The Wonderfactory, a New York-based digital strategy and design agency, and WoodWing Software (http://www.woodwing.com/ipad) have collaborated on what they says is a publishing industry first: tools that enable publishers to produce beautifully-designed and compelling content for the iPad in almost the same way they create content for print.

The two companies plan to help magazines, book publishers, and advertisers create and distribute interactive, user-focused experiences to the iPad and other mobile devices. The first collaboration is with TIME Magazine's launch coinciding with the April 3 launch of the iPad.

"Using newly-developed InDesign plugins, the layouts for any digital magazine can be enriched with interactive multimedia elements like video, slideshows, and dynamic content," says Erik Schut, president of WoodWing Software. "Magazine designers retain full creative control and can work on print and digital issues in parallel. The process is easily reproduced."

While The Wonderfactory and WoodWing are focused mostly on large to mid-size publishers, they are also aiming for low-cost solutions for thousands of smaller publishers that are eager to adopt the iPad. Support for other tablet devices is on the agenda with Flex and HTML5 implementations of the Digital Magazine Reader app.