Just got my Kindle DX: but I'm about to get disapointed with image files

[Over]

For now, I just tryed to upload some pics (from manga/comic books) and PDFs.

PDF it's all ok, although I don't have any more complex PDFs (some tables and pics, nothing too heavy).

I'm just a little bit alarmed about the picture display.

First, I've uploaded a directory full of JPGs. It didn't show in the Kindle.
Then I remebered someone saying that the Kindle reads inside of ZIP files, so I've zipped that directory and placed them in the Kindle. It shows!

I went ahead and zipped another directory with some JPGs. Placed in the Kindle and opened: first, the Kindle displayed one pic that was in the previous directory. Then, automaticaly, loaded the correct pic from the newest directory.

"Ok", I thought, "maybe it's some buffer memory, the caché or something". So I pressed next and it loaded the next image, but cut it a little bit in the right side and showed, in the remaining space in the right side, the previous picture (as if it placed the next pic over the previous pic, not covering it completely. Pressed next, and it loaded only about 70% of the pic. Hit previous and then next again: it loaded the pic well.

After that, it loaded the pics fine, but sometimes it won't load completely the picture or will leave a part of the previous picture in the display.

Is there a way to force the Kindle to refresh the display? Am I doing something wrong? Should I convert the pictures first? How? To wich format?

Any help needed, please!

(PS: each zip file has around 180 pictures)

[Rootman]

ALT-G Refresh screen

F: toggle full screen mode
C: toggle actual size
Q: zoom in
W: zoom out
R: rotate
E: reset zoom level

BTW: Love the sig pic, I actually grabbed a Kleenex and was going to squash the little guy.

[Over]

Alt + G wasn't doing nothing, so I tried Alt + R and it refreshed the screen.

This usually fixes the problem. The problem appears when I go from one ziped image directory to another and when the screen rotates. When it rotates, it doesn't zoom (just adjusts to the screen, so the images are even smaller in landscape mode, if they are in portrait orientation) and most of the time it will show only half the image.

If I don't rotate the screen, the first time I try to read there might be glitches. I just refresh the screen or go to next page and back to previous, and it doesn't happen again in that reading session.

[fiver]

Originally Posted by Over

Alt + G wasn't doing nothing, so I tried Alt + R and it refreshed the screen.

This usually fixes the problem. The problem appears when I go from one ziped image directory to another and when the screen rotates. When it rotates, it doesn't zoom (just adjusts to the screen, so the images are even smaller in landscape mode, if they are in portrait orientation) and most of the time it will show only half the image.

If I don't rotate the screen, the first time I try to read there might be glitches. I just refresh the screen or go to next page and back to previous, and it doesn't happen again in that reading session.

Make sure to run your manga volumes through 'mangle' before zipping them up and loading them on the kindle. The kindle takes 20-30 seconds to load up a new volume of manga and (at least as of the latest firmware), you will see the last image you were looking at while the new volume is loading. The kindle waits until the next image display to refresh the screen - unless you use ALT + G which will automatically refresh the screen. You may also see some ghosting since the kindle only refreshes the part of the screen that it is displaying text/image on - if that happens to you when you go from the index page to the first manga page, ALT + G on the first screen will fix that for you.

Typically manga will handle 2 page images for you by rotating them into landscape mode - it's definitely better on the DX than it was on my kindle 2. I really couldn't make out any detail on 2 page images - due to the size of the kindle DX screen, it shouldn't be shrunk by very much at all.

Since I got my DX, I've read about 30 volumes of manga with no issues to speak of.

Michael

[Over]

I've been reading manga witout major issues (in another thread I talked how about it crashed my Knidle DX once, for no reason, but it didn't happen again since then).

Curiously, alt + R is the shortcut for refreshing the screen, not alt-g. Maybe because it's the internatinoal edition?

BTW, when I toggle full screen, some kind of ruler appears in the bottom. Is it possible to remove it?

[lilman]

I've never had a problem with the DX only loading part of an image, but I don't like how sometimes the next image will load quickly while other times (usually) it takes a few seconds for an image to load.

