook – it only takes minutes.

Follow these 6 Steps to create your PDF to Flip Book:

Step 1: Sign up for a 100% free Account here.
Step 2: Drag and drop your PDF into the upload box.
Step 3: Edit the look and feel of your PDF.
Step 4: Bonus: Integrate Video Files or Audio Sound.
Step 5: Bonus: Social Media Sharing.
Step 6: Bonus: Embed it on a website.

Create a Flipbook with this software

Part of my journey finding professional software creating interactive Pageflip from a PDF started with an extensive Review of Flipbook Converters and Software which are working with both, Windows and MAC.

I downloaded and tried plenty of free Flipbook products that claimed to be a PDF Converter. But none of them would get you from a PDF to Flipbook online so that I could upload the PDF right to the server without the hassle of having to research which format they would work on.

Then I discovered the page flipping PDF software solution YUMPU Publishing – which you don't have to download or install because it's a web-based application. It's a nifty digital flipbook software that will convert your PDF into a Flipbook online in just a few minutes.

It also gives you millions of users who browse for your content.

It also has PDF to HTML5 support which is essential to those who are publishing on mobile devices, e.g., smartphones. And the best thing is: it's free. The user interface is available in English, but also in German.

What is YUMPU Publishing?

This solution is a "dream come true" for digital publishers, writers, and magazine editors. It allows a simple drag-and-drop where you can upload your PDF and turn it into a dynamic, multimedia-enhanced HTML5 digital magazine page or flip book that people will read.

By the way, you can only use PDF documents. You can't use excel, PowerPoint, word for your flip document - just PDFs. But exporting those to a PDF first, and then uploading it, isn't hard at all.

For my fellow publishers out there who are wanting to take the offline stuff to the digital world, this service is the ideal PDF tool to get this job done and convert PDF to Flipbook online without the hassle and massive costs often associated with this.

Convert Your free PDF to Flipbook in minutes

It's easy to convert your PDFs into Flipbook using the built-in flip page generator. Visit their website – they have an HTML5 Flipbook Maker Software on their main page. Drag and drop or upload your file to the main site. Your original file must be a PDF. And by the way, their support team is second to none – just contact them, and they'll answer or check out their faq help document.

Then wave your magic wand and say, "convert my static Portable Document into a Flipping Book." And you will see the magic happen before your very eyes! That's all there is to it.

Features & Pricing of this Flipping Book Tool

Here are some of the great features you'll get with this online PDF to flippable a Book conversion tool. One of the most significant features (besides the realistic 3D turning page effect) for me is that Flipbooks has full support for mobile devices.

  • FREE of cost (unless you upgrade to a premium package)

  • Ability to use the flipbook across devices

  • Reading experience – Mobile friendly page flip technology that works across many mobile devices

  • Ability to share your flip book creations on your website, blog, or the home of your online storefront (just copy and paste into your webpage)

  • Multimedia (Flash) capabilities

  • Integrate Call-to-action Buttons to convert your e-paper

  • Easily select from various Embed-Types

  • Save storage in the cloud

  • Integrate Call-to-action Buttons

  • Backend available in different languages

  • Protect everything from theft via Access- and Privacy settings

  • Help center with a search function

  • Choose to customize Colors etc.

One of the downsides is, that you can't download flipbook files to your PC.

What's a "Digital Flipbook?"

I'll try to explain the terms Digital and Flipbook: Imagine that you made a beautiful publication for print. Now you want to have a digital version with flipping pages to share it faster with anyone instantly. That's it.

I used to make standard a PDF based on my original idea, but they lacked the satisfying charm of allowing you to flip on to the next chapter. Plus, it's difficult importing multimedia features to a PDF file.

Throughout this article, I'll present you with some flipbook examples.

In this image, you see a modern Digital Flipbook made from a PDF.

However, digital documents with a 3D-flip-effect are the next best thing to holding physical edition right in my hands. It's the next generation of creating interactive e-books that an online user is demanding. Readers watch each photo turn back gradually to reveal the next one seamlessly, and they can zoom in and out.

