Canti: Manga Processing Program

[lilman]

Originally Posted by jeffcobb

Interesting. while I have neither a Kindle nor a Mac (and have zero interest in getting one; having too much fun with my Linux machines)

That's fine, you don't need a Kindle or a Mac for this program. Canti runs on all major desktop os's (Linux, Windows, and Mac) and has default processing profiles for various ereader devices (not just Kindle... personally I use it for my iPad).

Originally Posted by jeffcobb

however I am curious if A you are ever planning on GPLing this app and failing that could you suggest any others that might run on an Android-based device?

No plans to GPL. I'm not sure what you're asking in regards to Android... this isn't a program that runs on an ereader device, but rather a desktop program to process manga for an ereader device. If you are asking what is a good comic reader for Android, I don't know since I don't own an Android device. Try asking in the Android forum.

Originally Posted by jeffcobb

I am keenly interested in getting manga as well as all of those DVDs that Marvel sells with 500 issues of Spiderman, Ironman, Fantastic Four, XMen, etc (all are in PDF file format) readable on the Nook as well but one thing at a time: Rurouni Kenshin, Akira, Blood: The Last Vampire and Battle Angel Alita are tops on my list....

I didn't even know there were dvds with western comic collections. Thanks for the tip, I will have to check them out.

[lilman]

Here's Canti v1.90

Note: Rewriting Canti's brain was a massive undertaking. It took me over a month just to figure out the logic behind it, let alone having to actually program it. Since so much code as changed there may be some new bugs, so please let me know if you encounter any problems.
Note 2: You may have noticed the previous version of Canti was v1.87, and here we have v1.90. I didn't release the in-between versions since they were still works-in-progress towards Canti's new brain.

New to version 1.90:
-New brain
I rewrote most of the brain code for Canti (brain code is the main logic of the program... it makes the decisions on what work to do).
The purpose of the new brain is to do the bare minimum of work, causing the program to run faster.
The biggest speedup is that image folder restoration (both in -parent_folder and -output_folder) is only performed as needed, as opposed to the previous versions of Canti which would restore everything in -parent_folder and -output_folder.
-Include unsplit lanscape scan along with two page splits
If you enabled @auto_split_landscape_scans, then @auto_split_keep_unsplit_scans determines if Canti should include the full landscape scan even when it is split.
This is useful if you want to be able to see the two-page view to get a sense of the full image and still get the benefit of reading individual split pages.
If enabled, the page ordering of landscape split scans will be: unsplit landscape scan, first split page, second split page
This is set up in the .properties file.
-General bug fixes

Enjoy and let me know if it works for you

[lilman]

Here's Canti v1.91

Note: There were a lot of requests for features and bug fixes lately, I hope this update addressed most of them.

New to verison 1.91:
-Bug fix: Unzipping didn't work on Windows if the archive contained subfolders
While unzipping a zip archive, the way Canti was determining whether a zip entry was a folder didn't work correctly on Windows machines.
The code has been updated, and now unzipping archives with subfolders should work correctly on all os platforms.
-Bug fix: use_original_filenames caused crashes
This bug was introduced in Canti v1.90 when I rewrote Canti's brain. It was a one line of code fix, problem solved.
-Auto split buffer
This value determines the % of the other side of a split page that should be included after the split (disabled by default).
For example, if the value is set to 0.2 then 20% of the other split page will be included in the current split page.
Acceptable values: A decimal between 0 and 1.0, inclusive (0 will disable the buffer, 1.0 will include the complete other page)
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Add border
Determines whether to add borders to images smaller than the desired size (disabled by default).
Can also specify the color of the added border as either black, white, gray, or a color hex code (like #cc0000).
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Auto trim cancelling
An auto trimmed image will be discarded if x% of the total number of pixels from the original image get trimmed.
For example, if you set @trim_cancel to 0.7, then an auto trimmed image will be discarded if 70% of the pixels from the original image were trimmed.
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Improved rar handling on Windows
Canti is now better able to find a compatible rar handler on Windows os.
-Analyze Manga Collection results saved to file
Before the Analyze Manga Collection feature would only output the results to the command terminal. Now it also records these results in a text file.
-@max_dpi can now be disabled
If you set max_dpi to -1 the feature will be disabled (meaning that the dpi of input images will not be altered during processing).
This is set up in the .properties file