I recommend combining your images into a single pdf file. I do this with all my manga and the DX handles them like a champ.

Cons of using images for manga:
-Slow page turning
-Randomly selected the next page instead of going in alphabetical order (mangle seems to not have a problem with this, but the program I wrote couldn't do it correctly)
-You have to set it to full screen mode every time you open an image folder. Otherwise, even though it remembers that you were using fullscreen mode from the last image folder you opened, it still has a menu bar at the top of the screen.

Pros of using pdf for manga:
+Page turning speed is much faster than image changing (and it always takes the same amount of time to change pages)
+Can type a page number to go to it (you can't do that with image folders)
+Never have to worry about pages being out of order
+Shows page number at the bottom of the screen (I like knowing how many pages are left in the chapter)

[Over]

Originally Posted by lilman

I've never had a problem with the DX only loading part of an image, but I don't like how sometimes the next image will load quickly while other times (usually) it takes a few seconds for an image to load.

I've noticed that too, but I have two hipothesis: different image sizes (resolution and space) and caché. I guess Kindle DX is loading the next images in memory while you're viewing a page/picture. Sometimes a page has nothing or little to read, so we skip faster not giving it the time to pre-load the next image. But I'm just speculating.

I recommend combining your images into a single pdf file. I do this with all my manga and the DX handles them like a champ.

How do you do it? And what would be the file size?

Cons of using images for manga:
-Slow page turning
-Randomly selected the next page instead of going in alphabetical order (mangle seems to not have a problem with this, but the program I wrote couldn't do it correctly)

I don't notice the slow page turning, although I've been using the Cybook for a long time, so I might be used to it.

So far I've read 4 mangas, about 180 pages each. Never had an issue with random page turning. Although I'm careful to check out if they're in alphanumerical order (some times we have different chapters in the same book with different file naming).

-You have to set it to full screen mode every time you open an image folder. Otherwise, even though it remembers that you were using fullscreen mode from the last image folder you opened, it still has a menu bar at the top of the screen.

I've noticed that and it's annoying. That and having to refresh the screen because it never loads properly the first image at the first try. But after that, it's working like a charm. But Amazon should fix this.

Pros of using pdf for manga:
+Page turning speed is much faster than image changing (and it always takes the same amount of time to change pages)
+Can type a page number to go to it (you can't do that with image folders)
+Never have to worry about pages being out of order
+Shows page number at the bottom of the screen (I like knowing how many pages are left in the chapter)

What about the image quality? Doesn't PDF files compress images?

[lilman]

Originally Posted by Over

How do you do it? And what would be the file size?

I'm sure there are lots of ways to do it. Most people use Mangle DX to convert their manga to DX friendly image files. You could then use ImageMagick (free program) to combine these images into a single pdf file. I think the command would be something like:

convert *.gif out.pdf

I wrote my own program in java that automates everything (trim whitespace / grayscale / autorotate / max dpi / resize / rename / pdf) and uses ImageMagick for image manipulation. Filesize can vary depending on the quality and resolution of the original images... for example, a single pdf chapter of School Rumble is about 16 pages and is about 1mb. In the end, filesize will not be an issue. You can fit a lot of manga on the DX at one time. More manga than you could read in months. I think I have like like 1700 chapters of manga on mine right now, each one ranging from 10 to 200 pages.

Originally Posted by Over

So far I've read 4 mangas, about 180 pages each. Never had an issue with random page turning. Although I'm careful to check out if they're in alphanumerical order (some times we have different chapters in the same book with different file naming).

My program would auto rename the image to 0000.jpg, 0001.jpg, ... but when I would read them on the DX the next page would come up randomly. I even tried copying the bookmark file system that Mangle uses and I still couldn't get it to work right. But that's good it works for you.

Originally Posted by Over

What about the image quality? Doesn't PDF files compress images?

The image quality is great. I can't tell the difference between the pdf and the original. The only drawback with pdf is that you don't get true fullscreen since a small portion of the bottom and top of the screen (like .5 cm) is reserved by menu areas. It's a small price to pay for the benefits of pdfs on the DX.