“Natural” page turning software – Get Started – SitePoint Forums

Possibly, but that will presumably cost a lot of money, so it’s worth seeing if there are already scripts out there that do what you need.

The fact that you need JavaScript at all to do a page-turn effect is the problem. There are always downsides to doing something fancy on the Web, so I’m just pointing out that it’s worth first considering whether it’s really necessary to do something so fancy in the first place. A lot of people have trouble with JavaScript on the Web, so it’s better only to use it when absolutely necessary.

In many ways, web pages are a lot easier to read and access that the pages of a book, so trying to create a page-turning effect on the Web is kind of a backward step. It’s like buying a new car and getting it fitted out so you can drive it like the Flinstones — by running along the ground through a hole in the floor.

FWIW, I would argue the Web offers nicer aesthetics than you’d get in a physical book. You can do beautiful, continuous layouts without annoying page turns and the ugly gap/bend between left and right pages. Etc.

The Web is quite a different medium from printed media (obviously!). In the early days of the Web, designers (out of habit) just tried to stick with what they knew, producing fixed-width layouts like they had been doing for print. But over the years, web designers have more and more embraced the fluid nature of the Web and worked with it instead of against it.

Each website, for example, needs to expand and adapt to the device it’s viewed on. This drives traditional designers mad, as they want to have full control of their layouts, but this flexibility and adaptability is a bonus, not a curse. Imagine if people with poor vision could bump up the size of the text in a physical book to make it easier to read, for example. On the Web, it’s a cinch — unless the designer has imposed restrictions that don’t allow it.

As you start to do fancier things on the Web — particularly with JavaScript — you find that a lot of the flexibility and adaptability of the Web is lost. I don’t know for sure, but I’d wager that a lot of scripts for presenting a page-turning effect online prevent or interfere greatly with the natural flow and adaptability of the Web, such as increasing font sizes, viewing on different devices, listening via a screen reader etc.

Nah, I think this is something you should think about first, before running off to an expensive JavaScript developer. People around you will tell you how cool a page-turning effect on the Web is, but you’ll never see the many users at the other end of of the line struggling to access the content you’re trying to serve up to them. So think a bit about what the Web can offer first, and whether you’re making the best use of it by trying to make it something it’s not.

Maybe consider a modern website that presents the material in web-friendly way, and doing a print edition for those who prefer to turn pages?