My Manga Program

[lilman]

Originally Posted by alphataru

I'm wondering how you guys navigate manga using Kindle 3. It seems like no page jump function is useable at the moment, and you have to manually flip the pages in order to return to the beginning or to get to any point in the manga. Is there a way around it, or is it just something people have to live with?

There should be page jump in pdf mode (I know there is on my KDX). That is one of the reasons why I recommend pdf manga over image folders on the Kindle.

[dudesweet]

Hi RyanHua,
I would second the statements above about screen size. If you're reading raw manga then you really really need a bigger screen otherwise the furigana can be unreadable and the text itself hard to discern (depending on scan quality).
Thanks to Lilman for such a great application!

[Eraserhead]

Hi Lilman I finally discovered Canti after googling things like "comics kindle batch editing" and expanding results from mobileread. cannot wait to leave work to try out your program!!! I recently bought a Kindle 1 solely for the purpose of creating my "Portable" virtual comic book collection and had a pretty bad first attempt last night at converting with Irfanview. No matter what I tried my 600 X 800 jpgs would be triple in size after conversion to the smaller size unless I reduced the quality from 100 to 80. And there were a million options that had little or no effect selected/unselected. Also the shrinking of the image would cause unholy amounts of grainy scan matter making them even harder to read. I really hope I solve this issue as most of my scans are from lower rent presses on not quite brown paper bag type paper that lacks the beautiful scan white contrast of a manga, I have a feeling your users who requested the contrast option may have a similar issue. Would love any input from longtime Canti users. . I have 100 gbs of scans of regular "comics" on a hdd I cant wait to unleash this program on. Do I still need to excersize a script for a library batch edit with the gui? Can't wait to take my old TMNT, Critters, Crumb and Heavy Metal ect on the long plane ride home this Christmas. Cheers and Thank for your work! Im positive its exactly what Ive been searching for! THANK YOU!

[lilman]

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

Hi Lilman I finally discovered Canti after googling things like "comics kindle batch editing" and expanding results from mobileread.

An official website will be up shortly, hopefully by the end of December.

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

I have 100 gbs of scans of regular "comics" on a hdd I cant wait to unleash this program on. Do I still need to excersize a script for a library batch edit with the gui?

The gui works without the need for running any scripts. You specify either a single comic (image folder, zip/cbz, rar/cbr, or pdf) or process an entire series of comics by specifying a folder containing any number/combination of the supported comic formats just listed. Make sure to read the readme first on how Canti expects a series collection to be organized in order to run properly.

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

Can't wait to take my old TMNT, Critters, Crumb and Heavy Metal ect on the long plane ride home this Christmas. Cheers and Thank for your work! I know its exactly what Ive been searching for! THANK YOU!

I don't have any non-manga comics, so please let us know how yours look on the Kindle after Canti has processed them.

[Eraserhead]

I don't have any non-manga comics, so please let us know how yours look on the Kindle after Canti has processed them.

Will Do! Thanks for the fast response. Can't wait to finally go home and try it.

[Eraserhead]

I know this is probably going to be embarrasing but I keep getting invalid file format. any ideas?


Using these settings stored in C:\Users\The Shepards\Desktop\Canti.properties:
width (in pixels): 600
height (in pixels): 800
maximum dpi: original
auto trim: true
trim color: white
trim fuzz: 15%
trim cancel: 0.7
add border: false
auto rotate: true
color mode: grayscale
num colors: 256
adjust contrast: 1
auto level: false
despeckle: 1
pdf chapters: true
pdf r to l: false
archive chapters: false
epub chapters: false
auto bind: false
auto split landscape scans: true
split right page first: true
keep unsplit scans: false
allow auto split color scans: false
auto split gray strictness: 0.8
auto split color strictness: 0.9
auto split buffer: 0.0
page side border: false
auto sense landscape folders: true
manga prefix: auto
use original filenames: false
archive input image folders: false
delete output image folders: false
image format: .jpg
kindle bookmark: true
comic zeal naming: false
ImageMagick home directory:
unrar handler: C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe
rar handler: C:\Program Files\WinRAR\Rar.exe

WARNING: Invalid @image_format: .jpg ... Defaulting to original image format.
Exception in thread "Thread_cmt" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
at java.lang.String.charAt(Unknown Source)
at common.image.ImageMagick.<init>(ImageMagick.java:1 45)
at manga.ConvertManga.main(ConvertManga.java:1296)
at cantigui.ConvertMangaThread.run(CantiGUIFrame.java :1399)

[lilman]

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

I know this is probably going to be embarrasing but I keep getting invalid file format. any ideas?

