digital comics - lots of dumb? questions from an absolute dummy...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by stumped

yes front and end pages may account for some of the page creep but not for 57 extra pages

I may try comparing a few other things, see if a pattern emerges

I was editing my comment as you posted.

I checked a few other random comics and here's what I found:

Watchmen
Print: 448 pages
Digital: 449 pages

Batman - Year One
Print: 136 pages
Digital: 136 pages

Marvels: Remastered
Print: 248 pages
Digital: 238 pages

Marshal Law: The Deluxe Edition
Print: 480 pages
Digital: 480 pages

Maggie the Mechanic: The Love & Rockets Library
Print: 272 pages
Digital: 277 pages

Vietnam Journal - Book One: Indian Country
Print: 142 pages
Digital: 141 pages

American Flagg!: Definitive Collection
Print: 336 pages(?!)
Digital: 406 pages

Alien Legion Omnibus 1
Print: 352 pages
Digital: 352 pages

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You would have to compare the printed and digital comic side-by-side.

Two things here:

1. A two-page spread would be counted as one page in a digital comic and it would count as two pages in a printed one.
   
2. The digital comic may not reproduce things like blank end pages and ad pages that would be counted as pages in the printed comic.

For what it's worth, I counted over 60 double page spreads in Sandman Overture Deluxe Edition.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

For what it's worth, I counted over 60 double page spreads in Sandman Overture Deluxe Edition.

i guess that explains it then, given the other comparisons posted above, where print and digital pretty much agree.

I am still at the theory of what format to collect stage. We have the Kindle Unlimited loans to look at and we bought 2 of the big, but black and white ,annotated sandman hardbacks which we will get around to comparing with the Kindle versions. they have just arrived and they are B I G

On the one hand, we could go all in for printed absolute editions at great expense, on the other hand, they may be impractically heavy to actually read, rather than having them to show off
and they are too big to fit into your average bookcase.

if digital picture quality comes close, on a 10 inch screen, and is easy to read in bed, and less fragile than an actual book where you could accidentally split the binding or spill coffee on it, then maybe that's the way to go .

And depending on the digital master quality- maybe it scales up nicely if the next tablet you buy as 12 inch or more, or if you read them from the settee via fire tv on a 70 inch screen [ can that be done ???]

it reminds me a little of digital music comparisons, is an MP3 rip off OK or do I get the CD or would I appreciate a hugely expensive but fiercely watermarked and copy protected 24 bit DVD audio disc [well that format is dead now and mp3 is still going strong so there;s partial answer. convenience beats over-protected quality ] I suppose an absolute edition is " protected" in that the cost and hassle of running one through a very high quality colour copier probably exceeds the cost of buying the book

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by stumped

i guess that explains it then, given the other comparisons posted above, where print and digital pretty much agree.

I am still at the theory of what format to collect stage. We have the Kindle Unlimited loans to look at and we bought 2 if the big, but black and white ,annotated sandman hardbacks which we will get around to comparing with the Kindle versions

on the one hand, we could go all in for printed absolute editions at great expense, on the other and, they may actually be impractically heavy to actually read, rather than having them to show off
and they are too big to fit into your average bookcase.

My choice was taken from me when a water pipe in the garage burst and thirty+ years of comics went down the drain

if digital picture quality comes close, on a 10 inch screen, and is easy to read in bed, and less fragile than an actual book where you could accidentally split the binding or spill coffee on it, then maybe that's the way to go .

And depending on the digital master quality- maybe it scales up nicely if the next tablet you buy as 12 inch or more, or if you read them from the settee via fire tv on a 70 inch screen [ can that be done ???]

I haven't tried reading digital comics on my TV. I suppose you could, though don't know what steps you would take.

I do read comics on a Surface Pro which has a screen size of 12.3" and comics look fantastic on it. 12.3" is actually just slightly larger than most comics (Sandman for instance) were originally published at.

Until the Surface I read my comics on various 10" Android tablets.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

My choice was taken from me when a water pipe in the garage burst and thirty+ years of comics went down the drain



I haven't tried reading digital comics on my TV. I suppose you could, though don't know what steps you would take.

