Manga/pdf in the Cybook? Help, please!

screenreader · 01-03-2008, 08:15 AM

Hi!

I am a newcomer to this forum, to the world of e-readers and to Cybook, which I got finally delivered yesterday.

I intend to use it specially for reading manga, and although I have searched the forum, I haven't seen a solution for my problem.

This is what I've tried so far:

To read it as separate image files: Navigation is too slow, and having a zillion of jpgs or pngs in the "covers" menu make it a real pain to wait until the thumbnails are loaded or until I navigate to the page I want to start reading.

To turn jpgs into mobipocket format: I don't know what I am doing wrong, but when I start reading, pages are shown very small, like thumbnails, making it impossible to read.

To make pdfs out of jpgs: This seems to work... somehow. With some manga, it planinly works, although nearly 1 out of every 5 pages will be displayed with errors or won't be shown at all. With most other files, I get an error message from the cybook, telling me it's impossible to open the file.

I've used Adobe Acrobat Professional. I've tried this pdf option in a high number of ways, but I can't seem to get the proper format or options. I thought it could be a weight issue, or something related to the number of pages, but i have a file weighing 57 MB and having 177 pages which shows almost alright, and other weighing 13 MB and having 50 pages and not working at all (getting the error message).

I've searched the forum for solutions, but I only found solutions for other devices, such as using rasterfarian for the sony reader. Could I turn this sony formatted files into some format supported by the Cybook?

Is there any pdf-configuration which will work?

Sorry for this long message, but if I want to feel the price I payed worthy, and also to reccomend the device to other customers, I need to make this work. Also the solutions can be useful for others.

Thank you very much, any help will be appreciated.

Hadrien · 01-03-2008, 09:09 AM

An upcoming firmware should support zip files and zip format (not a rumor, the Bookeen team gave me this information face to face). It will be MUCH easier to read mangas once this feature is available: just group a bunch of jpeg files in a zip container, and that's it, your manga is ready.

HarryT · 01-03-2008, 09:13 AM

Any word on when that's likely to be released, Hadrien?

Hadrien · 01-03-2008, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Any word on when that's likely to be released, Hadrien?

Not yet, but support for containers (folder or zip) is the highest priority on their todo list.

I just received a Cybook too (third device: I also have a Sony PRS-500 and an iLiad). I'll try a few manga later this week.

HarryT · 01-03-2008, 09:34 AM

That's very welcome news - thanks for sharing it with us!

screenreader · 01-03-2008, 10:08 AM

Thank you for the information, Hadrien!!

I hope zip support solves the issue, at least when collecting large amounts of image files.

Anyway, this springs a new question about proper image measurements for showing on the ebook.

I've just opened a manga page with photoshop. These are the measurements:

-Pixels: 762x100
-Width: 26,88 cm (10,58 in)
-Height: 38,81 cm (15,27 in)
-Res: 72 ppp
-Weight: 128 kb

Will it be useful if I reduce this measurements and then create another pdf? Which would be the optimal measurements or image size to be displayed properly in the cybook and still don't lose readability or detail??

Thank you very much for any answer!! If I can work this out I'll make a little tutorial or quick guide for people with the same problem.

Krystian Galaj · 01-03-2008, 10:12 AM

I read manga on Cybook as jpegs presently. In 10 volumes of manga I read up to now some 4 or 5 jpegs were causing Cybook to crash every time it tried to open them or make thumbnails out of them, but the rest went well.

I keep books I read on Cybook, and mangas on the SD card, so when I want to read book, I remove the card -> less navigation. When I read up to some point, it's usually easier for me to remove jpegs up to that point from SD card than to avigate in the reader.

And when I start reading, I don't have to go back to the library, wait for thumbnails, switch to next jpeg. I just press right on the button, and next jpeg loads - and Cybook doesn't generate thumbnails at all then.

wallcraft · 01-03-2008, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by screenreader

To turn jpgs into mobipocket format: I don't know what I am doing wrong, but when I start reading, pages are shown very small, like thumbnails, making it impossible to read.

It may be the case that your JPEGs are being turned into 64KB GIFs, and shrunk in size in the process. If you use MobiPocket Creator, you have to turn on the JPEG option to prevent this and with mobigen.exe you need to use -jpeg. Another option is to use the html2mobi Perl script.