WARNING: Invalid @image_format: .jpg ... Defaulting to original image format.

Not sure why you are getting this warning, ".jpg" is a valid format. Send me your Canti.properties file so I can test it (you can upload it using a free file service such as http://www.megaupload.com).

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

Exception in thread "Thread_cmt" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
at java.lang.String.charAt(Unknown Source)
at common.image.ImageMagick.<init>(ImageMagick.java:1 45)
at manga.ConvertManga.main(ConvertManga.java:1296)
at cantigui.ConvertMangaThread.run(CantiGUIFrame.java :1399)

This is your big problem and the reason why the program is crashing. Canti.properties doesn't have a value for @image_magick_dir. Usually this value is determined automatically by Canti when creating the .properties file, but sometimes Canti can't find ImageMagick on its own.

First, make sure ImageMagick is installed on your system. Then edit Canti.properties and update the value for @image_magick_dir. For example, here is my setting on Windows XP:
image_magick_dir = C:\\Program Files\\ImageMagick-6.6.3-Q16\\

[Eraserhead]

I understand. I installed ImageMagick, but I only unzipped the contents of Canti directly to the desktop. I will open the Canti.properties and take a look. I havent even opened it. so if there is something to delete inside the canti properties (like the profile filler/explanations) I haven't.

I did not pay close attention to the imagemagick installer since I knew it would work in the background so if the directory defaulted to somewhere extremely random i will try to point it properly or move it to match. You will laugh but I have another program with a similar set up that I have hidden all the working folders on...just so you know what your dealing with... I will happily post my profiles but Im going to really try before I bother you again. Can't wait to get out of work today to try again. Thanks for helping the rest of us.

[Eraserhead]

I got it! I just reinstalled everything and am up and running. so far the program works beautifully. I can't believe how close it gets to the artwork without cutting it off! The only thing I cant figure out is a script to lose the aspect ratio to maintain the 600X800 resolution for the screen instead of ending up with images around 600x 767 or whatnot. will this space just be filled by my kindle, or should i set it to be strict (600x800) It would also be beneficial if i was smart enough to add a script that would ignore the first page (cover) of the trimming command. Thank you for your work!!!!!! I am also pleased with the size outcome (:

[lilman]

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

The only thing I cant figure out is a script to lose the aspect ratio to maintain the 600X800 resolution for the screen instead of ending up with images around 600x 767 or whatnot. will this space just be filled by my kindle, or should i set it to be strict (600x800) It would also be beneficial if i was smart enough to add a script that would ignore the first page (cover) of the trimming command. Thank you for your work!!!!!! I am also pleased with the size outcome (:

The aspect ratio is always maintained during a resize, this was done by design (it actually would have been a lot easier to program not maintaining aspect ratio :P). If you like you can enable @add_borders in the .properties file and that will fill in any empty space after image processing with whatever color you specify (you should go with white borders on the Kindle). So instead of 600x767 the final image will be 600x800 while still maintaining the original aspect ratio.

Glad it is working for you now

[Eraserhead]

I'm almost there, just wish some of my comics were a little whiter. the whiter they are, the smarter Canti is about trim.. When I wasnt adding a border they were not centered on the kindle, much happier with them centered, the whiter comics look amazing! This program is great!

[lilman]

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

I'm almost there, just wish some of my comics were a little whiter. the whiter they are, the smarter Canti is about trim..

