InDesign is the industry-standard publishing app lets you design and publish high-quality documents across a full spectrum of digital and print media. Adobe has just released a major new version of InDesign—InDesign CC 2018. Following the precedent of CC 2017, Adobe released it in connection with its big Creative Cloud event, Adobe MAX 2017, held this year in Las Vegas.

1. Adobe Creative Design
2. Indesign 2018 Properties Panel
3. Indesign 2018 Adobe

Adobe Creative Design

By creating a flipbook directly from InDesign—rather than from a secondary format like PDF—you’ll be able to take advantage of all the rich interactivity from InDesign that isn’t supported in PDF.

How to create an HTML5 Flipbook from InDesign in a nutshell

1. Build your document with Adobe InDesign
2. Add interactivity using InDesign’s built in panels (Buttons, Animation, Object States, Hyperlinks, Video, etc)
3. Install in5 (InDesign to HTML5) and restart InDesign
4. Export your document to HTML5 with in5 and choose Flipbook with Page Peel as the Page Format

To understand these steps in detail, continue reading below.

Build your document with Adobe InDesign

If you’re a designer, then it’s likely that you already use InDesign.

InDesign is the world’s number one page layout tool.

If you’re a designer and you don’t know how to use InDesign, it’s time to start learning, because this knowledge will be expected of you in nearly any design job.

So why start building a page layout anywhere else?

Add Interactivity

Because you’re going to export directly from InDesign, you can take advantage of all of the interactivity built into InDesign.

• Buttons and Form Elements
• Animation
• Timing
• Hyperlinks
• Audio
• Video
• Object States

in5 also supports Overlays (from DPS/AEM Mobile) and has additional interactive capabilities (like 3D Flip Cards).

Indesign 2018 Properties Panel

Install in5 (InDesign to HTML5)

in5 is the export tool that will let you create a flipbook directly from InDesign.

Indesign 2018 Adobe

To install in5

1. Get in5 from the download page
2. Unzip the package and double-click on the installer that matches your system (Mac/Win).
3. Follow the onscreen instructions.
4. Restart InDesign.

Export as an HTML5 Flipbook

Once in5 is installed, you can choose File > Export HTML5 with in5… to export your document.

Choose the Flipbook with Page Peel option from the Page Format menu before clicking OK to export.

When the export is done, you can choose Open in Default Browser to see your HTML5 flipbook.

Bonus: Responsiveness and Scaling to the Browser

Your flipbook will be responsive by default.

In narrow (portrait) browser windows, only one page will be shown.

In wider (landscape) browser windows, a two-page spread will be displayed.

If you’d also like to see your flipbook layout scale proportionally to the browser window, use the Desktop Scaling and Mobile Device Viewport Zoom settings found in the Advanced section of the in5 dialog.

Now you have a beautiful, interactive flipbook that plays well on desktop and mobile devices. 🙂

If you want to get super-responsive and create separate layouts for different devices, check out the Responsive Layouts feature.

Join the newsletter & get the InDesign Flipbook Cheatsheet

Sign up now and I'll send you these steps as a 1-page cheatsheet.

As a subscriber, I'll also send you additional InDesign and HTML tips.