This software is a java application that can convert a group of images (also from a cbz/zip file) into a single PDF file optimized for The iliad on the Sony reader.
It can also make some filtering to the images (like brightness and contrast enhancements, sharpening...)

This is a java jar to run it you need to have at least java 1.4.
to launch the file execute
java -jar JE-Comics.jar

(under windows it should be possible to run the program just by double clicking on the jar)

The software is provided as is, without any warranty of any type, use it at your own risk :)

If there is enough interest int this I will continue it's develop, extending its features and eventually release the source under gpl 2 license.

Some notes
The files will be sorted by name so is better that you use file-names like 001 002 and so on.
The issues between java< 1.6 and png files should be fixed in v0.7.1, it is a workaround for a java bug that is fixed in java 1.6.

I've uploaded v0.1.1, this release is more usable (is possible to edit the document title, clear the comics list, and the output is better)
Let me know if you like it!
Bye

Would there be any chance in adding support for converting other image formats (png, gif, etc)?

edit: *ahem* never mind :)

adding support for the Sony Reader would be FANTASTIC. this thing outputs comics easier than any other method people have come up with and they look great on the reader. Looks like just margin changes for the reader need to be addressed. Please post over in the Reader forum! thanks! -lint

Thank you i'll make the post just after this post, but I'm a bit busy this week so till the week end i will not be able to make any modification.
Cya

I've uploaded v0.2.0 that have some initial support for the sony reader too.

Loving the program. Would there be any possability of being able to recursively add files in a directory/subdirectory.

The manga I am reading is stored in the following format and it can be a bit time consuming to convert

/comic name/volume X/chapter X/page XXX/

It would be nice to be able to just select /comic name/volume X/ and have it convert all images below that directory.

And to bring back my past post, it turns out that png image conversion does not work, I had a misxture of JPG and PNG in the directory and only the JPG were converted, so could be please have PNG support, pretty please :)

Keep up the good work.

those are already on my to-do list :) it is just a matter of time!

Cool beans! Man, this lil' proggy worked great for the scanlations I was able to find and take it for a test-drive with!

I ended up using this program to stitch all the pages together and then ran the resultant PDF through yet another awesome prog, PDFRasterfarian. This was a quite painless operation and yielded a very readable manga book for my afternoon viewing. In case you're wondering, JECC yeilded a ~26MB PDF (which opened fine and viewed nicely), but I wanted to see how PDFR worked on it as well (actually loaded both results on my Reader to compare side-by-side); this result was a ~12MB LRF that looked awesome. In the past, I've used PDFR on other PDF ebooks that didn't display very well, and knew that it works well, so I decided to team them up.

IMO, the result of both progs were exceptional, though PDFR made the book easier to read due to sharpening and removing of residual ghosting from the original scan. Don't get me wrong, JECC works great as is; I was just testing and wanted a smaller size file (the dimensions for both were the same, so I don't think any resizing needed to be done since JECC already does that) and thoroughly enjoyed the results.

Thanks for the great app, truly unlocking the Reader's potential (or at least mine!). Here's to your karma!

Edit: BTW, if you're using Windows and have Java installed the right way, you can simply double-click the jar to run it. Works for me.

Cool beans! Man, this lil' proggy worked great for the scanlations I was able to find and take it for a test-drive with!

I ended up using this program to stitch all the pages together and then ran the resultant PDF through yet another awesome prog, PDFRasterfarian. [..]

IMO, the result of both progs were exceptional, though PDFR made the book easier to read due to sharpening and removing of residual ghosting from the original scan. Don't get me wrong, JECC works great as is; I was just testing and wanted a smaller size file (the dimensions for both were the same, so I don't think any resizing needed to be done since JECC already does that) and thoroughly enjoyed the results.

Thank you, I'm happy that you've found my software usefull anyway

JEC is born as a crossplatform solution for create optimized pdf from images, I do plan more features, like some option filtering of source images, but this will take time :).
I could add easy cool filters using a lib called JAI, but this would mean that i should add a jar of about 2MB to the package! And I don't like the idea of making it so much bigger for just a couple of filters even if JAI should be faster that java2d.

Bye
Kirys

P.S.
Maybe this post should be moved to a more generic forum due to that fact that now JEC is for both Iliad and Sony reader

Sounds like a cool app! Unforntunately, I don't know if I like manga... can I get some recommendations so that I can read my first manga?

Sounds like a cool app! Unforntunately, I don't know if I like manga... can I get some recommendations so that I can read my first manga?

It's kind of tough with manga, since it varies across a wide spectrum, it may be easier to filter your request if you tell us what kind of genre you like; i.e., horror, scifi, action, romance (ick), sports, etc. I personally like the action, fighting, demon fighting, tech stuff. but I also like some of the funny/silly scripts they have (there are a ton available).

Here are a few available (a quick wikipedia will tell you more than I can about them):
Elfen Lies - action
Kaeru gunso - comic
Homunculus - action

There are a ton more, but I haven't really gone through enough of the scanlations to see what meets my tastes. Your best bet would be to d/l a chapter and flick through it real quick to see what you like. Hopefully more people here will make suggestions. I believe there's a manga thread in here somewhere too.

Lastly (RE: JE-Comics Convertor):
I think I read earlier about someone asking if the prog supports png or not. While you can only filter by jpg or all files, I thought I'd throw it at a directory of png's just to see if it'd choke or not... suprisingly, it didn't! I now have a compiled manga that was originally comprised of png-formatted images, not jpg.

