On May 12, the American Numismatic Association (ANA) announced that it is shifting the online viewing platform for its flagship publication, The Numismatist, to HTML5 Viewer. The viewer is a compatibility upgrade and brings a new look and a new menu. Readers don’t need any plugins (such as Flash or other software) beyond their modern Internet browser; pages are larger and toolbars can be hidden when not in use.
“The new viewer is very intuitive,” says Barbara Gregory, editor-in-chief of The Numismatist. “A pop-up tutorial will guide readers the first time they access the magazine online in the new format. HTML5 Viewer should be compatible with all new platforms, including Apple iOS, which did not support the Flash plugin. Readers now will have a unified viewing experience across all browsers, regardless of the device.”
“Articles always have been available in a text-only (“Content View”) format, but now phone browsers will default to text, while computer and tablet users will see the fully-formatted pages first.”
All modern web browsers support HTML5, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. Readers should be able to access The Numismatist on any computer, as well as on mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, Android devices, tablets and smartphones.
“In addition to the new look, the ANA has chosen to use HTML5 Viewer to provide an enhanced viewing experience for mobile phone users,” noted Gregory. One of the key advantages of HTML5 is the capability of rendering multimedia content without the necessity of installing a plugin or a player application. Animation, video clips, slideshows, audio, and other multimedia tools can be embedded in Enhanced Text Articles. With the Flash Viewer, readers who did not have Flash not only missed out on the multimedia, but also could not see the pages. (Currently, HTML5 Viewer and Enhanced Text Articles do not support native applications; updates will be coming later this year.)
The HTML5 navigation experience will continue to provide readers with pinch and reverse-pinch zoom; URL links; article and page-to-page links; full-screen mode; orientation handling/adaptive layout for mobile devices; and left/right navigation buttons for non-touch devices. Print functionality will enable readers to output the entire magazine, a single page, or a specific range of pages.
Browsers that are compatible with HTML5 Viewer include:
- iOS 5+, Safari (iPad/iPhone)
- Chrome 23+, Firefox 19+ (Android)
- Chrome 23+, Firefox 19+, Safari 5+, Internet Explorer 10+ (Desktop)
Considered by many to be the gold standard of hobby publications, The Numismatist features lavishly illustrated articles written by leading numismatic experts covering coins, medals, tokens and paper money, plus hobby events and coinage issues from around the world. In December 2015, the ANA digitized all 128 volumes of the publication, from 1888 to present. Association members have free access to the digital archives.
Back Issues of The Numismatist Currently Available on eBay
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