Which aspect ratio is best for viewing comics?

[shadders]

Hi guys,

I want to buy an 9.7 or 10" android tablet, primarily for viewing DC/Marvel comics, but after a lot of web research- I still don't know which aspect ratio is best for viewing comics on a tablet.

Options seem to be:

4:3 (this is the same as the iPad)
16:9
16:10 (most android tablets seem to have this)

What do you guys think (I'm hoping this is the right forum to post this in?)

Thanks for any replies

[Cdesja5]

This is what a comic page looks like in the Comic Rack app (syncs with the desktop app on PC) on my 10.1 Galaxy Tab : see attachment....
You'll certainly get all kinds of recommendations, often for the iPad in particular but it is more expensive and I'm not sure that the aspect on the iPad is all that different. I fnd the page aspect on the 10.1 tablet to be good..
Perhaps someone with an iPad could do a screen capture for you too so that you can compare...

[shadders]

Thank you for the reply Cdesja5

Overall, how would you rate the comic viewing experience on your galaxy tab? If I get a tablet, I will cease to buy print copies so it'd need to be a worthwhile alternative to the real thing!

Do you find it comfortable to read pages? and do you need to do any scrolling or zooming?

I've heard people say that the 16:10 ratio (which i think the galaxy tab has?) is far too thin in portrait mode, which is the mode in which you would read comics. do you find this to be the case? doesn't the width of the comics seem squashed in portrait mode?

Oh and I agree, the iPad is very expensive, if I did decide to go for a 4:3 ratio, I would get one of the few android tabs with that ratio, not go for an iPad

[=X=]

Originally Posted by shadders

4:3 (this is the same as the iPad)
16:9
16:10 (most android tablets seem to have this)

I don't know if you just listed the ratios or you are listing them in order. But 16:10 is wider than 16:9.

In decimals it's:

1.33(4:3)
1.6(16:10)
1.77(16:9)

I don't believe there is a standard size for comics, but the most consistent ratio I see is about 1.5
That would make the 16:10 the best ratio for reading comics.

Originally Posted by shadders

Thank you for the reply Cdesja5

Overall, how would you rate the comic viewing experience on your galaxy tab? If I get a tablet, I will cease to buy print copies so it'd need to be a worthwhile alternative to the real thing!

Do you find it comfortable to read pages? and do you need to do any scrolling or zooming?

I've heard people say that the 16:10 ratio (which i think the galaxy tab has?) is far too thin in portrait mode, which is the mode in which you would read comics. do you find this to be the case? doesn't the width of the comics seem squashed in portrait mode?

Oh and I agree, the iPad is very expensive, if I did decide to go for a 4:3 ratio, I would get one of the few android tabs with that ratio, not go for an iPad

I don't read a lot of comics, I read one using Google Play book. It's wolverine enemy of the state. Anyhow on my nook tablet the pages fit nicely (but too small to read) I had to pan/zoom a lot. On an iPad the pages where large enough to read, but there was a lot of white space on the sides.

[Cdesja5]

Originally Posted by shadders

Thank you for the reply Cdesja5

Overall, how would you rate the comic viewing experience on your galaxy tab? If I get a tablet, I will cease to buy print copies so it'd need to be a worthwhile alternative to the real thing!

Do you find it comfortable to read pages? and do you need to do any scrolling or zooming?

I've heard people say that the 16:10 ratio (which i think the galaxy tab has?) is far too thin in portrait mode, which is the mode in which you would read comics. do you find this to be the case? doesn't the width of the comics seem squashed in portrait mode?

Oh and I agree, the iPad is very expensive, if I did decide to go for a 4:3 ratio, I would get one of the few android tabs with that ratio, not go for an iPad

The Tab is 16:10 (wider than 16:9) ratio and I find the pages look quite good on it but you could be pickier than I am. I believe the app you use can also make a difference and have heard that Komik Reader is very good on Android, but I prefer Comic Rack because it syncs with the desktop app on my PC. No scrolling or zooming unless the page is in landscape for some reason... Which doesn't happen often.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by shadders

I want to buy an 9.7 or 10" android tablet, primarily for viewing DC/Marvel comics, but after a lot of web research- I still don't know which aspect ratio is best for viewing comics on a tablet.

Options seem to be:

4:3 (this is the same as the iPad)
16:9
16:10 (most android tablets seem to have this)

I worked out the numbers for this a while ago, and came up with this:

- Standard US comic ratio is 1.53
- This is right in the middle between 4:3 (1.33) and 16:9 (1.78). 16:10 (1.6) is clearly the best match.
- A double-page spread is 1.31, for which 4:3 is clearly the best match.
- A double-page spread is only really readable on a very high-resolution screen like the iPad 3, it is marginal as to whether is readable on an iPad 1/2.

Edit: Depending on how you hold your tablet, you might prefer to have the extra space on the top/bottom or on the sides.

[shadders]

thank you for all of your replies!

thanks =X= and murraypaul for informing me that 16:10 is the ratio that best matches the standard US comic ratio for a single page. That fact has definitely persuaded me that 16:10 is the ratio I should go for i was quite surprised because I would have thought 4:3 would be the best match, seeing as it is much wider in portrait mode than 16:10

it's a relief because most android tablets use the 16:10 ratio, and videos also look better on this ratio than 4:3 the only downside would be that ebooks and magazines would probably be better on the 4:3 ratio, but you can't have everything!

[Nick Johnson]

Below are unique resolution for Smartphone and Tablet of Android :-

Sr. Resolution
1 2560*1600
2 1366*768
3 1280*800
4 1280*768
5 1024*768
6 1024*600
7 960*640
8 960*540
9 854*480
10 800*600
11 800*480
12 800*400
13 640*360
14 640*240
15 480*320
16 400*240
17 320*240