[Edit] I did notice a post stating that the program choked with mixed formats; i.e., png & jpg in same folder, my test actually had a mix of the two and when the resultant PDF was checked, they were all there intact. Not sure if this was fixed in a version update since the original post.

Actually it don't load PNG yet, just because I forgot to add the support :P (i focused only on the resolution issues), next version will I promise :)

Did someone tested the lossless format on the sony?

Btw, is the source code available? I'd like to make a "iliad landscape" mode... for viewing my b&w pictures. Well, actually for showing off, but still...

I do plan to release the source code eventually. But actually I want to finish the base architecture of the software and its main features (i should also decide an os license compatible with the libs I'm using).

BTW you want to make an higher version of the output or you want to just rotate the image?
If you want to rotate the image select the checkbox under the R colum fo the images you want to rotate :)

Azayzel, maybe you can help me. I have a Reader and for some reason I cannot turn out readable comics. The files I use are standard comic sized scans at great resolutions but whenever I load them onto the reader after I use the converter, the text is way too small and I can only pick out a few words (my eyes are fine). Without the converter though I can't read anything.

Perhaps the text in manga is larger then in standard Marvel and DC comics, I don't read them so I don't know. If any of you have any suggestions, please help!

I think that the problem is that anyway the resolution of the reader is too low for the size of the font of your comic.
is the comic readable (after the conversion) on the computer screen?
di you tried read it in landscape mode?

Azayzel, maybe you can help me. I have a Reader and for some reason I cannot turn out readable comics. The files I use are standard comic sized scans at great resolutions but whenever I load them onto the reader after I use the converter, the text is way too small and I can only pick out a few words (my eyes are fine). Without the converter though I can't read anything.

Perhaps the text in manga is larger then in standard Marvel and DC comics, I don't read them so I don't know. If any of you have any suggestions, please help!

I actually run the comics through JE-Comics Convertor and then through PDFRasterfarian. Before I used PDFR, I had the same problem as well; I could just barely make out some of the dialog without viewing it landscape mode (hate this, as it's strange to hold and I don't like to read a half page at a time). The JE-CC stitches all the images into one file, of the correct size for the reader, and PDFR applies a few filters to enhance the PDF output so that it is more easily viewable on the Reader; i.e., edge enhancement and noise removal. If you go to the Reader Developer's Corner, you can find that app and run it in conjunction with this one.

One issue you will find with US comics vs. manga is the physical size difference of the layouts. Here's a physical size comparison I've done myself, so you can see that they can fit more comic frames on a page in a US comic = more to fit on the eBook's page = smaller font; though the ratio length-to-width is almost the same -> .67 :: .65

Manga (TokyoPop) 5" x 7 3/8" or 126mm x 188mm
US Comic (Image) 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" or 169mm x 259mm

For demo purposes, I've attached a comic I converted with PDFRasterfarian before I found out about JE-Comics Convertor and a manga converted using both apps. If for some reason I need to remove either, I will happily do so, they are simply here for demostation. I'd u/l the PDF output of the manga, but it's 23MB rar'd. Secondly, I haven't read the manga I u/l, I just flipped through it to check quality; so if the story sucks, sorry. Finally, regarding reading manga so it makes sense... you start in the upper-right and work left, instead of upper-left and right like with US comics; sames goes for dialog (still top-to-bottom :) )

Actually it don't load PNG yet, just because I forgot to add the support :P (i focused only on the resolution issues), next version will I promise :)

Did someone tested the lossless format on the sony?

Kirys: Ok, I tested out the lossless vs original samples that you provided in the top post. The lossless is a bit clearer, but the font is still a little light in spots. Is there any type of edge or font enhancement you can apply to sharpen the fonts or bold them? They are still readable. Strangely enough, the differences I could notice in portrait are not as noticeable in landscape mode (would have thought they'd be more apparent due to the larger size.

Thanks for pointing out the rotation capability, I wasn't aware of it and this will save with some of those darn double-page images thrown in there every now and then (were horribly small in portrait).

Finally, before I let you guys have some rest for a while... I am not sure I follow what you are saying when you said that PNG format does not load yet. Do you mean that you haven't set it as a selectable option? If that's the case, it doesn't bother me in the least as I can select all images within the folder using the "All Files" option. I just converted a 199-page manga, where only the title page was jpg and the rest were png.

Have a good evening or day, whatever it happens to be!

Kirys: Ok, I tested out the lossless vs original samples that you provided in the top post. The lossless is a bit clearer, but the font is still a little light in spots. Is there any type of edge or font enhancement you can apply to sharpen the fonts or bold them?

I'm not an expert of image processing. I can try with some sharpening and contrast enhancement but is not easy to achieve the same result without knowing a good recipe :)

They are still readable. Strangely enough, the differences I could notice in portrait are not as noticeable in landscape mode (would have thought they'd be more apparent due to the larger size.

Whe you go into landscape mode the reader stretch the image (that was resized to the effective resolution of the screen. And its interpolation is not as good as the one produced by our softwares :)

If you post a filtered version of the lossless pdf i can have an idea of the difference from my output (i'm not a win user so i cannot use PDFraster).
Bye

I do plan to release the source code eventually. But actually I want to finish the base architecture of the software and its main features (i should also decide an os license compatible with the libs I'm using).

BTW you want to make an higher version of the output or you want to just rotate the image?
If you want to rotate the image select the checkbox under the R colum fo the images you want to rotate :)

Most of my pics are landscape, so I just want to get higher average screen usage. I guess rotating the picture would help -- I haven't tried it. However then I need a "rotate all" button, or: When multi-selecting rows, and then clicking on the "R"-column, the R-selection applies to all rows. Then you must override the rowSelected-event and stuff, it is un-necessary tricky but not too hard. I guess I can do it, even though I am a server-dude, not a swing-guru:)

If you post a filtered version of the lossless pdf i can have an idea of the difference from my output (i'm not a win user so i cannot use PDFraster).


