v1.9 — Reader Operations, Viewer Control & Content Protection
Run a reader base of any size from one place, shape exactly how your publications look and behave, and keep control of your content once it leaves the viewer.
v1.9 — Reader Operations, Viewer Control & Content Protection
v1.6 gave publishers a place to see their readers. v1.9 is about running them at scale. Bring in a whole audience at once, keep their access right as circumstances change, and answer a support question about any reader without leaving the dashboard. Alongside that, this release gives you finer control over how each publication looks and what happens to it after a reader downloads it.
Reader Operations
Add readers one at a time or by the thousand
The Add readers button on the Readers page opens two ways in:
Single reader — enter an email and name, then grant publications, collections or subscription plans, each with an optional start and end date. Tick Send activation email and the reader gets a link to set their password.
CSV upload — download the sample file, fill it in, and preview every row before anything is created. Rows with problems are flagged individually, so one bad line never blocks the rest.
The same capability is available through the API, up to 1,000 readers per request, for organisations that provision from a membership system, LMS or CRM.
Extend a subscription in two clicks
Open any reader and choose Extend to add 30 days, 90 days, a year, or a date of your choosing. It also reactivates a subscription that has lapsed. Subscriptions billed through Stripe or Razorpay are labelled Gateway-managed, so the payment provider stays the single source of truth for those.
Keep subscriptions in step with an external billing system
If your members pay through another platform, its webhooks can now create, renew and cancel ZenFlip bundle subscriptions directly, using an organisation API key.
See what happened, when
The reader drawer has a new Activity tab: sign-ups, sign-ins and access-code redemptions, including failed attempts and the reason they failed. When a reader writes in saying "my code didn't work", the answer is one search away.
My Purchases for readers
Readers now have a My Purchases page in their account menu, listing one-time purchases and subscription charges with downloadable invoices. It works on custom domains too.
Reader management is available on Business plans and above.
Viewer Control
Slide mode
A third way to read, alongside flip and scroll. Slide mode presents one page at a time as a carousel, with the next page peeking in from the side. It's well suited to presentations, lookbooks and anything read on a phone. Choose which modes readers may use under Views readers can use, and set the one they start in with Default view.
Show or hide the top and bottom bars independently
Viewer Controls now has separate Top bar and Bottom bar settings, so a publication can keep its page navigation while dropping the header, or the reverse.
Background image
Place an image behind the pages from the editor's Background section and set its opacity. It's a simple way to carry your brand into the reading experience. Available on Creator plans and above.
Precise zoom and thick-book edges
Readers can now type an exact zoom level into the toolbar. In flip mode, the edges of the book now show its thickness, so a 300-page report looks like one.
Hotspots, Redesigned
New markers — a cleaner pin with an optional pulse. Show Icon and Show Pulse are now separate settings under Display Options.
More types — Page Jump links to another page in the same publication; Tooltip shows a short note on hover or tap; Embed places a live form, map or other embeddable page inside the publication.
Accurate placement — hotspot positions now follow the rendered page exactly, at every size and zoom level.
Content Protection
Watermarks now travel with the file. When a reader downloads or prints a publication, your watermark is stamped into the PDF itself rather than sitting on top of the viewer. Position, rotate, colour and size it in the new Edit watermark editor. Combined with Copy protection, you decide what leaves the viewer and how it's marked when it does. Both live under Content Protection in the publication editor.
Publishing Workflow
Retry a conversion — if a file fails to convert, Retry reruns it on the same upload, with no need to upload it again.
Your call on wide pages — when a PDF contains two-page spreads, ZenFlip now asks whether to split them into single pages or keep them as they are, instead of deciding for you.
Preview before you upgrade — a publication that goes beyond your plan's limits is no longer simply rejected. It converts in full and opens as a private preview, so you can see exactly what your readers would get, and it unlocks the moment you upgrade.
Questions about any of these features? Email support@zenflip.io.