Comics and Graphic Novels Kindle question

[Von Allan]

Hey there,

First, an apology. I initially joined the forum some months ago (ack! It was back in May!) and things went a smidgen crazy for me (including health issue stuff for my wife). I did not mean to be away for so long.

Here's my situation: I love the idea of ebooks, but I don't have a reader of any sort, save for my trusty ol' laptop. That means I've only "experienced" (cough) ebooks in either RTF or PDF form for text and PDF, CBR/CBZ for comics and graphic novels. I'm in Canada, so it's basically a non-starter with devices like the Kindle 2 or DX. So, in other words, I really know nothing right now when it comes to the Kindle, Sony Reader, and other ebook devices.

Now, I've recently self-published a 148 page graphic novel and I'd really like to make it available as an ebook. For something like the Kindle, getting formatting information for comics is very tricky. This Publishers Weekly article suggests that there's a few tricks to it, but when I contacted the DTP people at Amazon they noted that titles like Tumor were formatted with MobiPocket. Unfortunately, as of September they are no longer taking new publishers. And unfortunately, the DTP people weren't able to give me solid specifications on what I should do graphic-wise.

So, I feel a little stuck. I can do PDF, CBR and CBZ, and I think the Sony Reader (though I'm concerned about resolution) but not the Kindle. Simply put, what am I missing?

P.S.: To be fair, I've also talked with the folks at Smashwords but there doesn't seem to be a way of getting around their 5 meg upload limit, either. And unfortunately, there's just no way to compress a 148 page graphic novel down to meet this requirement. Smashwords would probably be my platform of choice, but it's a no-go. Graphics and ebooks just seem to be really, really tricky.

(edited to fix some silly formatting mistakes)

[Von Allan]

Well, I think I've given everyone a poser or something! I decided to create a PDF version of my bookie and upload it to Scribd. I'm a bit concerned that it might be too low of a resolution and I'm not sure it would actually work on a device like the Sony Reader (since the PDF isn't configured specifically for it). If anyone would like to give it a shot, though, it can be found right here.

[Hobohodou]

ah, this may be of no help to you at all...

I read a lot of manga on my device, so i'm used to converting it to read on it. I can sure help you with the formatting I guess

I resize everything down to 800 pixels, first changing the color mode of the document to RGB...Most devices i've seen use 600x800pixel displays at 160 DPI/PPI
I format, and change to RGB as indexed images being resized down look terrible and have hard to read text, also my device has trouble reducing an images size, so I make sure it fits the exact dimensions of the screen

So i've always changed the image sizes that way, if you Use photoshop you can setup an action for this and run it in batches...Then it's just a case of changing them onto a canvas etc of 600x800 pixels.. (you may have a problem if you use double spreads) in which case, try rotating them maybe?)

As for saving, once all the images are done, I use "pdf presentation" in photoshop, saved as a "multi page document"
In the compression tab -> do not downsample -> compression Jpeg + Medium High...
EDIT: I noticed you mentioned a 5MB limit...most of my volumes (200 pages) average at about 32MB...so I don't know how you'd get past that...but this is definitely the best format i've found for reading...

For me..this looks awesome on my device, admittedly all of my images are black and white...

Hopefully this should give you an idea of how to format the images!
any further questions just ask, especially since I only format stuff for myself...So my advice may not be the best =O
But good luck all the same !!!

(apologies for the low quality image, but my camera ran out of battery power and this was the only image taken, to show you an example of how it looks on a device using this profile)

All credit of images goes to Kubo Tite and the fantastic Maximum 7

[Von Allan]

Actually, that is really interesting. My big hesitation was downsizing my pages to 800 pixels wide at 160 DPI. On my computer screen, that type of resolution tends to look a bit blurry, but I'm willing to give it a shot. The PDF I put up for free on Scribd.com earlier today is about 18 megs for 150 pages. Pixel dimensions are approximately 680 px by 1050 px in grayscale format.

I'm curious about your choice of RGB, though. I understand why you wouldn't want to use Indexed Color in Photoshop, but wouldn't grayscale be fine for manga? And lead to a smaller file size? Or am I missing something?

Thanks for posting the example. That's helpful. When you have a moment, would you mind posting a PDF of a text heavy page - one with lots of dialogue balloons? That would be very helpful!

