How to convert a PDF to
an interactive flipbook

Background

What is an interactive flipbook?

An interactive flipbook is a digital publication that mimics the experience of flipping through a physical book — complete with realistic page-turn animations, zoom, search, and embedded media. Unlike a static PDF that readers scroll through, a flipbook presents your content as a proper reading experience that holds attention far longer.

The key difference from a PDF: flipbooks are designed to be read, not downloaded. They live at a URL, load instantly in any browser, and give you analytics that tell you exactly how engaged your audience is — something a PDF download can never provide.

Step 1

Prepare your PDF

Most PDFs convert beautifully with no preparation at all. But taking 5 minutes to check these three things before uploading will produce a significantly better result — especially for multi-column layouts, documents with custom fonts, and anything over 50 pages.

Resolution and image quality

ZenFlip renders each PDF page at high resolution for the flipbook viewer. The quality of your output is determined by the quality of your source PDF. Here's the guidance:

• 150 DPI minimum — anything below this will look blurry on retina screens
• 150–300 DPI is the sweet spot — sharp on all screens without inflating file size
• 300 DPI for print-quality publications — annual reports, catalogs, high-end brochures
• Avoid 72 DPI “screen-optimised” exports — these look poor when zoomed

Fonts and text layers

This is the most important preparation step for accessibility. A flipbook can only be made accessible — and searchable — if the underlying text is extractable from the PDF.

• Always embed fonts when exporting from InDesign, Word, or Google Docs. “Embed all fonts” is a checkbox in most export dialogs.
• Avoid “Export as image” — this flattens text into pixels. Screen readers cannot read it. ZenFlip cannot make it accessible.
• Scanned documents need OCR (optical character recognition) before upload to have a text layer. Adobe Acrobat and free tools like OCRmyPDF can handle this.
• Test your PDF — try selecting text in your PDF before uploading. If you can select and copy text, ZenFlip can extract it for accessibility.

File size

ZenFlip accepts PDFs up to 500MB. For fastest processing, aim for under 100MB.

Step 2

Upload your PDF to ZenFlip

Once you have created your free account and land in the ZenFlip dashboard, uploading your PDF is straightforward. Here's exactly what you'll see:

Step 3

Customise your flipbook

The customisation panel lets you control how your flipbook looks and who can access it. Here is what's available and what each setting does:

Branding

• Logo — upload your logo (PNG or SVG, transparent background recommended). Appears in the flipbook toolbar.
• Brand colour — sets the accent colour for the toolbar, progress indicator, and interactive elements. Enter a hex code or pick from the colour palette.
• Remove ZenFlip branding — available on Starter plans and above. Hides the “Powered by ZenFlip” credit from the viewer.
• Custom domain — available on Starter plans. Point your own domain or subdomain (e.g. reports.yourcompany.com) at your ZenFlip publications via CNAME record.

Access control

• Public — anyone with the link can read it. Best for marketing materials, public reports, and shareable content.
• Password protected — readers must enter a password to access. Best for board materials, draft documents, or sensitive publications.
• Lead gate — readers must submit their name and email before reading. Captured leads appear in your dashboard and can be exported as CSV or sent to Zapier.

Reader experience

• Cover type — choose whether the first page is a full cover or the document opens to a double-page spread.
• Flip direction — left-to-right (default) or right-to-left (for Arabic, Hebrew, and Japanese documents).
• Enable download button — optionally let readers download the original PDF. Off by default.
• Share buttons — toggle social sharing buttons on/off in the viewer.

Step 4

Publish instantly

When you're happy with the preview and settings, click Publish. Your interactive flipbook goes live immediately at its URL. There is no queue, no review process, and no waiting.

ZenFlip gives you three things as soon as you publish:

• A shareable link — e.g. zenflip.io/view/your-title (or your custom domain). Copy and share this anywhere.
• An embed code — a snippet for putting the flipbook on your website (covered in Step 5).
• A QR code — for printed materials, events, and presentations.

You can update a published flipbook at any time by uploading a new PDF. The URL stays the same — anyone who has bookmarked or shared your link will automatically see the updated version.

Step 5

Embed your flipbook on your website

Embedding your ZenFlip flipbook on your website means readers never have to leave your domain to access it. The flipbook viewer renders inside your page as a fully interactive, responsive element.

