[Plugin] Dynamic Panel Zoom (Panel-by-Panel navigation for Comics & Manga)

[JorgeTheFox]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share a new plugin I've been working on to improve the comic reading experience on smaller E-Ink devices (like 6" readers).

While KOReader's native "Panel Zoom" is great, the constant need to exit the zoom mode, pan to the next panel, and long-press again really breaks the immersion. To fix this, I created Dynamic Panel Zoom.

Attachment 221962
I can not upload as a Gif


How it works:
Once activated, the plugin analyzes the current page, detects the bounding boxes of the panels, and allows you to navigate directly from one zoomed panel to the next using your standard next/previous page gestures.

Key Features:
True panel-by-panel navigation without leaving zoom mode.
On-the-fly detection: Works directly with your CBZ/PDF files. No need to pre-process them on your PC using KCC (Kindle Comic Converter).
Manga Support: Fully respects Right-To-Left (RTL) reading directions if enabled in your document settings.

GitHub Repository: koreader-dynamic-panelzoom: https://github.com/JorgeTheFox/korea...amic-panelzoom

To install: Simply extract the dynamic_panelzoom.koplugin folder from the release zip into your KOReader plugins/ directory and restart the device.

It's still in its early stages, but it's fully functional and has completely changed how I read comics on my device. Any feedback, bug reports, or feature suggestions from the community are more than welcome!

[JorgeTheFox]

I can finally upload the gif...

[JorgeTheFox]

[rantanplan]

Dude, you have made my day! I'll install it later today and give you feedback on how it went with A Man and his Cat Vol. 14 .

Can I install the plugin via KOReader AppStore?

[rantanplan]

Nevermind, the plugin is available in the Appstore.

[JorgeTheFox]

Hi rantanplan,

I'm glad to hear it!
I hope it works well with "A Man and His Cat".

Let me know if you discover any problems and we'll try to find a solution.

[Jellby]

Interesting.

Any chance of making it... "less extreme"? With this I mean:

1. Show the rest of the page outside the zoomed panel too.

2. Use the panel boundaries to "guide" scrolling. I'm thinking for instance in reading the page in your example with the reader in the landscape orientation, and fit to width. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=370631

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by JorgeTheFox

I hope it works well with "A Man and His Cat".

After converting to CBZ, it worked really well. I was kind of confused where the menu was at first, but now it's easy enough. Hint: It's not in the bottom menu

[JorgeTheFox]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

After converting to CBZ, it worked really well. I was kind of confused where the menu was at first, but now it's easy enough. Hint: It's not in the bottom menu

Great! If you notice anything that isn't working or could be improved, please let me know.

[JorgeTheFox]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Interesting.

Any chance of making it... "less extreme"? With this I mean:

1. Show the rest of the page outside the zoomed panel too.

2. Use the panel boundaries to "guide" scrolling. I'm thinking for instance in reading the page in your example with the reader in the landscape orientation, and fit to width. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=370631

Hi Jellby, thanks for the suggestions! Those are actually great ideas.

Regarding the first point, the plugin already handles this to an extent. Currently, you enter the panel mode with a long press, and another long press on the same panel allows you to adjust the zoom and padding of the surrounding margins. You can configure how much of the adjacent panels you see in the 'Hold-to-Zoom settings'.

It’s honestly easier to use than to explain! I personally use it quite often when speech bubbles are cut between two panels. You can check out a full GIF showing how this works on the GitHub repo: https://github.com/JorgeTheFox/korea...amic-panelzoom

As for the second point (guided scrolling), I think that would be quite difficult to implement. E-readers have very limited processing power, and as we know, scrolling on E-Ink is often a frustrating experience.

Thanks again for the feedback!

[Jellby]

Just to clarify what I mean, I show two mock-up samples:

The first is for "showing the rest of the page". I don't mean changing the zoom level (although that's good too), but simply not cropping out the content outside the zoomed panel.

The second is is for the smart "scroll". Forget about scrolling, just imagine I go to the next "page". Currently there is some overlap between pages, but it doesn't know about panels, so a given panel could be always cut and never shown in full. I wish for the "smart" version, where it ensures that the next panel is shown in full (if possible, without changing the zoom level).

[cellaris]

Great job. I've tried it on my colour Android e-readers and it works really well. Thanks.

[JorgeTheFox]

Originally Posted by cellaris

Great job. I've tried it on my colour Android e-readers and it works really well. Thanks.

Thanks, cellaris!
I'm really glad to hear it's working well on Android color e-readers too
Since I've been testing this mainly on my Kindle Colorsoft, it’s great to have confirmation that the detection logic is robust across different hardware and OSs!

[JorgeTheFox]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Just to clarify what I mean, I show two mock-up samples:

The first is for "showing the rest of the page". I don't mean changing the zoom level (although that's good too), but simply not cropping out the content outside the zoomed panel.

The second is is for the smart "scroll". Forget about scrolling, just imagine I go to the next "page". Currently there is some overlap between pages, but it doesn't know about panels, so a given panel could be always cut and never shown in full. I wish for the "smart" version, where it ensures that the next panel is shown in full (if possible, without changing the zoom level).

OK, perfect, I see exactly what you mean now! My bad for the misunderstanding earlier.

Regarding your first point, we could definitely implement that by adding a new "Padding around panel" option for the panel-by-panel navigation, similar to the one already available in the "Hold-to-Zoom" settings. That would allow users to keep as much context as they want

As for the second suggestion, I'm not going to dive into that for the time being. The main focus of this plugin is strictly panel-by-panel navigation, and that approach falls a bit outside of its current scope (it sounds more like something that would require a PR to be integrated into KOReader's core engine)

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JorgeTheFox

As for the second suggestion, I'm not going to dive into that for the time being. The main focus of this plugin is strictly panel-by-panel navigation, and that approach falls a bit outside of its current scope (it sounds more like something that would require a PR to be integrated into KOReader's core engine)

Fair enough. I just wondered if whatever panel detection logic you're using could be leveraged for that.