On the verge of purchasing PRS-505 but a few questions...

[Ryuujin27]

Hello all, this is my first post here!

I have been sitting around reading various posts and reviews on this site for a few hours now, and I figured I'd make a post to inquire about the final few questions that will greatly influence my decision on whether it is finally time to spring for one of these lovely devices.

First off, as a Mac user, it seems like I'll have to use an alternative program to load books onto the device. Would you say that this process is still easy? As in I can just load my library into one of these programs and then sync it?

The other thing is a much more debated topic, it seems. I read a lot of manga and would very much like to condense my vast collection to a single device. I've read all the reviews and looked at all the different comparisons, etc; however, I would like to know two things:

1) Has there ever been a comprehensive guide to converting and processing the manga images for optimal viewing? I'm talking about a guide that will allow me to convert all my images to the best possible quality for viewing on the PRS-505.

2) None of my manga is in English, it is all in Japanese and therefore will often use kanji and, in the case of the shonen manga, a lot of furigana (characters next to the kanji). Now, if the image becomes too small the kanji will become blurred and thus make it very hard, if not impossible, to read. Furthermore, as I am not a native speaker of Japanese, occasionally there comes a kanji compound I don't know and would like to see the reading of (using the small characters next to the kanji). If the images are too small or blurred, it would be impossible to see them and thus make the reading of manga very inconvenient for me. So let's break this up into two questions:

Has anyone ever converted a manga in japanese for their device? If so, can you please post it? If not, could anyone be so kind as too download a page and try converting it?

And, in the case that it is hard to read, is there any kind of zoom feature?

I believe those are all my questions for now. Thank you for all your responses, and thanks for having this wonderful little community to discuss all these things!

[allon_pan]

1. you may want to check this software for transition, it has OSX version.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11123

2. I am not a fan of manga, but many other guys I know bought 505 only for manga reading. Comic to LRF is more like put multi images in one LRF assembly, thus I don't think it has anything to do with specific language.

3. You would find a lot of manga in Chinese here, if you can read Chinese. Meanwhile, you can find "Previews" about how manga looks like in 505.
http://www.hi-pda.com/forum/viewthre...extra=page%3D1

[Ryuujin27]

I can, unfortunately, only read a very little bit of Chinese, and pronounce even less. However, are all the images how they look on the actual screen? If so, that's some fine editing done there, and it seems like there would be no trouble whatsoever.

Now, just a couple of questions about that program you linked too. It seems like it is in Calibre. So if I have Calibre, i can convert from there?

Unfortunately, all my comics are strickly in jpg and zip forms. I guess there is a way to convert this to cbz, but is there any program that will cut out the middleman?

Also, using this program, I guess it is still a good idea to run it through RastaFarian after?

[allon_pan]

The images there are "preview" effect in Sony E Library software, which is the same in actual screen.

I am sorry about the software guide, I don't use it since I am not a fan of comic. You may raised question in that post.

Another software you may want to have a look is here (in Japanese, you would like it):

http://no722.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/...inlp_v014.html

[Renaldo]

Originally Posted by Ryuujin27

2) None of my manga is in English, it is all in Japanese and therefore will often use kanji and, in the case of the shonen manga, a lot of furigana (characters next to the kanji). Now, if the image becomes too small the kanji will become blurred and thus make it very hard, if not impossible, to read. Furthermore, as I am not a native speaker of Japanese, occasionally there comes a kanji compound I don't know and would like to see the reading of (using the small characters next to the kanji). If the images are too small or blurred, it would be impossible to see them and thus make the reading of manga very inconvenient for me. So let's break this up into two questions:

And, in the case that it is hard to read, is there any kind of zoom feature?

Welcome to the forum!

I don't read manga, but I have converted several comics. If the source material is sharp, it will be sharp on the reader. If the source material blurs when it's shrunk down, it will probably blur on the reader. In the end, it's all about the source material. The 505 cannot improve it, and generally it doesn't make it worse, it just shows it for what it is. Not very helpful I know, but you know your source files better than anyone, so hopefully it can help you judge.

I would suggest converting one of your mangas using Calibre and taking a look at it in Calbre after it's converted. That's what it's going to look like on the 505.

Instead of reading it in portrait mode, you can switch it over to landscape and it will increase the size of the page significantly.

[Ryuujin27]

Thanks for the help!

I checked out the Japanese link and it seems like a great program, as it says it is designed to do shousetsu (light novels) and comics! I will definitely give that a nice test run.

[BlackVoid]

The Reader has a 600x800 pixel resolution, convert your manga to this format and check it out. These 6" screens are better suited for text only documents. For a larger screen check out the iRex Reader.