A homebrewed program for viewing image archives (cbz, cbr,...)

[fredyd]

By the way, an alternative to reading cbr/cbz on the Pocketbook is to generate an epub with images optimized for the screen resolution and shades of gray.
I use KCC/KindleComicConverter https://github.com/ciromattia/kcc which works great for the pocketbook 912 (pick the Kindle DXG profile in the popup).
The generated epubs work both with adobeviewer (which sometimes crashes) and CoolReader 3 (which doesn't crash on these, and seems a bit faster).

If you use CoolReader, make sure the page margins are set to 0 in the settings (they are 8 pixels by default).

KCC (which is based on mangle - mangle generates optimized cbz) automatically cuts margins and page numbers.

The only disadvantage is that you have to convert each cbr/cbz to epub before viewing.

[Berennk]

Originally Posted by luigibrosse

Good suggestions by Berennk.

On the other hand, I tried the new version (for Touch) but still cannot access the Configuration menu (same problem). I downloaded the last version twice to be sure and rebooted also my Touch in between. Am I the only one (Berennk since you have the Touch as well)?

You telling about "System-wide setting"? I cant access in this setting too.
Also I had problem with option saving, but then a noticed that all apps have the same trouble. It because system folder is locked. But it can be easily fixed, if you use microSD.

[adrar]

Hi Rkomar first of all i would thank u so much for the nice app
ok here is the problem when i tried to paste the lines that u put in the code to config folder ( which i made this folder under system folder and this config folder include the file extension.cfg ) the paste function doesnt work, it is unabled and i dont know why? can u please guide me or give any hint how i can paste the lins? do i need to change something ? or do i need to rename the extenstion.cfg file ?!
( note I am using BP 902 and when i open pbimageviwer i can see the comic folder but when i open it shows just a white screen ).
thank u again and sorry for my bad english writing .

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by adrar

Hi Rkomar first of all i would thank u so much for the nice app
ok here is the problem when i tried to paste the lines that u put in the code to config folder ( which i made this folder under system folder and this config folder include the file extension.cfg ) the paste function doesnt work, it is unabled and i dont know why? can u please guide me or give any hint how i can paste the lins? do i need to change something ? or do i need to rename the extenstion.cfg file ?!
( note I am using BP 902 and when i open pbimageviwer i can see the comic folder but when i open it shows just a white screen ).
thank u again and sorry for my bad english writing .

If you are using an editor under Windows, then you have to be careful about how each line is terminated. Under Windows, the default is to end each line with carriage return and line feed (\r\n), whereas under Unix systems like the PB reader, it expects only a line feed character. If you use an editor like Notepad++, then you can set it to use the Unix-style line termination (\n only). Hopefully, that's all you need to make it work.

[adrar]

Originally Posted by rkomar

If you are using an editor under Windows, then you have to be careful about how each line is terminated. Under Windows, the default is to end each line with carriage return and line feed (\r\n), whereas under Unix systems like the PB reader, it expects only a line feed character. If you use an editor like Notepad++, then you can set it to use the Unix-style line termination (\n only). Hopefully, that's all you need to make it work.

thank you very much, clear guide and fast replay, mission completion

[Dungeone]

Hello. I registered just to say thanks for your excellent comic book reader, I use it all the time, and I've spend hours with it on trips and just relaxing. So thank you!

I also have some suggestions if you want them:
- Most comics have a two-page spread once in a while, and turning the viewer from portrait to landscape and back, is multiple button clicks. How about a shortcut to just flip between portrait and landscape? Zoom buttons perhaps?

- I normally read black and white comics, but recently I've picked up some colored DC ones, they work fine on my PC, but on my PocketBook they're too dark. A change contrast and brightness would be amazing!

Thanks for reading and thanks again for the great app!

[rkomar]

Thanks for the kind words. If you enable automatic orientation in your system configuration, then you can change the orientation just by rotating the device the way you want it. There's no need to do it via the menu. That's the way I use it, and I love it that way. Using a button as a shortcut is problematic because there just aren't that many free ones (maybe none at this point). I think a touchscreen gesture would be good for such an action, especially for the new Touch device which hardly has any buttons and no G-sensor, but I don't have any code to handle general gestures. I plan on looking into it more some day, but my plate is full with other things to do these days.

As far as the contrast/brightness goes, that's not a bad idea. I'll look into it, but it may be a while before it shows up here. Note that I can't actually change the brightness/contrast of the display; all I can do is affect the value each pixel is set at. The black pixels won't be any blacker, and the white pixels won't be any whiter. The feature may be less useful than first imagined.

[Dungeone]

Thank you for your fast reply.

I can't seem to find where to enable that auto flip you mentioned, I'm using a 912. I'm not even sure the sensor works, can't find a place to test it.

The reason I asked about the brightness/contrast was because I tried running one of my comics through photoshop to increase both.
A page from Batwing - the text is in a dark box, makes it hard (for me) to read on my reader.
A test with different b/c settings - the text is noticeable more readable (for me). It's just a chore to batch process every image before uploading it to my reader.