A Flip PDF that is made from PDF is multimedia-rich, creating an ideal interface for connecting an audience to videos, songs, step-by-step walkthroughs and illustrations that bring my content to life. They also make use of the PHTML5 algorithm.

Why I like creating Flipbooks from PDF

  1. The PDF to Flipbook turns ordinary brochures or magazines into an engaging visual experience that anyone can view on mobile devices or a desktop computer.

  2. My digital Flip book helped me optimize my home page to get higher Google-search result rankings and more traffic.

  3. Embed on websites, online shops, and web-blogs.

  4. The Flipbook Viewer sees a nice 3D effect when he swipes through my digital books, thanks to the animated page-flipping visuals and audio I've added to them.

  5. My Flipbook directs traffic to any pages that I want to get more attention.

Here’s some advice before you get started:

Ask yourself why you want a free PDF to Flipbook - just a few minutes or seconds before you start. Will it help fill a gap in addressing one of your company's weaknesses? Describe how you're different from competitors and present them the simplicity of how you're staying on top of trends in your industry.

Is it just a new way to present your products for sale, or could it also provide valuable information for your subscribers?

I know from experience that having a clear goal for my brochure before I start is everything. Otherwise, you'll lose yourself in playing with the features of the Flipbook Maker.

About the content of your Flip books:

Another pet peeve I have with others' Magazines Designs is the overuse of stock photography images. There's a variety of people rely entirely on stock photos to fill their brochure. That results in seeing the same types of images in many places.

It makes the Flipbook animation look very un-original. I prefer to always use my photos as much as possible in the original PDF, before creating it with the proper software. I found that my audience wants photos more because they're easier to build a connection.

Developers Only – Try jQuery & HTML5 Flip books

I discovered that just getting the right jQuery plugin gets you a page-turning effect too. Here's a list of the best jQuery flipbook plugin if you're more familiar with advanced programming and want to go that route. There are also some open-source scripts out there, but most feel as they are in Beta.

In most of these programs, the primary process is almost the same.

Here's what I've done: First, I've created and modified my PDFs appropriately. If you don't take the chance to design good layouts before changing from PDF to Flip format, then you can't do much to improve it later.

To start with a great layout (I use Adobe Photoshop or Indesign for my mockups):

  • Use Microsoft Office or the Adobe Suite to build your PDF document 

  • Set your PDF size to A4.

  • Export the PDF file in a setting of 150 pixels per inch for high-quality images.

  • Use very readable fonts, preferably bigger than a size of 12 pixels wherever possible.

  • Leave empty white spaces inside your Flipbook where you intend to integrate video-files and additional pictures later.

  • Keep paragraphs short and include diagrams, visuals, and other exciting things to hold the reader's attention longer.

  • Make sure that your CI remains consistent throughout your document by changing your color-model settings to "RGB." Do not use "CMYK" when exporting.

  • Don't forget your branding opportunities! Use your CI/CD consistently throughout the Flipbook. It doesn't have to appear on every page, but customers should see it at least a few times so that it sticks in their memory.

Next, I upload my PDF documents, one for each new digital Flip Book creation. My favorite page-editor interfaces work in a drag-and-drop fashion, which is great since I'm not fond of coding!

Bonus One: Publishing options

1. I always hated struggling to share and convert PDFs with others due to those annoying file incompatibilities. The best PDF to Flip Book maker has support for the most common formats: Adobe Flash, ePub, HTML5 as well as file extensions .MOBI, .EXE and .Zip.

Adobe PDF Flash is ideal for both Windows Mac operating systems. For Mac, there's also an app called "Mac Flip PDF". But also well as Apple devices, e.g., iPad iPhone, tablet, iPod, Android devices, many tablets, and most other personal electronic devices.

