iBooks Author Placeholder Magic
iBooks AuthorR placeholders make creating your own storybook as easy as dragging and dropping. Each layout in a template has the graphic and text placeholders already position on the page. You can use these as is or rearrange or delete them.
Magic of Placeholders
Each layout contains placeholder areas for importing your own illustrations and text. To replace the placeholders with your own content, follow these steps.
How to Replace A Graphic Placeholder
Each placeholder graphic in my template has suggested size dimensions for both standard and Retina screens. However, your illustration can be any size you wish. Just make adjustments in the Metrics Inspector. For example, the placeholder image for the Chapter section has the following.
Retina: width 2048 x height 1496 pixels
Standard: width 1024 x 748 pixels
You can find more information about image requirements and how iBA deals with Retina/standard graphics in the iBA Article Index.
Image Masking
Most of the placeholder graphics in an iBA template are also masked. Basically, a mask is a layer over the placeholder image. The mask can be sized to let all of the image show from under the mask. But, you can use the mask to hide part of the image by changing the width, height and position of the mask in the Metrics Inspector.
How To Make The Template Yourself
For example, all of the placeholder graphics in my template have the mask set to show the entire image below. However, if I only wanted to show the top left quarter of the image, I could reduce the width to 500 and the height to 375 points.
Magic of Placeholders
Each layout contains placeholder areas for importing your own illustrations and text. To replace the placeholders with your own content, follow these steps.
How to Replace A Graphic Placeholder
- First locate your illustration in the Finder window.
- Drag the illustration .jpg or .png file from the Finder into the workspace and drop over the placeholder image.
- Double-click the placeholder text, to select all the text.
- Begin typing your story text into the text box. You can also copy/paste your text into the text box or drag your text file from the Finder into the text box.
Each placeholder graphic in my template has suggested size dimensions for both standard and Retina screens. However, your illustration can be any size you wish. Just make adjustments in the Metrics Inspector. For example, the placeholder image for the Chapter section has the following.
Retina: width 2048 x height 1496 pixels
Standard: width 1024 x 748 pixels
You can find more information about image requirements and how iBA deals with Retina/standard graphics in the iBA Article Index.
Image Masking
Most of the placeholder graphics in an iBA template are also masked. Basically, a mask is a layer over the placeholder image. The mask can be sized to let all of the image show from under the mask. But, you can use the mask to hide part of the image by changing the width, height and position of the mask in the Metrics Inspector.
How To Make The Template Yourself
For example, all of the placeholder graphics in my template have the mask set to show the entire image below. However, if I only wanted to show the top left quarter of the image, I could reduce the width to 500 and the height to 375 points.
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