PRS-650 Reading Manga

[DillonBladez]

Hi, I'm new to these forums, but I hope that once I'm done covering the basics, I can start helping other people too.

My first problem is that I have downloaded some manga, all in jpg. One image covers two pages, and the book reads right to left. I first converted to zip>cbz>epub. But when reading on the device, i get say page 6 before page 5. I know I could manually fix this but it's a little time consuming and I was wondering if there was a way I could get calibre to do this automatically. I'm sorry if this has already been discussed, but I wasn't really sure what to search...

And I was wondering how I could get the time to appear on my reader (prs-650). Currently, the only way I can check the time is to go into system settings, or by going into a book and pressing home (it shows when you last read your book).

And lastly, I was wondering if anybody could list a couple hacks and custom firmwares available for the PRS-650. I want to use them, but I don't know if it's safe to do so.

Anyways, thanks in advance for any replies.

[Soul_Est]

Hi DillonBladez and welcome to MobileRead. As for the manga's pages coming in the wrong order, I don't read them on my PRS-650 as the aspect ratio of the ones I want to read would be a better fit for the PRS-950. As for displaying the time on your PRS-650, you can simply press the OPTIONS button where ever you are in the Reader. Under the Context Menu that shows up will be the current time in the same black bar as the battery indicator.

Hope this helps.

[viviena]

Originally Posted by DillonBladez

But when reading on the device, i get say page 6 before page 5. I know I could manually fix this but it's a little time consuming and I was wondering if there was a way I could get calibre to do this automatically.

I've used Calibre to convert manga collections before with few problems on the default settings -- no page-in-backwards-order problems anyway. Have you taken a look at the Comic Input screen of the conversion process to see if options such as Right to left are ticked?

[farrioth]

Originally Posted by DillonBladez

My first problem is that I have downloaded some manga, all in jpg. One image covers two pages, and the book reads right to left. I first converted to zip>cbz>epub. But when reading on the device, i get say page 6 before page 5. I know I could manually fix this but it's a little time consuming and I was wondering if there was a way I could get calibre to do this automatically. I'm sorry if this has already been discussed, but I wasn't really sure what to search...

Extract your cbz file, use a script like the below to rename the images, then recompress the cbz.

The script assumes your original images are being cropped so that there is one page per image, and the filenames are of the format image1.jpg; change pren and postn below as appropriate. There should be no line breaks in the script and it should be run in the directory containing the images.

pren=image; postn=.jpg ; for i in $(seq 1 2 $(ls | wc -l)) ; do mv $pren$i$postn foo ; mv $pren$(($i+1))$postn $pren$i$postn ; mv foo $pren$(($i+1))$postn ; done

[DillonBladez]

Originally Posted by farrioth

Extract your cbz file, use a script like the below to rename the images, then recompress the cbz.

The script assumes your original images are being cropped so that there is one page per image, and the filenames are of the format image1.jpg; change pren and postn below as appropriate. There should be no line breaks in the script and it should be run in the directory containing the images.

pren=image; postn=.jpg ; for i in $(seq 1 2 $(ls | wc -l)) ; do mv $pren$i$postn foo ; mv $pren$(($i+1))$postn $pren$i$postn ; mv foo $pren$(($i+1))$postn ; done

Okay. Would this be used in Calibre, or...? Sorry, I just got into the whole digital reading thing. And if it is supposed to be used in Calibre, where would it be used?

Originally Posted by viviena

I've used Calibre to convert manga collections before with few problems on the default settings -- no page-in-backwards-order problems anyway. Have you taken a look at the Comic Input screen of the conversion process to see if options such as Right to left are ticked?

Jeez, I feel like such an idiot. Thanks for your help guys.

[grogthegreat]

I have been reading manga on my 950 and the best program that I have found so far is Canti. Calibre had problems with cutting off too much of the image.
http://www.bitcake.com/?x=entry:entry110104-101146

[farrioth]

Originally Posted by DillonBladez

Okay. Would this be used in Calibre, or...? Sorry, I just got into the whole digital reading thing. And if it is supposed to be used in Calibre, where would it be used?

This should be run after making the cbz file. A cbz file can be extracted like a zip file, and will give you a bunch of jpgs (or sometimes other image files). Run the script in the folder with the images in it, and then make them back into a cbz file (the same way you'd make a zip file).

This shouldn't be needed if viviena's solution works for you.

[DillonBladez]

Originally Posted by farrioth

This should be run after making the cbz file. A cbz file can be extracted like a zip file, and will give you a bunch of jpgs (or sometimes other image files). Run the script in the folder with the images in it, and then make them back into a cbz file (the same way you'd make a zip file).

This shouldn't be needed if viviena's solution works for you.

How do I run a script? Sorry if this is supposed to be common knowledge. If there's a FAQ or something of the sort I can read about this, then please link.

And also, Is there a way to merge multiple cbz/cbr files? All the images inside have the same names. To rename each would be a big pain in the butt.

Thanks for all your help so far.

[farrioth]

Originally Posted by DillonBladez

How do I run a script? Sorry if this is supposed to be common knowledge.

This is my fault for assuming that this is common knowledge, and also for assuming that you are running Linux. Is this correct?