Method 1 — iframe embed (works on any website)

Copy the iframe snippet from your publication's Share panel and paste it into your website's HTML, CMS, or page builder wherever you want the flipbook to appear:

Method 2 — JavaScript SDK (more control)

For more control over sizing, event handling, and integration with your analytics stack, use the ZenFlip JS SDK:

Platform-specific embedding

• WordPress — paste the iframe code into the “HTML” block in the Gutenberg editor, or use the “Custom HTML” widget.
• Webflow — add an “Embed” element and paste the iframe code. Set height to a fixed pixel value or use a custom CSS wrapper with padding-top for responsive height.
• Squarespace — use the “Code” block (available on Business plans and above) and paste the iframe.
• Wix — add an “HTML iframe” widget from the Add Elements panel and paste the embed URL.
• HubSpot pages — use the “HTML” module in the page editor and paste the iframe code.

Accessibility

WCAG accessibility — built in automatically

ZenFlip is the only flipbook platform that builds WCAG 2.2 AA compliance into every publication by default. For many organisations — government, education, healthcare, membership associations — this isn't optional. It's a legal requirement.

Here is exactly what ZenFlip applies to every published flipbook:

• Keyboard navigation — users can flip pages, zoom, search, and activate all controls using only a keyboard. No mouse required.
• Screen reader support — ARIA roles, live regions, and a full text layer allow screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) to read every page of your publication.
• Visible focus indicators — all interactive elements show a clear, high-contrast focus ring that meets WCAG 2.4.11 Focus Appearance requirements.
• Colour contrast — the viewer chrome maintains a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio on all text elements.
• Reduced motion support — the page-flip animation is disabled for users with prefers-reduced-motion enabled in their OS settings.
• Touch target sizing — all interactive elements meet the WCAG 2.5.5 minimum touch target size of 44×44px.

Analytics

Understanding your flipbook analytics

The moment your flipbook goes live, ZenFlip starts tracking reader behaviour. This is data you simply cannot get from a PDF download — and it changes how you think about your content.

What the metrics mean and how to use them

• Total views — unique opens of your flipbook. Compare with PDF download counts to see the difference in reach.
• Average read time — how long the typical reader spends. If this is under 30 seconds for a 20-page document, your cover page or title is not compelling enough to pull people in.
• Completion rate — percentage of readers who reach the final page. Anything above 60% is excellent. Below 30% usually indicates a pacing problem in the middle section of the document.
• Page heatmap (Professional plan) — a visual map showing which pages get the most time. Use this to discover your most-read sections and optimise future documents around that content.
• Time per page (Professional plan) — average seconds spent on each individual page. Pages with very low dwell time are being skipped. Pages with very high dwell time are either very dense or very compelling — the heatmap context tells you which.

Expert tips

Pro tips for better flipbooks

1. Design for double-page spreads

Most flipbook viewers show two pages side-by-side on desktop. If you're designing your PDF from scratch, design your layout with this in mind. A visual that spans a double-page spread (like a large photograph or infographic) looks dramatically better in a flipbook than it does in a single-page PDF view.

2. Put your most important content on pages 2–4

Analytics consistently show a sharp engagement drop after the first few pages. If your call-to-action, key data, or most important message is buried on page 18, most readers won't see it. Restructure your documents to front-load the value.

3. Use a lead gate for gated content — but put it at page 3, not page 1

If you want to capture leads, don't gate your flipbook at the very first page — this creates too much friction before the reader has seen any value. Set your lead gate to trigger after page 2 or 3. The reader has seen enough to be interested but hasn't got the full story yet. Conversion rates are significantly higher at this trigger point.

4. Share the link, not the embed, for social and email

Embedding works great on your website. For email campaigns, social media posts, and chat messages, share the direct flipbook link instead. The URL generates a rich preview card (with your OG image) on all major platforms — LinkedIn, X, WhatsApp, Slack — which dramatically increases click-through compared to a plain PDF attachment.

5. Update rather than republish

If your document has an error or you want to update a figure, upload a new PDF version to the same publication. The URL stays identical — anyone who bookmarked or shared your link will automatically get the updated version. This is far better than creating a new publication (which breaks all existing links).

FAQ

Common questions

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