Kindle2 Manga/Comic Viewing

clarknova · 03-21-2009, 05:06 PM

I was browsing the disassembled K2 Java code and noticed that the K2 supports direct viewing of cbz files (zip files filled with images). The .zip or .cbz archives can be dropped directly into the pictures directory and will show up (without having to Alt-Z) in your home menu, and open in the picture viewer.

Unfortunately, the K2 picture viewer is still buggy and seems to still crash on larger images, so pre-processing with Mangle or something similar is still preferred.

Also, the K1 (as of version 1.2) doesn't seem to implement this.

unrequited · 03-21-2009, 05:15 PM

0_o

Wow, that explains the .manga* files, I guess they're trying to break into a new market. If I had a K1 then I'd just go this route, but as it stands, the reason why I use Mangle is also for the size reduction by res-changes and 16-color b/w. Then I take those images and turn the gifs from Mangle to .png files which make them even smaller.

You know, lemmie try taking those .png files and zipping them into a .cbz. brb.

unrequited · 03-21-2009, 05:23 PM

It works wonderfully! I think it's just the size/color/resolution limitation, because all of the mangle'd/png'ed/zipped files opened QUICKLY and without issue. Went through about 40 pages of Akira without a hitch. Thanks for the discovery, it'll make organization a lot easier as I'll be able to have zip's of each directory, though after .png'ing them, You only save about 1%-2% (1mB out of 50mB). Cheers!

goodellboy · 06-11-2009, 08:03 PM

Has anyone tried viewing cbz files on the Kindle DX?

sirbruce · 06-11-2009, 08:50 PM

It works great for me, but the accelarometer relies on gravity to determine orientation. So if you lay your Kindle DX "flat" it won't know that you rotated it.

goodellboy · 06-11-2009, 08:59 PM

Thanks, Sir Bruce. Have you had any crashing? Will it be necessary to use Mangle or similar to reduce file size?

unrequited · 06-12-2009, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodellboy

Thanks, Sir Bruce. Have you had any crashing? Will it be necessary to use Mangle or similar to reduce file size?

Not "necessary" but images smaller than the K2DX resolution of 824x1200 are a pain to upscale by pressing W and you have to do it every "book" you go into, or if different pages have different resolutions. I temp-hacked a MangleDX build for Alex (who wrote Mangle) and he's hosting it right now to hard support other features such as 256-grayscaling (for size, K2DX's dithering isn't half bad looking and quick) and all of the default settings are now my recommended settings after testing it around a bit.

http://foosoft.net/mangle/downloads/...owsPreview.zip

Give that a shot, and if you wanna see examples, I have some here:

http://www.christopherwu.net/gallery/kindle

praneeth · 06-15-2009, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unrequited

Not "necessary" but images smaller than the K2DX resolution of 824x1200 are a pain to upscale by pressing W and you have to do it every "book" you go into, or if different pages have different resolutions. I temp-hacked a MangleDX build for Alex (who wrote Mangle) and he's hosting it right now to hard support other features such as 256-grayscaling (for size, K2DX's dithering isn't half bad looking and quick) and all of the default settings are now my recommended settings after testing it around a bit.

http://foosoft.net/mangle/downloads/...owsPreview.zip

Give that a shot, and if you wanna see examples, I have some here:

http://www.christopherwu.net/gallery/kindle

I'm using the DX picture viewer to read manga and was trying to find new shortcuts and ended up hitting ALT +SHFT+O, I now has a permanent ruler (marked from 0 to 9) at the bottom of the images (even in full screen mode) and haven't been able to get rid of it. Does anyone know how to remove it?

Thank you!

Sorry if this is the wrong post to ask this question.

sirbruce · 06-15-2009, 04:06 PM

You have to Restart the device to get rid of it. Note that this is what caused a "bug" on Kindle 2, only we couldn't see the ruler then so we didn't know what was wrong, it just screwed up the image viewer.

praneeth · 06-15-2009, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirbruce

You have to Restart the device to get rid of it. Note that this is what caused a "bug" on Kindle 2, only we couldn't see the ruler then so we didn't know what was wrong, it just screwed up the image viewer.

Thank you. I did a couple of restarts but still have the ruler on there. Hmm.

praneeth · 06-15-2009, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirbruce

You have to Restart the device to get rid of it. Note that this is what caused a "bug" on Kindle 2, only we couldn't see the ruler then so we didn't know what was wrong, it just screwed up the image viewer.

I think I got it working actually. Thank you!

Maybe what I was doing as restart (holding power for 4+ seconds) wasn't actually restarting.