Hmm, makes sense about the landscape stretching the image. Didn't think of that. Before I upload/post anything, I would like to clarify what you want to take a look at, the PDF of the comic I converted before running through the other program or the result in PDF or TIFF format? Also, which PDF, the manga or the comic? Thanks again for your time! These aren't really showstoppers for me, as the combined effort is more than adequate.

I actually run the comics through JE-Comics Convertor and then through PDFRasterfarian. Before I used PDFR, I had the same problem as well; I could just barely make out some of the dialog without viewing it landscape mode (hate this, as it's strange to hold and I don't like to read a half page at a time). The JE-CC stitches all the images into one file, of the correct size for the reader, and PDFR applies a few filters to enhance the PDF output so that it is more easily viewable on the Reader; i.e., edge enhancement and noise removal. If you go to the Reader Developer's Corner, you can find that app and run it in conjunction with this one.

Thanks man, I'll try that when I get home from work. I actually use both but didn't think to use them in conjunction.

Also, which PDF, the manga or the comic?
TestSonyLossLess.pdf that is available in the first post of this thread

Most of my pics are landscape, so I just want to get higher average screen usage. I guess rotating the picture would help -- I haven't tried it. However then I need a "rotate all" button
The interface lack many things, it is because I've focused on the engine rather than the interface itself, I'll add a popupmenu to the list for this kind of things in next version :)

I am a server-dude, not a swing-guru:)
Yeah I usually do server side thing in java, that is the first real swing app I do, and also the first app that have to process images :)

I've uploaded v0.3.0

MAJOR: Now you can add also all the content of a directory.

Any possibility of in a future release getting it to do a deeper scan of a directory and include sub directories.

eg

I have directory structure manga\volume\chapter\pages.jpg where there could be more than one volume and chapter directory.

I'd like to be able to add the directory "volume" and have it scan the directories chapter1 - chapterN and add all the images in those directories into the PDF.

As always keep up the good work, this is a great application

I a future there will be that feature, but now it would create a big problem to the way it does sort files, so I have to think the most flexible way to solve this problem.
Personally i do prefer having different chapters into different pdfs :p
First I want (and need) to focus on the output quality that still need work, but for that i do need someone with an iliad or a sony and a digital camera, to help me figure out how the changes reflect on the readers.

Personally i do prefer having different chapters into different pdfs :p


I had been doing that, but it got a bit annoying creating 30-40 page pdfs, when a 200page one worked just as well. :)

EIther way, take your time on this feature, it's just as easy for me to move all the files into the one directory and then convet

Only just getting around to using 3.0 (rev 1.19) fully and I am having a few issues.

1) converting PNG images does not work. I can add them to the image list fine
but when you click on generate it just sits at "completed 0%" and does
nothing

2) Adding a directory adds .DS_STORE files to the list for conversion.

First I want (and need) to focus on the output quality that still need work, but for that i do need someone with an iliad or a sony and a digital camera, to help me figure out how the changes reflect on the readers.

Hey Kirys, hope you had a good weekend (looks like you've been busy!). I sw your post earlier about the lossless output you & clarification of what you'd like for testing. When I responded previously, my response was in regards to comparing the two examples you had posted; e.g., lossless vs. normal, I was under the impression you wanted to see what type of output I received when I ran it on one of my comics to compare outputs of just JEC vs. JEC+PRFR.

I've been a little busy lately, but should have some time later today to break out the digital cam and grab you some shots of your examples on my Reader; I'll also take a few snaps of my outputs so you can see. I haven't tried the new build yet, so hopefully I'll get a chance to try that too. Hopefully the report of it not processing PNG is not correct, as it worked previously. Talk more with you all later!

If you want to rotate the image select the checkbox under the R colum fo the images you want to rotate :)

I tried this with version 3.0 on a Win XP computer with a jpg based comic and it had some unexpected results.
It seems to rotate the image 90 degrees Anti-clockwise (no problem there) but then flips the image, resulting in all the text being backwards :)

I tried this with version 3.0 on a Win XP computer with a jpg based comic and it had some unexpected results.
It seems to rotate the image 90 degrees Anti-clockwise (no problem there) but then flips the image, resulting in all the text being backwards :)

I've found the reason I'll fix this in next release.


2) Adding a directory adds .DS_STORE files to the list for conversion.

I'll fix this in next release :)

Only just getting around to using 3.0 (rev 1.19) fully and I am having a few issues.

1) converting PNG images does not work. I can add them to the image list fine
but when you click on generate it just sits at "completed 0%" and does
nothing


Could you send me the output of the java console? You should be able to open it from the java trayicon.

2) Adding a directory adds .DS_STORE files to the list for conversion.


forgot to mention this was on OS X. .DS_STORE is a hidden file. I guess the best thing to do would be to ignore dot files or perhaps non image files.


Could you send me the output of the java console? You should be able to open it from the java trayicon.

Not quite sure how to get the info in OS X but will certainly get you the output from a Windows XP machine for tomorrow.

edit: figured out the OS X output. PM sent.

OSX? wow :) This is why i love java :)

Well I'm trying to figure it out, I'll upload a new version soon :)

Hi, I am having the same problem with PNG files, I can put it in the tray, but it doesn't convert into PDF. Thanks.

Please try v0.3.1 and let me know if it fixes your problems
Bye

Actually, I only downloaded the program only yesterday, so I am using the most current version.

