Today we’ve added some great new features to the Layar Creator which now make it easier for developers to quickly implement engaging augmented reality experiences with Layar Vision.

In addition to making the uploading of page files easier and adding a social Share Page button (see our blog on these items here), we’ve added a pair of advanced features that make the Creator more powerful than ever. With the new Custom URI Scheme button and JSON Hotspot widget, developers can now add hooks to third-party applications and drop Layar Vision code directly into the Layar Creator.

Custom URI Scheme Button
Some third-party apps use a custom URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme to allow deep linking to actions within the app. For example, a link from any application on iOS or Android to “layar://layarname” will open a layer in the Layar App (granted the user has Layar installed on their device).

With this technique and depending on the schemes provided by various apps, you can add interactive print links to perform various functions on a user’s device, including view a map or directions, play a song or other media and much more! It’s especially useful to direct a user to an action within your own app from the Layar App.

Check out our Custom URI Scheme Button Tutorial to learn more!

JSON Hotspot Widget
Many developers have already used the Layar API to create Vision layers, and now you can simply drop your JSON code into the Creator to make publishing this content much easier! The advantage is that it supports more features than the Creator does natively, including 3D models and animation.

Anyone with knowledge of JSON and 3D modelling can easily create and publish a 3D augmented reality experience within the Layar Creator. A majority of hotspot-level features of the Layar API are supported with the exception of any feature that requires communication with a dynamic back-end (e.g. asynchronous actions).

Check out our JSON Hotspot Widget Tutorial to learn more!

These improvements are all part of our commitment to providing the best augmented reality and interactive print solutions for both publishers and developers alike.

Log in to the Layar Creator today to get started with these new features!

As we continue our commitment to providing the best interactive print tools and services, today we’ve made some improvements to the Layar Creator that should make a big difference in your experience.

Now Users Can Share Pages
Firstly, we’re making things a bit more social. We already allow users to share items on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, but previously they were limited to sharing just the digital content. We found that users are often looking to share the print content they are scanning with their social networks, so now they can do just that!

As a publisher, you can now add a Share Page button, which lets users easily share the original print content they are scanning. This way, others can see these pages and even scan them themselves to join in the interactive print experience.

You can add a caption to the page that appears on Facebook and on a landing page for the image hosted on Layar.com. It’s a great way to help spread your print content the way users are used to sharing digital content already.

Unified Page Uploader
But that’s not all. We’ve also made your lives easier as well with a small change to the page upload process. Previously, to upload a ZIP or PDF file to the Creator, you had to click a separate link within the normal image upload screen.

Now, we’ve unified these two functions, allowing you to use one upload mechanism for all interactive print content. Now JPG, PNG, PDF and ZIP files can all be uploaded from one window. It’s a small change but it should go a long way to making your experience with the Creator a smoother, more user-friendly one.

You can find these new features in the Creator today. Log in now to get started!

We’ve also added some more advanced buttons to the Creator, including a JSON Hotspot Widget and a Custom URI Button. We’ll go into more detail on those here on the blog soon.

Not long ago we added a new dynamic widget to the Layar Creator: the Clickable Carousel. Basically, it works just like the existing Image Carousel widget, but offers the ability to add links to each image so users can tap them to visit various links.

There are several cases in which this widget is very useful and fun for the user, including the example in the video tutorial above which we created. We added various dresses and hats to a model that you can swipe through to mix and match styles, and clicking on the images takes you to the mobile shopping pages for those items. You can try it by scanning the image below.

Other great examples have emerged from the community already! One user added the various body systems (muscles, organs, nerves, etc.) as slides on top of a skeleton image. Click here to view this example and scan with Layar!

This gift guide shows users different colors and styles for a bag by letting users slide through and click the one they like! Scan them with Layar to see how Clickable Carousels can add interactivity to your print content.

To make your own Clickable Carousel, just follow these steps:

1. Drag the widget onto your page
2. Click “+” to upload the first image
3. Add the URL it should link to
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all images are added, then click “Apply Changes”
5. Resize and reposition the widget
6. Test and publish!

Check out the video above or scan the image below to see how it works, and log in to the Layar Creator today to get started making your own! 

In February, we saw a huge explosion of activity from Thailand as tens of thousands of people used Layar to view and create interactive print.

Take a look at the chart above, which shows growth in several categories from February. Pageviews had a major spike, growing over 3,000% from January, but what caused so many more people to scan interactive print in Thailand?

It seems a rather popular comedian, Udom Taepanich, was at the center of an interactive print campaign advertising his 10th stand-up special, Deaw 10. Follow this link to check out some footage of one of his previous specials (with English subtitles!). Images on ads around Bangkok and on tickets to the event themselves were augmented using Layar to show a video of Udom coming to life out of the ad.

The campaign has a snowball effect in Thailand, as downloads of the Layar App skyrockets by 515% and thousands of new interactive print campaigns have been published. The shows are still being performed, and more and more people are being made aware of interactive print.

This is a great example of how Layar is, and has been, a very international company. Our users and interactive print Creators come from all over the world from a plethora of use cases, and the growth shown in Thailand recently fits right along that trend. In the end, this shows how interactive print is rapidly expanding across the globe.

As you already know, Layar has the most straightforward and transparent pricing model for creating interactive print. Today, we’re making this pricing even better, with smarter pricing in the Layar Creator.

Starting today, you’ll see some improved payment options when publishing your campaigns. This is part of our continued effort to provide the best experience to our users throughout the publication process.

Previously, when publishing a “Pro” campaign, you could pay for each individual page or purchase a bundle of 100 pages. Now we’ve added three additional smaller bundles, each with their own discounted price. Buying 10, 20, 50 or 100-page bundles saves you €10, €40, €150 and €500 respectively. The more pages you buy, the bigger the discount.

We’ve even taken the guesswork out of purchasing bundles with smart pricing when you publish your campaign. Need to publish a campaign with 32 pages? Previously that campaign would cost 32 individual pages, or €480.

Now we automatically offer bundled pricing – in this case, one 10-page bundle, one 20-page bundle and 2 individual pages – saving you €50 in the process! Or simply buy a 50-page bundle and use the remaining pages for your next interactive print campaign while saving €150.

If you have special pricing needs (e.g., bulk orders) there’s a handy link to get in touch with our sales team right from the payment screen in the Creator.