Case Study: The Vatican achieves digital preservation of historic imagery and reaches younger audiences with Aptara's enhanced eBooks

The Vatican Keeps Pace with eBooks Preserving Historical Imagery Digitally

The Vatican, steward of centuries of religious and historical publishing, needed a way to make its printed archives accessible to a younger, more digitally native global audience. Facing fragile paper collections and changing reading habits, the Church sought an experienced digital publishing partner to devise a content strategy that would modernize and extend the reach of its publications.

Aptara converted and optimized legacy Vatican titles into enhanced eBooks, using Apple’s fixed-layout format to preserve original pagination and high-resolution imagery for iPad readers. The initiative resulted in 13 eBooks of Pope Benedict XVI’s weekly addresses on Apple iTunes in Italy, delivered striking digital editions that engage modern audiences while helping preserve the Library’s delicate physical holdings.

The Vatican