It would be useful to have an "optimal" manga2mobi procedure, which would be applicable to multiple device types. This might not be very hard to add to the Mobiperl suite (once there is a fully tested approach to implement), although I hate to burden tompe with yet another major upgrade request.

tompe · 01-03-2008, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by screenreader

To turn jpgs into mobipocket format: I don't know what I am doing wrong, but when I start reading, pages are shown very small, like thumbnails, making it impossible to read.

How did you generate the MobiPocket file since this should work. I think you have to use mobigen and the -jpeg flag.

Maybe I should do an image2mobi program in Mobiperl....

screenreader · 01-03-2008, 11:11 AM

Thank you, Krystian Galaj, wallcraft and Tompe!!

I tried again to convert the manga to mobipocket, and this time with the jpg option on. I just hadn't noticed it was there...

Now it seems to work! At least Cybook recognizes the file and the pages I've tested won't crash. Only two issues:

-I get a blank page everytime I "turn the page". It's not that manga pages are shown blank, it's that a blank page displays between every two images. It's like if "odd" pages were images and "even" pages were blank. I can read it, I just have to press the page up button twice each time. It's tiresome, but at least the thing works. Any idea on how to solve this, anyway??

-Also, and this is more troublesome, the image is still reduced. It's not as small as before (it was unreadable), but blank space around the image has increased, and I don't know a way to "fit width or height", like in a pdf.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wallcraft

and with mobigen.exe you need to use -jpeg.

Sorry, I don't get this. Could you explain how to do it? I just used Mobipocket Creator to generate a "image" prc file. Maybe this part will solve the above mentioned issues.

Thank you again for all your help. This site rocks!!

Hadrien · 01-03-2008, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Sorry, I don't get this. Could you explain how to do it? I just used Mobipocket Creator to generate a "image" prc file. Maybe this part will solve the above mentioned issues.

Mobigen is the command line utility to generate Mobipocket files. I don't think that it'll solve your issues with the margins...

wallcraft · 01-03-2008, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by screenreader

I just used Mobipocket Creator to generate a "image" prc file.

The mobigen.exe command line program is an alternative to MobiPocket Creator, but it would require a HTML file to start.

Creator should be ok, but I think it will create a HTML file as part of the process of generating the final MOBI. Look inside this HTML file and see what it is doing (e.g. is it putting each image inside a <p> or what). You should be able to edit this directly to get a different layout.

My guess is that the right HTML will fix the 2-pages per image issue, but the margins are probably built into the Reader (i.e. it is shrinking the images to fit the "screen" with the margins it uses for all MOBI documents).

screenreader · 01-03-2008, 01:25 PM

Thank you, wallcraft!!

I tried what you told me, but Mobipocket creator won't create the HTML file. I am pretty sure yesterday it created them. Now it only creates an OPF file, the PRC file and copies of all jpgs.

I'll try to see what happened, I can't believe that just for checking the jpg option now it won't create the HTML.

About the margins, if it can't be fixed... well! I'll try to read big vignette manga for now and hope for Booken to release that long awaited zip-support update.

Thank you again!!

If anybody has some ideas for all of the above, please post them! And If I work things out by myself, I'll tell you how I did...

wallcraft · 01-03-2008, 01:52 PM

Is there such a thing as a public-domain manga? If there was a such as test case it would be easier for more people to try various approaches. Perhaps all that is needed is a standard set of JPEG images of about the right size. These could be from one of those PDF to image programs for example.

tompe · 01-03-2008, 02:00 PM

Why not just put the images in a folder and then sort files by file path of file name and then filter so only images are shown. For me it was very fast changing to the next image using LEFT.

I will test with a free cbr file I found on the net also.