I held power, then held home until I got the recovery mode screen, hit "R" to escape out of recovery mode, and I got a "your kindle is starting up message" that I haven't seen before (not the normal starting up "bar"). And now I see everything ok.

Is there a "refresh" for documents, like the Alt-Z for images?

When I restarted the only things I could see were the image folders, gave me a scare there but after a little bit, my personal documents are back on there.

forkyfork · 06-15-2009, 05:54 PM

Is the full screen panning bug still active? I sent back my Kindle so I can't test it out, but I'm just curious.

sirbruce · 06-15-2009, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by praneeth

I think I got it working actually. Thank you!

Maybe what I was doing as restart (holding power for 4+ seconds) wasn't actually restarting.

Nope, that just turns it off and on.

Quote:

Originally Posted by praneeth

I held power, then held home until I got the recovery mode screen, hit "R" to escape out of recovery mode, and I got a "your kindle is starting up message" that I haven't seen before (not the normal starting up "bar"). And now I see everything ok.

Yes. You can also go to Settings, hit Menu and select Restart.

Quote:

Originally Posted by praneeth

Is there a "refresh" for documents, like the Alt-Z for images?

No, you don't have to refresh when added documents.

Quote:

Originally Posted by praneeth

When I restarted the only things I could see were the image folders, gave me a scare there but after a little bit, my personal documents are back on there.

Yeah, it takes it a minute to rescan all the books.

03-21-2009, 05:06 PM	#1
clarknova Addict Posts: 241 Karma: 2617 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Greenwood, SC Device: Kindle 2	Kindle2 Manga/Comic Viewing I was browsing the disassembled K2 Java code and noticed that the K2 supports direct viewing of cbz files (zip files filled with images). The .zip or .cbz archives can be dropped directly into the pictures directory and will show up (without having to Alt-Z) in your home menu, and open in the picture viewer. Unfortunately, the K2 picture viewer is still buggy and seems to still crash on larger images, so pre-processing with Mangle or something similar is still preferred. Also, the K1 (as of version 1.2) doesn't seem to implement this.

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03-21-2009, 05:15 PM	#2
unrequited Zealot Posts: 133 Karma: 118 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kindle 2 DX	0_o Wow, that explains the .manga* files, I guess they're trying to break into a new market. If I had a K1 then I'd just go this route, but as it stands, the reason why I use Mangle is also for the size reduction by res-changes and 16-color b/w. Then I take those images and turn the gifs from Mangle to .png files which make them even smaller. You know, lemmie try taking those .png files and zipping them into a .cbz. brb.

03-21-2009, 05:23 PM	#3
unrequited Zealot Posts: 133 Karma: 118 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kindle 2 DX	It works wonderfully! I think it's just the size/color/resolution limitation, because all of the mangle'd/png'ed/zipped files opened QUICKLY and without issue. Went through about 40 pages of Akira without a hitch. Thanks for the discovery, it'll make organization a lot easier as I'll be able to have zip's of each directory, though after .png'ing them, You only save about 1%-2% (1mB out of 50mB). Cheers!

06-11-2009, 08:03 PM	#4
goodellboy Member Posts: 20 Karma: 284 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kindle DX	Has anyone tried viewing cbz files on the Kindle DX?

06-11-2009, 08:50 PM	#5
sirbruce Provocateur Posts: 1,859 Karma: 505847 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Columbus, OH Device: Kindle Touch, Kindle 2, Kindle DX, iPhone 3GS	It works great for me, but the accelarometer relies on gravity to determine orientation. So if you lay your Kindle DX "flat" it won't know that you rotated it.

06-11-2009, 08:59 PM	#6
goodellboy Member Posts: 20 Karma: 284 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kindle DX	Thanks, Sir Bruce. Have you had any crashing? Will it be necessary to use Mangle or similar to reduce file size?

06-15-2009, 04:06 PM	#9
sirbruce Provocateur Posts: 1,859 Karma: 505847 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Columbus, OH Device: Kindle Touch, Kindle 2, Kindle DX, iPhone 3GS	You have to Restart the device to get rid of it. Note that this is what caused a "bug" on Kindle 2, only we couldn't see the ruler then so we didn't know what was wrong, it just screwed up the image viewer.

06-15-2009, 05:54 PM	#12
forkyfork Zealot Posts: 145 Karma: 1664 Join Date: May 2009 Device: It's a long story ;)	Is the full screen panning bug still active? I sent back my Kindle so I can't test it out, but I'm just curious.