There are two ways to increase trimming:
1) Increase value of @trim_fuzz. This makes the trimming algorithm less strict in determining what colors constitute the border to be trimmed. Of course this also increases the chance of trimming too much, so don't set this value too high (try increments of 10-15% to find what works best for you).
2) Change @trim_color from white to original. This will help trim non-white borders.

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

When I wasnt adding a border they were not centered on the kindle, much happier with them centered, the whiter comics look amazing! This program is great!

Thanks for the feedback, I will make @add_border enabled by default for the k2 profile in the next release.

[Eraserhead]

Really Enjoying the program. Just a few thoughts. The Kindle manga (bookmarks) are wonderful, am so glad you included that for instant recognition via picture viewer. I think it would be great if you made the title an option, and I figured out what was stopping the trim from working on the particular comic, the pages that Canti left a border on had a small black line at the top (open scanned) so I ended up doing that one by hand. When I put despeckle =1 It would trim it appropriately but lose too much detail. Nonetheless after getting the right formula your program is saving me hours of time and the outcome is usually beautiful. Thanks!

[lilman]

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

I think it would be great if you made the title an option

Title is one of only two mandatory arguments (the other being parent_folder). Besides being used in the naming scheme ([title]_-_[(optional)manga/bind prefix][(optional)suffix].[file extension]), it also:
1) Allows you to save multiple series to the same output folder
2) Becomes the name of the output folder if the user doesn't specify one
So if I made title not mandatory some users may experience problems. My advice is if you don't like title, you can auto rename the files afterwards (I'm sure there are simple scripts already out there to do this, specific to your os), or use @use_original_filenames (you'll still have to specify a title, but it won't be used in the output filenames).

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

I figured out what was stopping the trim from working on the particular comic, the pages that Canti left a border on had a small black line at the top (open scanned) so I ended up doing that one by hand.

Yeah, that's what usually happened to me too when I see an area I thought would be trimmed. Not much you can do about that automatically... it's too hard for the computer to determine whether that small black line is part of the scan or accidental noise.

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

When I put despeckle =1 It would trim it appropriately but lose too much detail.

Despeckle is dangerous like that. Maybe I can look into selective despeckle (so only perform it on the outer x% of the scan).

Originally Posted by Eraserhead

Nonetheless after getting the right formula your program is saving me hours of time and the outcome is usually beautiful. Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying it

[rainblown]

Hello lilman. Great program! I am using the CantiGUI right now. When I convert it to normal individual files, it comes out okay. However, I am trying to convert a .cbz file (which has bunch of images) into a epub file. I can convert it perfectly fine, but when I put it in my reader, it comes up as invalid page. Do you know what the problem is? Here is my properties.

width = 600
height = 800
max_dpi = -1
auto_trim = true
trim_color = white
trim_fuzz = 15
trim_cancel = 0.7
add_border = false
add_border_color = white
auto_rotate = true
color_mode = grayscale
num_colors = 256
image_format = .png
pdf = false
pdf_r_to_l = false
archive = false
archive_format = .zip
epub = true
epub_r_to_l = true
auto_bind = false
auto_bind_size = 10
auto_split_landscape_scans = true
auto_split_r_first = true
auto_split_keep_unsplit_scans = false
allow_auto_split_color_scans = false
auto_split_gray_strictness = 0.8
auto_split_color_strictness = 0.9
auto_split_buffer = 0.0
auto_split_page_side_border = false
auto_sense_landscape_folders = true
manga_prefix = auto
page_filename_length = 4
auto_sense_suffix_length = -1
use_original_filenames = false
output_base_folder = default
archive_input_image_folders = false
unarchive_input_image_archives = false
del_output_image_folders = false
kindle_bookmark = false
comic_zeal_naming = false
image_magick_dir = C:\\Program Files\\ImageMagick-6.6.6-Q16\\
unrar_handler = C:\\Program Files\\WinRAR\\Rar.exe
rar_handler = C:\\Program Files\\WinRAR\\Rar.exe
adjust_contrast = 0
auto_level = false
despeckle = 0

I already checked out the quality with the normal individual files (after conversion) and I must say the quality is fabulous. If I could convert the whole .cbz into a .epub and make it work it would be perfect.