Please try v0.3.1 and let me know if it fixes your problems
Bye

Some good news :)

Well tried 0.3.1 on Win XP this morning and it still wasn't converting .png files. Then I noticed I had some Java updates. Installed those, did the test again and 0.3.1 converts png fine now.

Have not had a chance to try out OS X yet.

Image rotation also works as expected now.

Very well! :)

Still not working on OS X 10.4.8, just sits at 0%

$ java -version
java version "1.5.0_06"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-113)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_06-68, mixed mode, sharing).

Let me know if you want another output

lets see if sun releases a new VM for osx, I would be impossible to fix something that is related to the java VM.
Please check if it does this with all png or only some.

Please check if it does this with all png or only some.

All PNG I have tried to date do not work. Perhaps other OS X users could do some testing also :)

How do I find updates for Java for XP?

How do I find updates for Java for XP?
I recommend explicitly downloading and installing latest java from java.sun.com.

I'm uploading a preview version of v0.4.0.
This release have some major change into the architecture for allowing filtering of images.
Actually it does some filtering to the images before compression to improve quality (those are not configurable yet).
I would like to know if this does really help the display quality on e-book readers.
Do someone know the shades of gray of the sony reader? actually I'm using the iliad ones also on the sony.
P.S.
V0.4.0 is really buggy so i leave v0.3.1 for normal uses :)

I'm uploading a preview version of v0.4.0.

I know it is an early release, but the "completion" status no longer generates a vertical scroll bar when it runs off the page, so it is a bit hard to see the progress (ignoring the status bar) after about 10-15 converted pages.

the status bar don't work too?

the status bar don't work too?

The status bar does work, but dissapears once complete. It would be nice to have some sort of visual that it was finished converting with no errors. Perhaps by leaving the status bar up.

I'm uploading a preview version of v0.4.0.
This release have some major change into the architecture for allowing filtering of images.
Actually it does some filtering to the images before compression to improve quality (those are not configurable yet).
I would like to know if this does really help the display quality on e-book readers.
Do someone know the shades of gray of the sony reader? actually I'm using the iliad ones also on the sony.
P.S.
V0.4.0 is really buggy so i leave v0.3.1 for normal uses :)

Thanks for the update, I really have to get some time tomorrow to test out this new build. Just to clarify a few things we talked back and forth about earlier in the month; I loaded up the demos you posted for normal vs. lossless, but didn't notice too much of a difference. Hopefully I'll get a chance to break out the camera and grab you a screen grab to post tomorrow too.

I checked Sony's website and the official word is 4-level grey scale (their words) and that seems to be the consensus with others in the Reader groups when they wax technical; i.e., limitations of eInk and hopes of some type of color eInk in the near future. Have a good day/night!

The status bar does work, but dissapears once complete. It would be nice to have some sort of visual that it was finished converting with no errors. Perhaps by leaving the status bar up.

The missing scrolling is a bug and will be fixed in next preview version :)


I loaded up the demos you posted for normal vs. lossless, but didn't notice too much of a difference.

That was to test if the lossless format was compatible with the reader :), actually due to the low number of colors there is no real advantage to use lossy instead of losses, so lossless meas more quality at about same size.
The test version does also some filtering to increase image quality and (hopefully) text readability.

I checked Sony's website and the official word is 4-level grey scale (their words) and that seems to be the consensus with others in the Reader groups when they wax technical

I already know that :D I was asking for the "gray palette" to reduce the image to that palette. Actually I'm using the iliad palette so the sony reader have to reduce the color palette from 16 colors to 4. I want to produce a 4 colour palette so the sony should do almost nothing :)

Cya

I've just upload v0.4.0 preview 2 :)

Any chance of supporting .zip and .cbr (.rar) compressed archives for easy conversion of whole issues? I just did my first conversion and this script is great :)

cbz and zip support is planned, while cbr is not, the reason is that there is a native support for zip file in java, while rar is a closed format.
This could change if i find a good lib for uncompress rar files.
Bye

Decompressor for RAR is free and the source is easily available for download. You can also use unrar.dll.
http://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm

The software is in java and I want it to be fully cross-platform so using external libs is not an option.
The unrar code is c, porting this code to something compatible with the compression interface of java would take a lot of time.
So actually cbr/rar files support is not planned.
But never say never, as i said if i'll find a small and compatible java lib maybe i'll add the support to the planned features.
But till now there is a lot of features needed beore cbz support :) (like page splitting :p)
We'll see

Yeah, CBR and zip aren't really important. It would be nice to split double page spreads instead of shrinking them. Some Scanlations don't include the individual left/right pages.

I've added v0.4.0 final.
let me know if you find any issue with it

Actually, I have an issue that I believe is not related to your program at all. It's sony reader specific behavior. When viewing pictures as a JPG in the picture viewer function, the reader does a MUCH more thorough job of the black/white flash to remove any trace of ghosting. It almost looks like a double page turn. When I read with PDF, I almost always have ghosting of the previous page because it only does a single page turn. Do you think re-packaging the PDF as an BBeB could have a toggle for the double page turn?

