Create your own interactive 3D pop-up books!

Story Codes

A ZooBurst Story Code is a special printed symbol that uniquely identifies a ZooBurst book, much like how a barcode uniquely identifies a product in a grocery store. Once created, a Story Code lets you "attach" your book to a physical object, such as a class bulletin board, printed newsletter or even a printed version of your book.

Premium ZooBurst members can print out a Story Code for any of their books by visiting their "My Books" page and clicking on the "Story Code" option next to a book. You can also print out a story code for student books by visiting a student's book library, clicking on the "Manage Student Books" button and then on the "Story Code" option next to a book.

You can view your Story Codes by clicking the large "play" button below, turning on your webcam and holding up your Story Code so that your camera can see it. You can also scan Story Codes using our free iPad app (click here to download it from the iTunes app store)

Here are a few sample Story Codes that you can try out:

This ZooBurst Story Code viewer requires the Adobe Flash plugin. You can download a free copy by clicking here. iPad users can download the free ZooBurst app from the iTunes app store.

Here are some general tips for using the Story Code viewer:

  1. Ensure that your Story Code is printed on light colored paper
  2. Make sure that the printer you are using has enough toner / ink – low contrast images will reduce ZooBurst’s ability to identify a Story Code. In addition, prints that have "bands" of color missing from the image may also cause recognition problems.
  3. Make sure that your Story Code isn’t folded or curved
  4. Keep your fingers and other objects outside of the dashed region around the story code.
  5. The web-based Story Code viewer will automatically "mirror" your image so that it appears as though you are looking into a real mirror (i.e. when you hold up your right hand it will appear on the right side of the screen). You should turn off any "webcam mirroring" settings or software that you may have running since this will override ZooBurst's ability to mirror your camera. You can tell if this is an issue for you if your image appears un-mirrored (i.e. you hold up your right hand and it appears on the left side of the screen).