Read a Magazine on a Tablet/Phone

One of the oddities of the way the Zinio app interacts with the VIRL Zinio Magazine Collection is that finding the magazines you can download freely cannot take place within the Zinio app itself. You need to add magazines to your Zinio reading list from a general internet browser. This can be the browser on your tablet/phone or from a desktop computer.

In any case, our starting point is the Vancouver Island Regional Library home page virl.bc.ca. You will need to be connected to the internet and know your email address and passwords for your Zinio accounts to follow these instructions, which are the same as our Read a Magazine on a Desktop/Laptop guide until the magazines have been added to your reading list.

Finding the VIRL Zinio collection

The magazines you can download freely through Zinio with your VIRL card can be found at www.rbdigital.com/vancouverislandbc/zinio. You can also get there from anywhere on our VIRL website by tapping a Zinio button or by following these steps:

Tap Using the Library in the blue header bar. In the menu that appears, go all the way to the right under eLibrary and tap Apps and Mobility.
Scroll down to the bottom of the screen where you will find a section called Zinio. Tap where it says Click here on how to sign up for Zinio and you will get to the VIRL Zinio Magazine Collection.

Adding VIRL magazines to your reading list

The VIRL Zinio Magazine Collection page should look something like this:

Starting from this page is very important. If you try to start at the Zinio website or from within the Zinio app, Zinio is unaware you're a VIRL member and will try to sell you magazines that you can download for free through the library.

It's a good idea to bookmark this page in your browser so it is easy for you to find again.

From the VIRL Zinio Magazine Collection you can search for a magazine you'd like to download using the Title Search bar.
You can also find a type of magazine by clicking the All Genres dropdown list.
When you find a magazine you'd like to read, click on Checkout Now below its cover image.
A small box will appear. Enter the Email and Password you previously set up for your VIRL Zinio account and click the blue Log In button.
If you haven't set up an account you can go to our VIRL Zinio Accounts guide for instructions.
A box should appear saying Success!
Now you have a couple of choices. You can
- Keep Browsing and add more magazines to your reading list, or
- Start Reading your magazine now, but don't tap the Start Reading button! Instead, close your browser and open your Zinio app and skip to the next section of this guide.
If you choose to keep browsing you can continue to search or browse for more magazines as you wish. You have now been logged in, so the next time you click Checkout Now it won't ask for your email address.
Instead you jump straight to the Success! box.

Reading in the Zinio App

On a tablet or phone you do your magazine reading through the Zinio app. If you haven't installed the app yet you can check our Set Up a Tablet/Phone for Zinio guide for further instructions.

Open the Zinio app.
Tap the Read icon (it looks like an open magazine) to access your reading list.
The magazines you checked out from the VIRL Zinio Magazine Collection should be visible on the list. Ones that have not yet been downloaded to your tablet/phone will have a Download icon visible.
Tap the download icon and the magazine will be transferred to your mobile device. Some magazines can be fairly large files, so it's generally better to do these transfers over WiFi if you do not have an unlimited data plan on your phone.
Once the magazine has downloaded to your device, you can tap on it to open it up and begin reading. Sometimes on a screen the layout can be not so conducive to easy reading, especially on a small screen. Rather than pinching and zooming, many articles have a TEXT function that can make them more readable.
In the text mode the text of the article is reproduced in a single column that makes reading much easier.

There are also in-app tips that can help with your reading experience in the Zinio app.

Questions? Run into an issue we didn't cover? Contact us at fakeemail@virl.bc.ca or let us know by Facebook or Twitter.