Well the latest version of Java has been release and unfortunately PNG conversion still does not work :(

Error when attempting to convert is:

Generating output for: Iliad portrait
Exception:java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: LUT has improper length!
Total Processing time:0s
Done

Google gives this http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=5098176

the page you linked says that is a bug that will be fixed in java 1.6 :(

Any way, in a future release, we could order the files? I have manga that is split into chapters but while some are completely labeled as the "chapterXX - pageXX", there are some that are labeled as, simply, "pageXX" and put into a specific chapter folder. If I add those files, the program automatically puts them at the top and doesn't let me order them the way I want.

yes there will be, but i must admit that actually i do not have any idea of which is the best way (from a coding point of view) to do that in java.
The easyest would be to assign a priority and sort for both priority and filename. But is not user friendly :)

Any way, in a future release, we could order the files? I have manga that is split into chapters but while some are completely labeled as the "chapterXX - pageXX", there are some that are labeled as, simply, "pageXX" and put into a specific chapter folder. If I add those files, the program automatically puts them at the top and doesn't let me order them the way I want.

In the interim, you can use 1-4a Rename (it's free and you can find it here: http://www.1-4a.com/rename/) to bulk-covert the contents of folders pretty painlessly. I originally used this to convert audiobook rips to a more me-friendly format and have stuck with it since. I know you still have to do a little of this on the manual side; e.g., have each chapter in its own folder - rename first to 1-xx - rename next folder contents to xx-yy - etc., but it will get the job done if you want it all in one book; or you can stick with multiple chapters per book. I personally like one single book per anime volume, so I spend the extra minute or two fixing things up to work the way I like it to.

I think it will be a bit of a tough job to script in the renaming without cludging along a bit, because you don't really know how people are packing these things from the get-go (it seems quite random to me, as it varies so much site-to-site & editor-to-editor). Until then, good luck!

Is there a way that someone just post the converted manga somewhere for download, instead of everyone converting the same stuff? Haha...I am lazy.

Is there a way that someone just post the converted manga somewhere for download, instead of everyone converting the same stuff? Haha...I am lazy.

Bit of a legal grey area that.

Bit of a legal grey area that.

You mean places like http://www.stoptazmo.com and the billion other sites should be shut down? heh

You mean places like http://www.stoptazmo.com and the billion other sites should be shut down? heh

No, that is not what I said. It is a legal gray area, and can leave the people who host the files open to prosecution. No more than the MPAA/RIAA going after P2P sites, a number of Japanese Manga companies have tried to get sites shut down for hosting scanlations of their work.

How about you start converting them and host them somewhere for the community to avail of

sorry but it would be better to speak of this in another place, and keep this topic only for comments on my small application :)

I've just uploaded v0.5.0
The main new feature is the image splitting support (for two page sources)
It does support both comics and unflipped mangas
There are also a some minor improvements
Bye

could someone give me some opinion on the filters i've added to the software?
I'm still waiting also for screenshots of device showing converted comics (converted with only my software) :)
Cya

could someone give me some opinion on the filters i've added to the software?
I'm still waiting also for screenshots of device showing converted comics (converted with only my software) :)
Cya

I havn't had to play around with the filters at all with the manga I am reading. But when I get some free time I'll play about and give you some feed back on this.

Keep up the good work, although we might be quiet, we appreciate the work (or at least I do :) )

I've just added v0.6.0
This version have image preview into the filters tab, so you can test the result before generate the actual converted file, this will allow obtaining the best results based on the source files.
the image used into the preview is the selected image into the main tab, if none is selected it will use the first image, if multiple images are selected it will use the first selected image.

This release contain also major code changes (the abstraction of the image loading layer) that are the base of future cbz/zip file support.
This may create some unstability. So please check it throughtly.

Cya
Kirys

I've just uploaded v0.7.0 that provides CBZ/Zip support :)
Let me know how it works

I've just uploaded v0.7.0 that provides CBZ/Zip support :)
Let me know how it works

Works well so far. Although it would be nice to have the option to ignore case in .zip archives.Unfortunately 99% of my archives are in rar format so testing will be limited. I guess I could always repack

I ran into the problem where, an archive with 7 chapters, the 7th chapter was put first as the first letter in the file names was in upper case.

edit: also for the todo list ;) have the preview window update when either RL or RR are selected.

we'll see :), I'm still waiting for screenshots :D

I want to try this but where is the link?

in the first post :)

Great software Kirys, youre a champion. Are you planning to add .cbr support anytime in the future?

I've just uploaded v0.7.0 that provides CBZ/Zip support :)
Let me know how it works

we'll see :), I'm still waiting for screenshots :D

Sorry, I totally spaced on that one :). Here are a couple of quick shots to keep you going. Lighting isn't great. These are from the manga, Death Note and converted with the default filter settings.

Back to the old OS X conversion problem, I have noticed something interesting on the 7.0 release (have not tried it with other versions).

I ran JE-Comics on the first chapter of Death Note again. This Chapter contained 53 files. The first 10 being .jpg, the remaining 43 being PNG.

Taking the default settings on JE-Comics and hitting generate, it processed all 10 jpg with out and issue, but this time also managed to convert the next 9 .png files. Before erroring.

Generating output for: Iliad portrait
Image 'Death Note v01 CoverFront.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 000a.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 000b.jpg' processed in:3s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 000c.jpg' processed in:3s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 000d.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 001.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 002-003.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 004.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 005.jpg' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 006.jpg' processed in:3s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 007.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 008.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 009.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 010.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 011.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 012.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 013.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 014.png' processed in:2s
Image 'Death Note v01 c001 015.png' processed in:2s
Exception:java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: LUT has improper length!
Done
Exception:com.lowagie.text.DocumentException: The document has been closed. You can't add any Elements.
Done
Exception:java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: LUT has improper length!
Done
<.....repeats for remaining PNG.....>
Total Processing time:123s
Done


Now not being too up on my coding, would the fact that that JE-Comics was able to convert some of the png images, indicate that this is not necessarily a problem with the OS X version of Java.

This was tested with both J2se 1.4.2 and J2SE 5.0.