Any "Flash-less" devices are typically HTML5 readable like Pubhtml5. I also like how my flip PDF software has automatic settings to recognize precisely which type of reader your audience is viewing my digital publications. That means that my file is quite smart enough to figure out how to display it, so no one sits there struggling with how to open it.

I often take a collection of niche articles and blast them automated via mail to my subscribers to increase my reach.

2. I can add three-dimensional bookmark tabs to make it easier for readers to scan through the material. I can even allow readers to make their bookmarks! Let's not forget that I can throw in hyperlinks too for greater readability.

3. Sometimes I want to make sure that no one accesses my content without users having to sign up for my system first. I have the option to quickly add password protection to any PDF Flipbook so that no one can steal it. This might seem like some advanced features, but somehow they come in handy.

4. I audit my Google analytics data to wade through the reports and statistics. It matters to me to explore the people's reading experience of my content, as well as which parts of it, are the most popular. By knowing exactly what people really want, I can make better decisions in the future.

I can integrate my Page Flip PDF to my existing Google account. In a few clicks, I can see how many page-views my HTML5 Flipbook gets, how long they spent in it, which links they enjoyed, and more.

This step is one of my favorites: I add audio files and other multimedia features to engage my readers more. If I'm building a catalog, then I will use the corresponding hyperlinks to each of my products in my webshop. The shopping experience inside a modern catalog is huge!

That way, someone can buy from me by clicking on the item they want. If I need to present readers with multiple options within a category, then it lets me create an instant Flipbook image slideshow that runs all on its own while my box of the text remains stationary in the foreground, serving as the narrator for the changing scenery.

Finally, I click on "publish" to distribute on the platform. I also receive the passwords if I added security to them.

After publishing, I wait 24 hours to see the reactions from people in my data-analyzing plugins. One such plugin allows me to see exactly where people click while reading. This is mandatory to me because sometimes they click on something that they think should be a link, but in reality, it isn't. In this case, I'll go back and revise my Flipbook, including relevant connections in each of these "clicking hotspots."

Bonus Two: Best Tips for spreading your Flipbook

When working on your PDF, think beyond embedding it onto a webpage. For example, my online catalogs are doing exceptionally well when you send them out to subscribers on your email list. Just pop it right into your newsletter as a fun surprise for your subscribers.

Special third-party applications allow you to put a Flipbook right onto your fan page, which is not possible with a regular PDF Flipbook viewer. For instance, Static HTML is what I've downloaded because it works well and enables me to output it to my fan page.

This application creates a new tab for me within FB, which gets the default title of "Welcome." I was able to optimize it later to "Latest Products". If you want to try this step too, go to the YUMPU Publishings tutorial channel on Youtube and follow their clear, step-by-step instructions. In a future update of this article, I'll post some examples you can learn from.

A final thought – Conclusion

Did you ever want to have your publication online for free? Did you always dream of creating your own elegant digital flip book magazine or shopping catalog? Or did you just want to make your mark, share your brand with the masses, or anything else? Try free select today....this is a great solution for you.

The easy-to-use interface allows seamless magazine flip book creation from standard PDF documents that will be available to millions of readers. So you not only get a great free pdf flip conversion application. You also have instant access to millions of users on the web platform as well.

If you're looking for a PDF to Flipbook WordPress plugin – you're in luck. They also have a WordPress Flipbook Plugin free to download on Wordpress.org.

Besides the Free Plan, they also have a subscription-based plan which starts at 10 US per month. For the money, it has a lot of cool features to offer.

Now: make your own!

I'm glad I took the time to review all the software solutions out there like the Issuu Alternative iPaper and many more. Now, I'll never go back to the others because YUMPU Publishing does everything I want. Questions? Let me know!

Roland
Roland

Great! I can use this for my online shop catalog!

Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson

I’m glad I could help!

Emily
Emily

Great article! I think it will help me in the future for sure with my PDFs.

Rod
Rod

Hey Michael, Thanks for your post. Didn’t know about this solution before. I will be using this from now on whenever I want to transform a PDF into a great looking Flipbook or even a magazine. Cheers, Rod

Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson

I’m glad I could help!