I had mentioned the 5 meg limit since that's a limit specific to Smashwords so no worries there. Smashwords is simply not set-up to handle graphics intensive ebooks.

Lastly, I'm used to using Photoshop actions (they're great!) but thanks much for the tip on PDF Presentations - I hadn't used that before and I can see that it would be very helpful. That's awesome so thanks a bunch!

[Hobohodou]

Hi, i got a couple of pages...

I converted them using a few profiles to give you a few examples, and even nearly got a picture of your content on my device, however my camera's batteries are not charged, and I shall have to go to bed for work =O I will return at about 8pm tomorrow, so hopefully I should be able to post more content for you then...for now, sorry and good luck !

I hope to be able to show you the strange resizing errors that I see often in my device...and why I use RGB (grayscale makes no difference for me, just it'd be nice to have my covers in color, should I ever read them on a color device =O)

[Von Allan]

First, I really do appreciate the time. Thanks very much!

I've uploaded two small PDF files (each are only two pages). Both were created using Sony Reader's specs, but I did one at a much higher DPI (248 versus Sony's recommended 166). I'm very curious if you can load them on your machine (assuming you don't mind, of course). And I'm also curious if anyone else using a Sony Reader can load each of them.

What I need to know is this:

1) how does each look?

2) Is there a noticeable difference in quality between each?

3) Is the text readable?

4) And with the larger (248 DPI) PDF, does it suffer at that size on your screen?

I would love to know the answers to these questions.

Thanks so much again!

[Hobohodou]

Originally Posted by Von Allan

First, I really do appreciate the time. Thanks very much!

I've uploaded two small PDF files (each are only two pages). Both were created using Sony Reader's specs, but I did one at a much higher DPI (248 versus Sony's recommended 166). I'm very curious if you can load them on your machine (assuming you don't mind, of course). And I'm also curious if anyone else using a Sony Reader can load each of them.

What I need to know is this:

1) how does each look?

2) Is there a noticeable difference in quality between each?

3) Is the text readable?

4) And with the larger (248 DPI) PDF, does it suffer at that size on your screen?

I would love to know the answers to these questions.

Thanks so much again!

My reader failed to load them for some strange reason =O
However opened them in photoshop using the settings that you said you had used...I can't really answer your question since they failed to load, but hopefully a kind sony user should be able to help ! =D

In that place, i'll make my own images using these settings for you and see how they turn out. In my own images (which I can't show due to licensing issues) the text is crystal clear on both...With 248DPI the image is unreadable at 100%, but stretched it is (quality is same as 166DPI when stretched)

Okay, attaching some pictures at the bottom of this post to show example of bad resizing/indexing etc

jojo166dpi shows a standard page resized using 166DPI at 800 pixels, this is the PDF at 100% and there are no errors at all..perfectly readable =D

jojo43percent shows what happens when an image is too large for the device and is being shrunk, you may see some strange text issues (these will be shown using other examples too)

Drifters is a fantastic series ! one of my friends is an assistant to the Mangaka...however, the image was converted using calibre's cybook profile...the PDF is too small and this shows the sort of strange text issues when resizing up or down ;___;

rave166dpi shows small text, image is converted and formatted using the same settings as jojo166dpi !

finally

jojoindexed is an example of the errors when changing the color profile to a bad color scheme before resizing...The text issues are similar to that of the PDF Resizing using a mobile device...


The important thing to remember when making the PDF's using photoshop is to make sure DO NOT DOWNSAMPLE is enabled, if it is enabled =/ well, the image just turns out as unreadable/hard to read junk >.<

Good luck again !

[user_none]

Try running the cbr or cbz though calibre's pdf output conversion using the Sony profile. Oh, and the keep aspect ratio option would probably be good to have turned on. It will do some transformations on the images (one is to sharpen the text to make it more readale), resize them and create a pdf with pages sized for the PRS devices.

[Von Allan]

Hobohodou: first, thanks for the images. Much appreciated! I do find it a bit odd that your reader wouldn't read the PDFs. Don't know if that's on my end or yours. If it's on my end, I'm not sure what to do solve it. The PDFs at 166 DPI should work for you. Hmmm...weird!

User_none: That may be a better way to go. I've heard very good things about calibre and I'm going to install it tonight or tomorrow morning. Thanks very much for mentioning it!