I have attached 4 pages from Death Note, on the off chance this can help in troubleshooting:

Death Note v01 c001 014.png
Death Note v01 c001 015.png

Which both converted fine, and then

Death Note v01 c001 016.png
Death Note v01 c001 017.png

Which failed the conversion.

All these files convert fine when on Windows

Great software Kirys, youre a champion. Are you planning to add .cbr support anytime in the future?

Actually there is no short term plan for cbr/rar support, it depends on if someone will start creating an usable rar library for java :)

Back to the old OS X conversion problem, I have noticed something interesting on the 7.0 release (have not tried it with other versions).

png decoding is exactly the same since 0.5.0 :)


Now not being too up on my coding, would the fact that that JE-Comics was able to convert some of the png images, indicate that this is not necessarily a problem with the OS X version of Java.
[..]
Which failed the conversion.

All these files convert fine when on Windows

Till now the only infos I was uble to get says that there is a bug into png support of java and some png cannot be decoded, for some reason seems that this problem is slighty different from platform to platform.
I'm searching for some external png lib that maybe can solve this problem. Maybe i should try jai...
Cya

I've uploaded a test version (i've marked as v0.7.1) that uses and external lib for png files when the native java support fails. I don't know how much that lib is good and if it will open all png files that sun imageio doesn't.
Due to the use of this lib the program will use more ram when loading images from a zip/cbz file.
Let me know if it does fix your issues

I've uploaded a test version (i've marked as v0.7.1) that uses and external lib for png files when the native java support fails.


Worked like a charm. Converted all the png files I was using in the test yesterday.

I havn't had a chance to do a compare on the output of .7.0 and .7.1 on the iLiad yet, but the PDF looks fine.

As an added bonus, 0.7.1 creates a smaller file size on the outputed PDF

-rw------- 1 splat splat 6488630 Mar 30 18:41 c1-70.pdf
-rw------- 1 splat splat 6017109 Mar 30 18:34 c1-71.pdf


edit: looks like with the default filter settings, 0.7.1 is not as good with shading in the png, images are alot darker and as a result can lose some of the detail of the drawing. Time to play with the filter settings.

Am I correct in saying that using 0.7.1 on windows, it should give the same results at 0.7.0 as it's using the same libs?

The only difference in v0.7.1 is the png read lib (that is used only when the standard lib fails).
All the rest of the engine is unchange.
Other differences may be into the interface (some menus and shortcuts)

Hiya, i've just purchased the Sony Reader (waiting for it to be delivered right now) and have been testing your program.
It looks great!
I got some ideas for user friendly improvements though.

I have a lot of manga zip files organized into neat named (sub)folders and the zipfiles themselves are also named.

It'd be handy if a batch option is available, where you just save your settings, and then select a main folder (for instance Death Note) and it will just go into the directory, searching for available zipfiles.
Each zipfile will then be automaticly made into a pdf-document.

Another thingie is that in windows, each time you chose "Add files, directory or zip" it will jump back to "My Documents". If it remembers it's last directory then it would be much easier.

Also, in images, I think it'd be easy if the image dimensions are used to automaticly rotate a landscape image. I mean, you detect it already with H/V, why not make it rotate automaticly?
And a filter to not include certain named files is handy too (like coverpages)

Are you planning to release the code into gpl? if so, I might be able to help out a bit, although my java is a bit rusty...

So you are mainly asking for a batch mode :).
I've planned a batch mode, but first i want to solve a quality issue with the resample of images (java2d is pretty bad when enlarging BW images). Till now i could not find a lib for image resampling that doesn't use the JAI libs. But using jai means add a 2 mb jar to the already too big package :(.
And latley I had not much free time so the developing is on idle for a wile.
About the license:
I do plan to release it under Gpl or othe Open License but till now i'm not sure of which license to choose (i'm open to suggestion). And before that i first want to complete the architecture of the software.
:)
So if someone knows a good lib for resizing images that doesn't use JAI just let me know!
Bye
Kirys

So you are mainly asking for a batch mode :).
I've planned a batch mode, but first i want to solve a quality issue with the resample of images (java2d is pretty bad when enlarging BW images). Till now i could not find a lib for image resampling that doesn't use the JAI libs. But using jai means add a 2 mb jar to the already too big package :(.
And latley I had not much free time so the developing is on idle for a wile.
About the license:
I do plan to release it under Gpl or othe Open License but till now i'm not sure of which license to choose (i'm open to suggestion). And before that i first want to complete the architecture of the software.
:)
So if someone knows a good lib for resizing images that doesn't use JAI just let me know!
Bye
Kirys


Well, i'm not too familiair with OS-licenses so no suggestions there.

I've been programming a C#-tool for myself yesterday to see how it works (and trying to get RAR-support too)

My folders contains either zipped, rarred or extracted images and are usually structured like this:
c:\death_note\vol01.zip, c:\death_note\vol02.zip, etc


My program works like this:
-Select a source folder (ex. c:\death_note)
-Extract/move the files to a temp-dir like c:\temp\vol01\ch01 c:\temp\vol01\ch02.
-I'm using imagemagick to filter, resize and convert the images to GIF*.
-The converted images are saved with the folder as prefix (so c:\processed\vol01\ch01_01.gif)
-Then i'm using itext to create the PDF. My initial idea would be to make the original zip-name the "chapter". So vol01 would be a chapter, vol02 the 2nd, etc.
-And finally use rasterfarian to convert the PDF to lrf (because I couldn't find the specs for lrf)

*Image quality: i played around iwth the filters of imagemagick and found out that these are the best for text and images: catrom,lanzcos and sinc.
(see attached post)

I'm still trying to figure itext out. Can you tell me what kind of settings you're using to to create the document and add the images? I can't seem to create the pages in the size you have....
(i'm still waiting for my reader, so I can't test for myself)

So if someone knows a good lib for resizing images that doesn't use JAI just let me know!
Bye
Kirys

How about ImageMagick?

http://www.darcynorman.net/2005/03/15/jai-vs-imagemagick-image-resizing

To answer you both :)
I was looking at imagemagic, but it would be an optional support cause i don't want people to be forced to install something for using this software.

