Having recently been commissioned to produce an online, touchy feely brochure for one of our clients, I am encouraged to see so many 'Digital Editions' going live this week.

Both New Media Age and DDR magazine (Digital Display for Retail) have now embraced this technology, and more and more corporates and publishers are buying into the concept, Microsoft, VW, Ikea, 3M,

The premise is simple, provide the user with a a tactile and familiar alternative to the real thing, with the added benefits of video, hyperlinks and searchability to name but a few.

There are two leaders in this technology, Zmag and Ceros.  Both are similar in many ways but the Zmag solution tips the balance for me with the CMS engine that drives the digital editions.

The core technology behind the scenes is Flash, and the orginal master of the page turning arena was Pageflip, you can download the FLA source for free.  I seem to remember doing this about five years ago and having lots of fun.

It's great to see the technology being embraced at last. Check out the DDR example below.