iPad Self-Publishing Tool Tactilize Launches In-App Editor

Tactilize, a self-publishing tool and content network for the iPad, launched last September. At the time, the only way to get content into the app was through a browser-based tool, which always felt like a little bit of a disconnect. Now, with the app’s latest update, users can also create content right on the iPad, too. The Tactilize app now features an easy-to-use editor that lets you add photos, videos, text, and links to external content to your pages.

To create their pages (or ‘cards,’ as Tactilize likes to call them), users can import images from Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Box, Picasa, Flickr and a number of other services (including FTP and WebDAV for advanced users). The in-app editor itself allows you to easily move, resize and rotate images, videos and text fields on the page and with a bit of patience and practice, the resulting pages can be very attractive and look just as good as some of the best iPad magazines. Once your page is done, you can use the app’s Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest integration to spread the word about it (including links to the web versions of your pages).

TactilizeThe Tactilize team expects that users will use the app to “publish a full interactive eBook, create an impressive press kit, or use Tactilize to bring your blog to the next level.” One area it still has to work on before this, though, is to ensure that others can find content in the app. This new version makes it easier to add titles, categories and tags to every card, but users still have to use the app to easily find them.

On its website, Tactilize features a somewhat hidden section where the team features interesting cards, but I can’t help but feel that it needs to highlight the web side of its service. For the time being, these cards on the web also still miss the interactivity that makes the iPad versions so good (Update: Tactilize tells us that interactive web views are coming “very, very soon”).

Over the holidays, Tactilize tells me, the service went from about 8,000 active users to 16,500 as people used the app to create holiday cards and greetings. Tactilize raised a $1 million funding round in November.