Embeding is not possible cause would not be cross platform, I've started this project mainly because i want something completely crossplatform (i'm a linux user).

about the sisez for the iliad I'm using
Images 768x935
MediaBox 351fx427.32f

while for the sony
Images 583x753
MediaBox 250fx322.9f

I've found a workaround to improve the quality of enlarged images so soon i'll post a version with this fix
Cya

P.S.
If someone could point me to the mediabox and image size for the iliad with the fullscreen patch i would be glad to add those :)

I've just uploaded v0.8.0 :)
I'm leaving v0.7.0 and v0.7.1 i'll remove them if there are no new issues with v0.8.0

Hi,

just wanted to say thank you for your program! i have a new iliad and your tool is working fine for me!

about the fullscreen mode? shouldn´t the resolution be the full 768x1024 here?
support for this would be even better!

regards!

I don't think that the resolution is the full 1024x768, I'm pretty sure that there is still some wasted pixel.
^_^

This software is really really awesomE> The images come out crisp and detailed on my sony PRS505

One question though. All my conversions are a bit dark. I've used all of the available controls and options to see if they would do anything, by all of the pages have a greyish background rather than a white one. This causes reading to be a bit difficult when reading in available light.

Is there a way to remove the grey background?

I do not yet have enought info for optimizing the color palette for the new sony reader.
As soon as I get the "gray shades" i'll update the software to match.

^^ awesome!! I can't wait!

hey mangamonster,

do you think you can take some photos on how does the comic show on your sony 505?

how fast does each page load on your pdf comic generated from JE-Comics?

hey mangamonster,

do you think you can take some photos on how does the comic show on your sony 505?

how fast does each page load on your pdf comic generated from JE-Comics?


My digital camera was crushed a couple weeks ago during my new home move :( Maybe I can borrow my gf's. But, I can tell you that the pages/artwork exceed my expectations bigtime. I can barely tell the difference between real paper novels. The only grievance is that the background color is a shade of gray, rather than white. THis causes the pages to be somewhat hard to read, even in good lighting :(

As far as page turning, its just as quick as a normal ebook or quicker. The only time I've experienced sluggish page loading is when I load large military reference manuals, stuffed with images and small text, approx 400-600 pages.

^^ awesome!! I can't wait!

could you make a test pdf with 3 images that give you the problem and attach the pdf and the 3 images in a post?
I need to understand if is a problem of the shades or a problem of the optimizer

I've added a preview of v0.8.1, take a look at it ^_^

v0.8.1 was buggy so i've uploaded v0.8.2 that includes a new shades list for both sony prs (thanks to HarryT ^_^)

Nice! I used some bash script for this purpose, but a nice GUI is surely more comfortable.
Regards, Gil

v0.8.1 was buggy so i've uploaded v0.8.2 that includes a new shades list for both sony prs (thanks to HarryT ^_^)


Oh my! Youre a genius!!! It works perfect now !!!!

If someone knows the optimal media size and available display size in pixels of other pdf capable e-book readers just post them here and i'll be happy to add the support.
Bya

great work just tried to convert JPGs to PDF
do not have yet iLiad to check but this will change in the nearest future

Great app. It helped a lot transforming my zipped comics to pdf. Thanks for your effort.
Some feedback:
1. A "no resize" option may be needed in output type. It can speed up the conversion. Besides, Zoom-in will be available when viewing comics.
2. "rar" format support may be useful.
3. An option to "split all horizontal pics" may be useful.
4. When marking split, RR, RL, it's tiresome to select file one by one .

First of all: great work!

I really like your software.

Is there any news on your decision which license to use so you can release the software?

Do you plan to setup a project on Sourceforge or something like that?

I would be really interested to contribute a bit or the other and I've got a bit of free time on my hands during the next few weeks...

Cheers,
Makkus

Ok, im trying this out even though i dont have an iliad in my continuing mission to see whether the iliads appropriate to read my marvel comics on. And it looks great - BUT im tryingto run the resulting pdf through rasterfarian but ic ant figure out how to use it as it seems to be designed for the sony reader. Can someone give me an idiots guide to running rasterfarian for the iliad?

Plus does it really make much difference cos the pages look pretty darn good running through the converter as is - congrats on it and thanks! :)

Thank you all
I do plan to release it as gpl or other O.S. licenses but I'll need to understand them before cause i use some components with different licenses and maybe there are conflicts.
I should contact the authors of the components and ask them about, but till now i had no time.

I hope to have more time next year.
Cya
Have an Happy Christmas and a lovely new year ^_^

I had a little trouble with it, but I used a batch image processor, and it worked like a charm. One thing I'd like to request is that you have the converter process the images with different threads so that it'll take advantage of dual and quad cores.

I've created a JE-Comics application bundle for Mac OS X users. I allows it to act a little more "Mac-like". Check it out here (if you are on a Mac):

http://www.slimeslurp.net/files/JEComics.dmg

I love this program, I do however have a request. I have a 505 and I've noticed that there's a bit of a margin on the sides of the screen. Would it be possible to expand that out to the limits of the screen? Thanks in advance, I use linux and this is the easiest solution for me.