.

plex media server and client would work, as it does photos. we just it mostly for tv and film but photos of one of the core categories.
you'd probably have to turn each the comics back into a sequence of .JPG and look into how to get suitable metadata. but then in slideshow mode you could have the book on TV, no problem. i bet there are solutions in comics forums. i dont think fire tv appears as a destination option for downloading my kindle purchases but plex runs on Fire TV, and android, and apple. Ditto for Kodi, and Kodi is more likely to have suitable addons for handling zip files

[stumped]

another thought is that casting from the comixology app to a big screen via chromecast could work ? then everyone in the room can literally be "on the same page"

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by stumped

And depending on the digital master quality- maybe it scales up nicely if the next tablet you buy as 12 inch or more, or if you read them from the settee via fire tv on a 70 inch screen [ can that be done ???]

It's doable. When we cut the cord, we used computers connected to the HDTV via HDMI to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc (no Roku or Fire or AppleTV back then). The TV was essentially a big monitor. I use CDisplayEx to read CBZ files on Windows.

I find it easier to read on tablets 18-24 inches away though. Depending on viewing distance, the apparent size on the TV may not be bigger than on, say, a 12.3" 2:3 tablet an arm-length away anyway. Also, text and line art is more blurry on our TV than on my tablet. Of course, our TV (50") is only 1080p so fit page to screen is basically 720x1080. A 70" 4K TV is both bigger and sharper with fit page to screen at 1440x2160.

I checked out my DRM-free Comixology backups (Image) and they're 1988x3056 (6.1 million pixels) JPEG with very minimal compression (10%). Comixology versions are significantly higher quality compared to the Kindle version 1280x1920 (2.5 million pixels) but even the Kindle version should be fine on 1080p or WUXGA displays.

The Comixology version of Sandman Overture is 366.9 MB so I believe it's the same high quality as my Image comics.

[william z]

Originally Posted by stumped

another thought is that casting from the comixology app to a big screen via chromecast could work ? then everyone in the room can literally be "on the same page"

I am no expert on comics in a digital format, the ones I have come either in CBZ or CBR. You need a comic book viewer like ComicRack or Perfect Viewer (there are others as well, the best thing is they are free). You can adjust the display to however you like. If you want to read them on a TV simply connect your device to your TV with an HDMI cable.

I find comics take up quite a bit of memory so I find it best to put them on a memory card, if your device has a memory card slot. If not you always buy a memory card reader and connect it with usb.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I checked out my DRM-free Comixology backups (Image) and they're 1988x3056 (6.1 million pixels) JPEG with very minimal compression (10%). Comixology versions are significantly higher quality compared to the Kindle version 1280x1920 (2.5 million pixels) ...

thats very significant - if i take a long term view and ingore that my eyes stopped keeping up with the pixel race long ago

so we have Comixology: much better source images
vs Kindle: wider devide range, sometimes cheaper

So if I buy from C, can I convert for Kindle , store both formats in Calibre and still have guided view in both versions? i.e. does the clever markup survive a conversion

is it that simple of is there a tricky DRM hurdle to master ?

I should go back and try again to get a free book from C to test with. I need to learn how to link that to my amazon UK account and not my amazon com so that it will agree to sell me one without the hassle of creating even more credentials. Or maybe I just have to bite the bullet and input uk address, paypal info etc into the C app to convince it that I am in England ?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by stumped

so we have Comixology: much better source images
vs Kindle: wider devide range, sometimes cheaper

So if I buy from C, can I convert for Kindle , store both formats in Calibre and still have guided view in both versions? i.e. does the clever markup survive a conversion

is it that simple of is there a tricky DRM hurdle to master ?

I should go back and try again to get a free book from C to test with. I need to learn how to link that to my amazon UK account and not my amazon com so that it will agree to sell me one without the hassle of creating even more credentials. Or maybe I just have to bite the bullet and input uk address, paypal info etc into the C app to convince it that I am in England ?

Kindle to Comixology is one-way (for now).

Books purchased from Kindle transfer over to Comixology. Buying from Amazon Kindle gives you the best of both worlds:
1) wider device compatibility with Kindle edition, and
2) very high quality versions when read via Comixology app.
Just make sure "Enable HD" is on in app settings. You also get high quality DRM-free Comixology backups in CBZ and PDF for publishers that allow it (Image, IDW, Valiant, etc).

