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!

Some of you may have noticed some changes that went live in the Layar Creator yesterday. We’ve just launched three new dynamic widgets that bring even more interactivity to your print products.

Here’s a rundown of the new widgets that you can find today in the Layar Creator:

1. Twitter Feed
   Now you can feature a live, interactive Twitter feed of either one account’s tweets or a hashtag search right on top of your print. Just enter an account or hashtag and drop in on your page. It’s great for featuring your brand’s tweets or curating tweets at an event on the event’s printed program.


2. Image Carousel
   Want to place a nice slider of images to accompany products for sale in a catalog? Just choose your images and drop them onto your pages with this handy widget. You can upload up to 10 JPG or PNG files that users can swipe through right on your print. In our example, we show off different pictures and angles for a stylish briefcase, but there’s a lot of possibilities for slideshows out there!


3. HTML Widget
   This one is completely up to you - make it anything you like! Just enter the URL of any piece of HTML and you can display live, dynamic HTML content right on top of your print. The possibilities are nearly endless: live updating news feeds, sports scores, weather and traffic information, commenting, polls, forms, shopping carts, price comparison - even animated GIFs.

With the introduction of these new widgets, we’ve also rearranged how buttons are organized in the right-hand menu. Now buttons and widgets are grouped into handy expandable and collapsible menus labeled Basic, Media, Social and Developer. We think this is a better way to organize the growing list of buttons.

Have a look at the video above to see the new widgets and button organization in action.

We’ll have more to share soon about how to make the best use of these widgets, especially the HTML widget which has a lot of possibilities. To learn more about what’s possible with the new widgets, check out our tutorial over on the Support page.

These changes are the product of research and feedback from you, the users. Keep sending us your comments and suggestions to devsupport@layar.com!

Here at Layar we’re constantly working toward making our products better and better, especially when we hear similar feature requests from the community. That’s exactly why we’ve got some great new features in the Creator to share today.

Based on popular feedback from users, we’ve added some new default buttons to the Creator and we’ve made it easier than ever to customize them. Here are the new features you’ll find in the Creator as of today:

“Like us on Facebook” button - Easily link up your print publication with your Facebook presence. Now readers can quickly “Like” your brand, products or anything else on Facebook.
“Follow us on Twitter” button - Encourage readers to get social and interact with you online. Just enter your brand’s Twitter username to enable fast following.
“Email us” button - One of the most frequently requested improvements from you, the Creator community. Now you can get instant feedback and messages from readers.
Custom colors! - Break free of the standard blue buttons. Mix things up and use any RGB color or one of our 10 presets.

These new buttons and options make using the Creator to engage with your audience much easier. Use the Facebook and Twitter buttons to link your print to your online social media pages and let readers easily get in touch with the Email button. With the color picker, you can customize your buttons to match your brand’s style, making readers feel right at home.