01-03-2008, 08:15 AM	#1
screenreader Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Cybook Gen3	Manga/pdf in the Cybook? Help, please! Hi! I am a newcomer to this forum, to the world of e-readers and to Cybook, which I got finally delivered yesterday. I intend to use it specially for reading manga, and although I have searched the forum, I haven't seen a solution for my problem. This is what I've tried so far: To read it as separate image files: Navigation is too slow, and having a zillion of jpgs or pngs in the "covers" menu make it a real pain to wait until the thumbnails are loaded or until I navigate to the page I want to start reading. To turn jpgs into mobipocket format: I don't know what I am doing wrong, but when I start reading, pages are shown very small, like thumbnails, making it impossible to read. To make pdfs out of jpgs: This seems to work... somehow. With some manga, it planinly works, although nearly 1 out of every 5 pages will be displayed with errors or won't be shown at all. With most other files, I get an error message from the cybook, telling me it's impossible to open the file. I've used Adobe Acrobat Professional. I've tried this pdf option in a high number of ways, but I can't seem to get the proper format or options. I thought it could be a weight issue, or something related to the number of pages, but i have a file weighing 57 MB and having 177 pages which shows almost alright, and other weighing 13 MB and having 50 pages and not working at all (getting the error message). I've searched the forum for solutions, but I only found solutions for other devices, such as using rasterfarian for the sony reader. Could I turn this sony formatted files into some format supported by the Cybook? Is there any pdf-configuration which will work? Sorry for this long message, but if I want to feel the price I payed worthy, and also to reccomend the device to other customers, I need to make this work. Also the solutions can be useful for others. Thank you very much, any help will be appreciated.

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01-03-2008, 09:09 AM	#2
Hadrien Feedbooks.com Co-Founder Posts: 2,263 Karma: 145123 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Paris, France Device: Sony PRS-t-1/350/300/500/505/600/700, Nexus S, iPad	An upcoming firmware should support zip files and zip format (not a rumor, the Bookeen team gave me this information face to face). It will be MUCH easier to read mangas once this feature is available: just group a bunch of jpeg files in a zip container, and that's it, your manga is ready.

01-03-2008, 09:13 AM	#3
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Any word on when that's likely to be released, Hadrien?

01-03-2008, 09:34 AM	#5
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	That's very welcome news - thanks for sharing it with us!

01-03-2008, 10:08 AM	#6
screenreader Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Cybook Gen3	Thank you for the information, Hadrien!! I hope zip support solves the issue, at least when collecting large amounts of image files. Anyway, this springs a new question about proper image measurements for showing on the ebook. I've just opened a manga page with photoshop. These are the measurements: -Pixels: 762x100 -Width: 26,88 cm (10,58 in) -Height: 38,81 cm (15,27 in) -Res: 72 ppp -Weight: 128 kb Will it be useful if I reduce this measurements and then create another pdf? Which would be the optimal measurements or image size to be displayed properly in the cybook and still don't lose readability or detail?? Thank you very much for any answer!! If I can work this out I'll make a little tutorial or quick guide for people with the same problem.

01-03-2008, 10:12 AM	#7
Krystian Galaj Guru Posts: 820 Karma: 11012 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Bookeen Cybook	I read manga on Cybook as jpegs presently. In 10 volumes of manga I read up to now some 4 or 5 jpegs were causing Cybook to crash every time it tried to open them or make thumbnails out of them, but the rest went well. I keep books I read on Cybook, and mangas on the SD card, so when I want to read book, I remove the card -> less navigation. When I read up to some point, it's usually easier for me to remove jpegs up to that point from SD card than to avigate in the reader. And when I start reading, I don't have to go back to the library, wait for thumbnails, switch to next jpeg. I just press right on the button, and next jpeg loads - and Cybook doesn't generate thumbnails at all then.

01-03-2008, 01:25 PM	#13
screenreader Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Cybook Gen3	Thank you, wallcraft!! I tried what you told me, but Mobipocket creator won't create the HTML file. I am pretty sure yesterday it created them. Now it only creates an OPF file, the PRC file and copies of all jpgs. I'll try to see what happened, I can't believe that just for checking the jpg option now it won't create the HTML. About the margins, if it can't be fixed... well! I'll try to read big vignette manga for now and hope for Booken to release that long awaited zip-support update. Thank you again!! If anybody has some ideas for all of the above, please post them! And If I work things out by myself, I'll tell you how I did...

01-03-2008, 01:52 PM	#14
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	Is there such a thing as a public-domain manga? If there was a such as test case it would be easier for more people to try various approaches. Perhaps all that is needed is a standard set of JPEG images of about the right size. These could be from one of those PDF to image programs for example.

01-03-2008, 02:00 PM	#15
tompe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,452 Karma: 7185064 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Linköpng, Sweden Device: Kindle Voyage, Nexus 5, Kindle PW	Why not just put the images in a folder and then sort files by file path of file name and then filter so only images are shown. For me it was very fast changing to the next image using LEFT. I will test with a free cbr file I found on the net also.