For the Kindle Edition, I don't know if guided view survives conversion given all the processing Calibre does. It does survive DRM removal (tested liberated AZW3 on a Kindle Paperwhite). Of course, afaik, only Kindles actually know what to do with the specific guided view markup. Reading using other apps would likely just ignore the guided view layout.

Books purchased from Comixology do NOT transfer to the Kindle (at least not yet). While there is a Google Chrome plugin that allows backing up Comixology purchased comics, this only gives ~1080x1650 images and the images delivered to PC are fairly highly compressed to begin with. Certainly nowhere near the quality you'd get from the Comixology Android or iOS apps. Also, this backup doesn't contain guided view info.

Try buying this free DC catalog to test if it transfers over to the Comixology app.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DC-Essentia...dp/B07J1WNNXH/

[stumped]

ok but a couple of questions on that
"books from kindle xfer to C ..." is that only after you have opend a C account and linked it, or will previous purchases also soemhow xfer ?

"on C you get the Higher quality images..." so after buying on kinfge and getting their (lower) image quality, the copy that transfers to C gets upscaled?- I suppose amazon just hand over a dunique comi reference and then C drom their version into the app ?

I will have another go at the link but this time around I will do it from PC, instead of from within the app. so I will go to C (uk) web site, make an account there and look for a link to my amazon account option

...well I did get through checkout but the linkage is still strange, if I look at my browser history I see that it used amazon com for the sign in. not amazon UK :
7:42 AM
Digital Comics - Comics by comiXology: Web UK
www.comixology.co.uk
7:42 AM
Amazon Sign In
www.amazon.com
7:42 AM
Sign In - Comics by comiXology: Web UK
www.comixology.co.uk

transfer IS working though. I test bought 2 free comics on amazon uk and they have appeared over in "my books" at C.

so I will take a break while I seem to be winning, and go see what's on the fire tablet.
I bought the free comix app for that via the amazon web site so it should have been delivered now...

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by stumped

ok but a couple of questions on that
"books from kindle xfer to C ..." is that only after you have opend a C account and linked it, or will previous purchases also soemhow xfer ?

"on C you get the Higher quality images..." so after buying on kinfge and getting their (lower) image quality, the copy that transfers to C gets upscaled?- I suppose amazon just hand over a dunique comi reference and then C drom their version into the app ?

transfer IS working though. I test bought 2 free comics on amazon uk and they have appeared over in "my books" at C.

1. Previous purchases transfer over. If they don't, you can contact Comixology and provide them the Amazon order number of the missing comic so they can fix it.

2. Yeah, pretty much. Amazon just tells Comixology "so and so bought this comic" and Comixology delivers their own high quality version. I don't think "upscale" is quite the correct term, though.

3. Good that transfers are working.

For me, Comixology doesn't directly use Amazon for payments. Rather, it goes through Amazon Pay. Dunno how Amazon's wallet system will work in the UK.

Mind, given you're better off buying from Amazon than Comixology-direct, it doesn't seem necessary to get payments sorted out on Comixology.

[stumped]

re
1. i suspect I don't already own anything that counts as a comic, and Kindle Unlimited Loans dont count, so that was a dumb question from me
2. makes sense , A will just give an ASIN or similar to C and say share this with the buyer
3. agree - i see no benefit in buying direct from C, unlses thay have a huge sale on stuff I like, which is not matched at Amazon

on the deluxe print vs Digital, am waiting for me wife to start in on the 2 annotated sandman books we bought ( she is on a cruise right now) . If she says ""holding these gives me back ache" or complains that we don't have a shelf big enough to put them on then we will go digital !

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by stumped

1. i suspect I don't already own anything that counts as a comic, and Kindle Unlimited Loans dont count, so that was a dumb question from me

on the deluxe print vs Digital, am waiting for me wife to start in on the 2 annotated sandman books we bought ( she is on a cruise right now) . If she says ""holding these gives me back ache" or complains that we don't have a shelf big enough to put them on then we will go digital !

1. While most comics are transferrable, not all are. Comics that transfer over specifically state Kindle & comiXology on the Amazon product page. Yep, Kindle Unlimited loans don't count.

Lol, I have both digital and print editions of favorite comics. More often than not though, the print versions end up being just for display or collection and I read the digital version. Digital is just so much more convenient. Also, there's no gutter on digital.