Enjoy and let me know if this works for you

[lilman]

Here's Canti v1.92

New to verison 1.92:
-Bug fix: Brain tweak
Canti's brain had to be tweaked a bit. It wouldn't correctly determine that an output_folder archive needed restoring because a new output format (like .pdf) was requested by the user.
-Set unrar and rar handlers in .properties file
In previous versions of Canti, unrar/rar handlers were determined automatically at runtime. This can be a problem if Canti is unable to find unrar/rar handlers on your system even though they are there.
The locations of unrar/rar handlers is now specified in the .properties file.
When creating the .properties file, Canti will attempt to determine these values automatically. If it can't find one/both, the user can manually specify the values.
Canti will still attempt to find unrar/rar handlers at runtime if the values in the .properties file are blank or inaccurate.
This is set up in the .properties file.

Enjoy and let me know if this works for you

[lilman]

Here's Canti v1.92a

New to version 1.92a:
-Bug fix: Auto trimming not working properly
The auto trim algorithm was only supposed to be trimming the white space around a scan, but if there was another dominant color on the outside of the scan (such as black) it would trim that instead.
Now instead of trimming a random color, auto trimming will trim whatever color you specify in @trim_color.
-Bug fix: Resizing only width or height would produce weird sized output
If you disabled either width or height resizing (so you set one of them to some integer > 0, and the other to -1) then the output images could come out at a size you didn't expect.
Resizing one dimension should work correctly now.
-Trim color
If you enabled auto trimming, this is the color that should be trimmed.
If you set this value to original, then the trimming algorithm will trim whatever color it encounters first.
Acceptable values: original, white, black, #[hex color code] (for example: #000000)
Recommended: white
This is set up in the .properties file.

Enjoy

[lilman]

Here's Canti v1.93

Note: Thanks to everyone for their input, a lot of the features in this update were user requested.
Note 2: I was doing too many code changes at once so I decided to release the update in its current state. There is still some stuff I am working on so expect another update in the not too distant future.

New to version 1.93:
-Bug fix: Kindle bookmark may be incorrect
When first created, the Kindle bookmark should point to the first image in the folder (for example, 0000.jpg).
However, Canti was using the name of the first image prior to processing, meaning that if the file extension changed (for example, .png -> .jpg) then the bookmark wouldn't point to the new name.
This has been fixed.
-Bug fix: When resizing to another orientation, the orientation geometry was ignored
This is a bit hard to explain, let me just give an example. If you set @width to 600 and @height to 800 (i.e. a portrait scale) and tried to resize a landscape scan, the resize geometry was reversed.
This was an issue with the way ImageMagick interprets resize calls, but I was able to fix it by giving Canti some more intelligence when making the resize call to ImageMagick.
-Auto split page side borders
If you enabled @auto_split_landscape_scans and @add_border, this determines if split scans should have borders added to the left/right side to best represent the original physical page side.
As a more visual example, enabling this feature will result in [border][left page] for the left page of a split and [right page][border] for the right page of a split.
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Meaning of @auto_rotate changed
Before, @auto_rotate would rotate all landscape scans to portrait orientation.
Now, @auto_rotate rotates any scan whose orientation does not match the target orientation (based on @width and @height).
If @width and/or @height is set to -1, then target orientation is assumed to be portrait.
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Adjust contrast
Adjusts the contrast level of the output images.
The value represents how many times the contrast adjustment alogrithm should be run on an image (for example, a value of 3 would result in the contrast algorithm being run three times).
A positive value will increase contrast, a negative value will decrease contrast, and a value of 0 leaves the contrast unmodified.
Personally I think contrast adjustments should be done manually on a per image basis (so I leave this disabled). If you are going to use this feature, I recommend using a small value (1 or -1).
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Auto-level
Uses the ImageMagick -auto-level feature to balance colors.
Description from the ImageMagick website: "It finds the exact minimum and maximum color values in the image and then applies a -level operator to stretch the values to the full range of values."
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Handle read-only parent_folder
Canti normally uses parent_folder for some temporary files (namely unarchiving zips/rars in parent_folder, or converting a pdf in parent_folder to an image folder), but this isn't possible if parent_folder is read-only.
Now Canti can handle a read-only parent_folder. If Canti detects that parent_folder is read-only, it will use a temp folder in output_folder.
Of course, if parent_folder is read-only, features like @archive_parent_image_folders and @unarchive_parent_image_archives are disabled.
-New Other Operation: Analyze Manga Folder
Canti will analyze all the image files in the given manga folder and give you image statistics such as width, height, and dpi.
This is strictly for testing purposes and is not needed for manga processing.
See the -Other Operations- section of the readme for more details.
-New device: k3
You can specify "k3" as your device when creating a .properties file. Not a big deal since the specs for the k3 are the same as for the k2.
-Various bug fixes and optimizations
You know the drill, every time I tinker with the code I always find little things to fix.

