Deciding between Authorea and Issuu? Choosing the right way to publish your content online should be based on what is best for your business. Here are some key comparisons to help you decide:
1. Presenting content in HTML or PDF
Today, content is primarily read on the web. However, content is still largely created for the printed page. This disconnect has lead to the creation of service like Issu, making it possible to display PDFs online in an embedded container. Authorea, a document editor and publisher was designed to be web-native. Content written and published on Authorea is displayed in HTML as well as PDF. By displaying content in HTML Authorea offers groups the following advantages
- Ability to read content easily on mobile
- Ability to track engagement on content
- Enhanced SEO (PDFs are not part of the web, only described on the web)
- Ability to include interactive figures
2. Creating content automatically or with a design team
Many media companies create content designed for the printer (i.e. they create PDFs). The ability to create beautiful PDFs is possible with the work of designers using Indesign or other tools like Sketch. While a beautiful PDF can be created this way, the design and implementation of custom PDFs is time-consuming with most tools. Authorea, allows groups to set up a variety of custom PDF styles that can be recreated from Word, Google Docs, or and Authorea document with the click of a single button. This is one of the real powers of Authorea, we make it easy to produce content by employing LaTeX "under the hood," the world's most advanced typesetting system. If you want to control every pixel, then you might want to utilize a design team. If you want to produce beautiful reports easily without overhead then Authorea might be your best bet.
3. Collaboration
Authorea allows people to collaborate simultaneously on their documents. This means that you don't need to send a variety of different file types back and forth via email. With Authorea you can work on one document to create a beautiful report. In this case, writing is publishing.
4. Customizable URL and design
Creating a PDF to put online? That necessitates you utilizing an editor (Word or Google Docs), a design application (Sketch or Indesign), and a web host (Issuu, Wordpress, etc.). With Authorea you can write, edit, and publish all from Authorea. We allow groups to fully customize the URL and design of the site to make it easy to incorporate Authorea into the publishing process. In fact, it's so easy that we have effectively made writing the same thing as publishing.