On all margins? or just to left-right, or top-bottom margins?

I have a 505 and I've noticed that there's a bit of a margin on the sides of the screen. Would it be possible to expand that out to the limits of the screen?

If there's only a margin on either the long or the short side but not both, I'd have assumed that filling the screen to remove that margin would result in the comic getting distorted. An undesired effect.

Kirys
first thanks a lot for so great application.
It does just take a minut to create PDF comics book for iLiad.

I have just one suggestion.
There is a full screen ipdf for iLiad - it would be great if JE-Comics Converter
have option to format book into full screen mode.
This would help a lot and image could be bigger.

Could you please consider it for the next release ?

Regards
Piotr

I do plan to add support for iliad full screed and also for other reader but i need the effective usable resolution to implement that (I do not own a reader yet :p ).
Cya

I will check it and let you know :)

On all margins? or just to left-right, or top-bottom margins?

Well, left to right. Every comic I've put on my 505 has a distinct gray space on the left and right, as if the image wasn't resized to the screen but just a bit short. It's noticeable when I'm viewing dark pages. I think it's just a width change.

If there's only a margin on either the long or the short side but not both, I'd have assumed that filling the screen to remove that margin would result in the comic getting distorted. An undesired effect.

No, it's both. In fact, I think it distorts the comic more to have empty space go underutilized. I'll take a pic so everyone can see what I'm talking about. This is for the PRS-505, not the Illiad, fyi.

Other than that tho, it's a great app, I love it. Just need a slight change on the 505 side.

I do plan to add support for iliad full screed and also for other reader but i need the effective usable resolution to implement that (I do not own a reader yet :p ).
Cya

The effective usable resolution for full screen iLiad is 768x1024 :)
A full screen option would definitely be muchly appreciated.

Thank you for making an awesome app! :D

I'm currently using a Sony Reader PRS-505 and would love for this application either to size images as 600x766 or have the option of preventing the program from doing any resizing at all. (ex. I can do batch resizing in photoshop and use this program to do the converting to PDF)

Are there currently any plans for future releases?

I love being able to have my manga on my iLiad! However, I have JE-Comics-v0.8.2 and I'm still seeing the problem where if you rotate a page, it also gets mirror-reversed so the text is backward. Is there a more up to date version somewhere? I'd like to rotate the two-page spreads so I can more easily read their contents, but it's a nuisance to have to read them backwards.

However, I have JE-Comics-v0.8.2 and I'm still seeing the problem where if you rotate a page, it also gets mirror-reversed so the text is backward.

If you Rotate Right (RR) it should display properly. I have the same issue as you if I rotate left (RL)

If you Rotate Right (RR) it should display properly. I have the same issue as you if I rotate left (RL)

Ok, I'll try that. It doesn't really matter to me if it's right or left. :)

I've just uploaded v0.8.3 that fixes the rotate left bug and add the iliad full screen mode (untested :P).

PRS 505 have a larger available size?

Cya

Cool thanks Kirys. I really should update my PDF viewer to make the use of (and test) full screen mode.

Is there any way to recursively add directories? All my manga is in rar format and when extracted is in <Title>\<Chapter>\<page>.png layout. I might be missing something but from poking about adding the <Title> dir with 0.8.2 does not result in the images in the <Chapter> dir being added.

Also any plans for rar support?

rar support is not planned cause there is not easy way for adding it in a cross-os way.

About recursive adding dirs, i do have plans about that, just I am a bit busy so you will not see it till end of july.

I've just uploaded v0.8.3 that fixes the rotate left bug and add the iliad full screen mode (untested :P).

PRS 505 have a larger available size?

Cya

Cool, thanks! I'll try to test tonight. :D

rar support is not planned cause there is not easy way for adding it in a cross-os way.

How about a user definable binary allowing the user to point to their install of something like unrar which JE-Comics can then call. I'm suggesting it as you can get a free command line version of unrar (http://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm) for most OSes. You wouldn't necessarily have to bundle unrar just point users to the download if they want the functionality.

It really would be a handy solution when you consider most archives are in rar format these days.

There are still issues, is not like having a lib so i have to make a wrapper that unrar the files into a temp directory then i have to add the files from that dir to the list.
I would have to unrar files before the real processing (cause i need them for preview ecc...), and then remove the files recursively on app closing, this is a really unclean implementation of the thing. Then there are also other issues.
With zip I can read the file directly from the archive so is like having the file in a directory

And last I don't think that there is an advantage on compressing a jpg/png files with rar rather than zip.

This does not mean I will never add rar support just that I have other priorities ^_^', like recursive dir exploring, multithread processing, better image resizing, support for more devices and output formats.

Eventually I'll release the code as open source so anyone will be able to add features like that if they want.

BTW maybe this post should be moved into the format conversion tool forum.
Bye

I would have to unrar files before the real processing (cause i need them for preview ecc...), and then remove the files recursively on app closing, this is a really unclean implementation of the thing.


Very good point, guess I didn't think that through too well :/


And last I don't think that there is an advantage on compressing a jpg/png files with rar rather than zip.


Agreed however as I said before most archives are distributed as .rar so the zip support as far as I can see is not as useful. Of my collection only 23% are .zip and I'm pretty sure I manually converted those from rar to zip my self.


This does not mean I will never add rar support just that I have other priorities ^_^', like recursive dir exploring

Understandable, and I'm in no hurry for it. recursive dir would be just as useful, I'd only have one extra step (extract rar) which I can live with :)