We’ve recently made an update to the Layar Creator that includes some fun and useful new features. Check out the video below to see what’s new! Read on below for more info.

GIFs – The Internet has fallen in love all over again with the animated GIF, and no matter how you choose to pronounce it, you can now use GIFs as buttons in the Layar Creator. It’s a really simple way to create a more engaging and visually rich experience, and can really help to make important items stand out. To do so, simply drag one of the default blue buttons onto your page, select “Custom image,” and then upload your GIF. Users will see the GIF animate when they scan your page, and they can tap on it to perform the action associated with the button. You can also use the “Show an image” button (now available as a basic button) to just display the GIF with no action tied to it.

Appearance Animations – Sometimes you want your buttons to make a grand entrance, rather than just appearing suddenly. With our new animations you can choose one of a few unique ways to bring motion to your buttons as they appear. They can spin, grow or pop into place – but don’t worry, they won’t repeat the motion over and over, it’s just a nice way for the buttons to appear on your page.

Add to Contacts – Our new “Add to Contacts” button (which uses the common vCard standard) is a perfect tool for allowing your audience to quickly and easily save contact details. While it can be used with any type of Interactive Print, it’s especially great for business cards! When you hand out your interactive card at your next networking event, your new contacts can scan your business card with Layar and add your contact info with just one tap.

Frequently Used Buttons – Do you use just a few buttons over and over in your campaigns? We’ve made it easier to access the buttons you most often use with this new section you’ll find in the right-side button pane. This is just another small way that we’re making it quicker and easier than ever to create Interactive Print.

Sign into the Layar Creator today to check out these new features!

If you logged in to the Layar Creator today, you probably noticed some big changes to the look-and-feel. Do not adjust your monitor, we have indeed launched a substantial update to the Layar Creator, but it’s not just a fresh coat of paint.

With the new Layar Creator, we’ve made it easier than ever to get started with Interactive Print.

Since the launch of the Creator nearly two years ago, we’ve seen Interactive Print go from an experimental technology to a powerful and strategic step taken by publishers, marketeers and brands to boost print revenue and reader engagement. Popular brands like Net-a-Porter, Men’s Health, Inc., Glamour, Elle and Cosmopolitan have all embraced Layar and Interactive Print. The printed page has become a new point-of-sale.

As the market continues to rapidly develop, we are improving our products and services to provide more advice and expertise in Interactive Print. We’ve infused the new Creator with our knowledge and experience to better help the publishing industry to easily and quickly add innovation to print.

The new tabbed interface makes navigating between editing, testing, collaborating and promoting campaigns much more intuitive and simple. On the redesigned Campaign Overview screen, a bird’s-eye view of all of your campaigns helps provide the most information possible at a glance. A feed of info cards in this section displays personalized tips, suggestions and helpful information to make the Interactive Print creation process smooth and easy.

“These features and more continue to set the Layar Creator apart as the easiest, most user-friendly and professional Interactive Print publication platform on the market,” said Layar VP of Product Rags Vadali.

Try it yourself today by visiting layar.com/creator.

Today in the Creator, we’ve added a handy new feature that gives you the ability to quickly and easily promote your interactive print campaigns on the web and social media.

If you’re familiar with our Inspiration Page, you’re aware of how nice it is to share campaigns in a way that lets anyone quickly scan and experience the interactive print content. Now, we’re bringing this great feature to you, letting you build your own inspiration page for your campaigns.

As of today on the Campaign Overview screen, you’ll see a “Promote” button next to published campaigns above the “Archive” button. This lets you create a unique landing page for your campaign in which you can include a description and up to 3 preview images from your campaign that visitors can scan with Layar.

Your description can describe the content in the campaign, tell readers where they can find your campaign or anything that you see fit to your promotion page. Then just select up to 3 images to include, and you’re done!

You can share the link to this page however you like, but we make it easy to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

We hope you enjoy this handy new feature, and can’t wait to see the campaigns you share!

SoundCloud is a great way for anyone to upload, listen and share audio, from music to podcasts and more. Now, in the Layar Creator, you can easily add SoundCloud audio to your interactive print.

As of today in the Layar Creator, you’ll find our new SoundCloud widget in the Media section of our Standard buttons. Here’s how to add a SoundCloud audio file to your campaign:

1. Enter the SoundCloud URL for the piece of audio you want to add.
2. Choose whether the audio should autoplay or not.
3. Hit “Apply changes” and you’re done!

You’ll see a nice little SoundCloud widget appear on your page, complete with the track’s artwork, name, artist and duration. When a user scans your page, they can tap the orange play button to listen to the audio or tap the SoundCloud logo to view the track on the web.

ALSO! We have new sharing options right here on the blog!

If you look below this post, you’ll notice that Facebook and Twitter have been joined by LinkedIn, Pinterest and Email sharing options. We hope you find these added options useful for sharing our posts with your friends, family, followers and contacts! 

Now in the Layar Creator, you can choose to auto-play audio files when a page or reference image is scanned.

Previously, playing audio files in interactive print campaigns meant having the user tap a button, like the blue “Listen” button in the screenshot above. We received a lot of feedback from users that wanted the option to skip this step and jump straight to playing the audio once the page is recognized. 

It’s our goal to take your feedback and use it to help make the Creator the best tool for AR and interactive print creation there is. So as of today, we’ve added the ability to have audio play automatically.

This functionality is especially handy for audio tours. By adding scannable objects (like a plaque, sign or sticker) to a museum tour, walking tour, etc., you can allow users to scan the object and instantly hear the next step in an audio tour!

Do have a great idea for an audio tour or other auto-played audio experience? You can easily create such an experience with the Layar Creator! Get started today!