Again; I already love the app you made, so don't think I'm not greateful. It's simply a small addition I'd love to see.

[rkomar]

Did you try setting Configuration>Appearance>ScreenOrientation to automatic? The reader should then automatically orient the display depending on which side is up. It won't work when the reader is lying flat, because it uses gravity to determine which side is the top.

This doesn't work on the Touch or the 611, since neither of those have a G-sensor. I'm assuming that you have a 912, as your profile says.

[Dungeone]

Oh wow, the screen rotating works now! Thanks a lot!

[fredyd]

About contrast/brightness:

the e-ink screens have a linear response (see http://kindleworld.blogspot.fr/2011/...91602627321184 ), whereas the computer monitors have a gamma-correction curve which darkens the lower values displayed, and brightens the higher values.

You can test this using a gamma-calibration pattern, such as : http://www.povray.org/documentation/...ence/gamma.png
On your monitor, it will probably give you a gamma value of 2.2, and on e-ink 1.0.

For that matter, JPEG and PNG files are coded using gamma compression (usually with the sRGB profile, which has a gamma around 2.2). This means that lower intensity values, corresponding to shadows, are "boosted". This gamma correction also comes from perceptual considerations: you are more sensible to intensity differences in dark areas.

Ideally, an image viewer for the e-ink display should decompress the gamma, i.e apply the formula intensity_displayed=255*(value_from_file/255)^2.2
Since there are only 255 values to compute, this can easily be done using a lookup table.
The gamma value (2.2) could be user-adjustable, because most users prefer brighter images.

You can test this using KCC (KindleComicConverter), which will generate an epub for your pocketboot (chose the DXG profile for the 912) with gamma-decompressed images. Apply it on images with subtle lighting (such as a B&W photograph with not too much contrast), and you'll see the difference: the image produced by KCC is more natural (although darker, of course) than this displayed by the pocketbook image viewer. You can easily test it using the "custom gamma setting" in KCC. https://github.com/ciromattia/kcc

[rkomar]

I've been playing with brightness, contrast and gamma "display settings" in the program. I tried setting the exponent to something like 2.2, and the images ended up very dark. So, I'm not convinced that it needs to automatically be applied to all images. However, I'll leave the gamma setting in there so people can frob it to whatever they like, with 1.0 being the default. I just need to get some translations for the new menu items and I'll release it after that.

[Gnolive]

Hello rkomar

I've installed pbimageviewer in my brand new Touch 622. Your instructions are pretty clear. Didn't work on first try, never understood why. I reconnected the PB to my Mac, checked everything, found no error, so I made no change and then, it worked perfectly.
The french translation is great too. You've made a happy man, thank you a lot.

Can I suggest a little improvement? Sometimes, cbr files are wrongly labelled as cbz (et vice-versa). In that case, pbimageviewer answers "error". Before it does so, could it check it's not this error? When I look in the cbr/cbz file with an editor, I can see the real filetype is in the firsts chars. But I'm not a programmer and don't know if it feasible.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Gnolive

Hello rkomar

I've installed pbimageviewer in my brand new Touch 622. Your instructions are pretty clear. Didn't work on first try, never understood why. I reconnected the PB to my Mac, checked everything, found no error, so I made no change and then, it worked perfectly.
The french translation is great too. You've made a happy man, thank you a lot.

Sometimes the Library app has to be restarted to recognize changes in the extensions.cfg file. And you can thank PascalV for the French translation.

Can I suggest a little improvement? Sometimes, cbr files are wrongly labelled as cbz (et vice-versa). In that case, pbimageviewer answers "error". Before it does so, could it check it's not this error? When I look in the cbr/cbz file with an editor, I can see the real filetype is in the firsts chars. But I'm not a programmer and don't know if it feasible.

I'll take a look at it. As long as the magic numbers at the beginning are consistent, it should be easy to do this check.

[rkomar]

There's a new version with new features and some bug fixes. Here's a list of the changes:

Use Next/Prev buttons on Touch for stepping between panels in Panel Mode, and stepping Up/Down otherwise.

Fixed configuration menu on Touch models with older firmware.

Added configuration option for setting screen orientation on startup (nice for those with devices that don't have a G-sensor).

Added Brightness/Contrast/Gamma controls. Note that these don't actually change the screen properties, they just affect the colour used at each pixel.

Automatically opened books are now added to the Last Read list.

The app will now automatically start up at boot time, and show the current page during booting if that is how the device is configured.

Added an "[]" icon in the panel at the bottom when Auto Panel Mode is on. The icon becomes "<[]>" when Auto-Resizing Panel Mode is on.

Changed the sorting of filenames to group numbers together, so Page2 shows up before Page10 and Page03.

Enabling/disabling of Auto Panel Mode is now applied to the current page (rather than waiting until a new page comes up).

ZIP and RAR files are detected using their magic numbers, so it doesn't matter if they are named with the wrong suffix anymore.

And, of course, new translations are available from PascalV, seiichiro18 and dtanis.