Bella
Bella

I just checked out your suggestion, I have to admit I am really impressed with their PDF viewer.

Matthew
Matthew

Wow, such a great and helpful article. I have been looking for something like this, Thanks!

Jackson
Jackson

Your fantastic article could help a lot, I have been looking for a free flipbook converter for ages. This one looks very tempting.

Diana
Diana

Great thing if you are looking for smooth PDF conversion...and best of all… it's FREE! I really like it and thanks to Michael, I will be using it much more.

Webmaster101
Webmaster101

Could be helpful to me and for one of my client's project that needs such thing done Great article!

Grayson
Grayson

Thanks for bringing my attention to this services - it's great and affordable. Will try it today! Best, Grayson

Beth
Beth

I enjoy this article, Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again Michael!

Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson

Hi Beth, No problem, glad that you like it! Best, Michael

Anjelica
Anjelica

Can you please guide me through the creation process? A friend told me yesterday: „just take your pdf convert it and you’re done“. Believe me, it wasn’t that way! I try to build an Android flip PDF... Any suggestions? thx

Craig
Craig

Fantastic article and amazing page-flip expirience! My valuable clients are no longer satisfied with plain old PDF’s and this helps keep things looking fresh with the flip book style while potentially exposing our content to millions of members on their network. Thanks for putting me on to it!

Christopher
Christopher

Never heard of this service before. Will have to give them a try and come back here and let you guys know what I discovered. I’ve tried other webapps that were supposed to do similar things but usually required an outlay of cash if you didn’t want their logo all over you flip book. Thanks for the suggestion!

Patsy1982
Patsy1982

Multimedia seems to be the way everything is going these days. Just having a PDF ebook isn’t enough – it doesn’t have enough presentation to get it noticed. Anybody used it yet? I want to have a flippable PDF for iPad that's working with the chrome browser.

Martyna
Martyna

PDF uploaded moment ago. The import was very smooth. To me it looks awesome and the background color is nice. I made a wedding photo book. I referred one of my clients over and they were going to give it a whirl. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll post back here on their experiences with it to let people know. Thanks!

Tan le
Tan le

I having been looking for a flip PDF mac solution! thanks so much!

Joel Peason
Joel Peason

Hello Michael! How can I alter the logos after converting my pdf doc to online flipbook? I would like to see my own there. Thx.

Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson

Joel, I guess you are working with free digital publishing account, right?

Joel Pearson
Joel Pearson

Yes. I wanted to test the free version first. Right now it looks promising – only that I can´t change the logo…BTW. I saw one of your case studies about static PDF - very impressive!

Ashley
Ashley

I wasn´t happy with flipsnack because my entire website was loading really slowly as soon as I embedded the PDF etc. Can I get the digital book via email? Thanks for writing down your experience.

Anjelica
Anjelica

Hello Ashley, I was very happy with the pdf uploaded and converted via Yumpu. The tools are fast to understand and the navigation of the backend is great. The guide helped me a lot to get my Flippingbooks done in a really short time. Also I had no problems with slow loading – everything worked. I can only recommend it!

Camila
Camila

Michael, that is one of the most throughout articles and a stunning overview about PDF to Flip book I’ve seen on the web! It must have taken you ages to get all the details and put it into such a wonderful resource. I’ll try it out this evening – BTW great to see this is free! One Question - do I need download the software for creating flip PDF or something? Does it work with http and https? Best, Camila

Michael Wilson
Michael Wilson

Thank you very much for your kind words, Camila! No Installation is required. It's a free web application. And yes, it protected via SSL. If I can be any help of, let me know. Best, Michael

Hi, I’m Michael Wilson. I am a creative, passionate digital marketing professional with over 12 years of expirience in online marketing. I love everything about digital publishing and that’s why I want to share my thoughts about this matter on my little blog. I hope you enjoy!