Enjoy

[lilman]

Here's Canti v1.94 and CantiGUI v1.00

Note: If you want CantiGUI, you don't need to download Canti separately... it is already included in the archive.
Note 2: CantiGUI is brand new, so there is a good chance of bugs. If you experience any problems please let me know.

New to Canti v1.94:
-Goodbye @max_dpi
A Canti user pointed out to me that dpi does not effect image rendering on ereader devices.
Dpi relates directly to printing, but for a long time I thought there was a virtual correlation with screens as well. I no longer think so, so @max_dpi is now disabled by default.
I left it as an option in case you want to use it for printing.
-Despeckle
Uses the ImageMagick -despeckle feature.
The value represents how many times the despeckle algorithm should be run on an image (for exmaple, a value of 3 would result in the despeckle algorithm being run three times).
Note that if you enabled this feature and @auto_trim, the first despeckle operation will occur before trimming.
Acceptable values: 0 (to disable), an integer between 1 and 5 inclusive
Recommended value: If your scans aren't too noisy just leave this disabled (0). If you are going to use this feature, a low value (1) is recommended, otherwise the image can lose a lot of detail.
This is set up in the .properties file.
-Reorganized .properties file
Moved stuff around, added Advanced section.

New to CantiGUI v1.00:
-Initial release
This is the initial release of CantiGUI. There are no custom graphics included in the gui... at all. It looks ugly but should be functional.
When I get time later I will work on making the gui look good.
-Load/Save Jobs
This is a feature not available in the command line version of Canti. It allows you to save a job for future reprocessing.
A job is basically the state of the gui at the time of saving (so it includes things like parent_folder, title, etc.).
Previous jobs are displayed in a table with rows sorted by title.

Enjoy and let me know if CantiGUI works for you

[lilman]

Here's CantiGUI v1.00a

New to version 1.00a:
-Bug fix: CantiGUI's "data" directory may not be located in the same directory as CantiGUI.jar
Depending on how you ran CantiGUI (either executing the .jar directly or starting it from a command line), the location of the "data" directory may be different.
This is a problem since the "data" directory stores session information for CantiGUI (like saved jobs), so you will always want to use the same "data" directory every time.
I think I fixed the problem, and now the "data" directory should always be located in the same directory as CantiGUI.jar.

[lilman]

Canti has a new home:
http://www.bitcake.com/

I will no longer be posting Canti related info/releases on mobileread, so bookmark bitcake if you want to follow Canti development.

[jaxsnop]

Ty for you apportation. I'll check this program

[lilman]

Haven't posted here in a while, how's it going MobileRead?

Just wanted to let people know that Canti has had a lot of development since it moved to bitcake. Most notably it now supports automatic volume-chapter interpretation (I think it's the first manga processor to do so), auto organization (meaning you don't have to extract or rename any scanlation folder/archive yourself), auto binding of detected volumes, chop white rows and columns, multithreading, and just about every feature you would want in a manga processor. Every setting is customizable to meet your particular needs.

Canti is available as a GUI and CLI. It runs on all major os (Windows, Mac, Linux) and has default profiles for every ereader I could think of. Head over to bitcake.com to check it out:
http://www.bitcake.com/?page=project_canti