My Manga Program

[lilman]

Originally Posted by rainblown

Hello lilman. Great program! I am using the CantiGUI right now. When I convert it to normal individual files, it comes out okay. However, I am trying to convert a .cbz file (which has bunch of images) into a epub file. I can convert it perfectly fine, but when I put it in my reader, it comes up as invalid page. Do you know what the problem is? Here is my properties.

I already checked out the quality with the normal individual files (after conversion) and I must say the quality is fabulous. If I could convert the whole .cbz into a .epub and make it work it would be perfect.

Your properties look good. The problem is most likely Canti isn't producing an .epub compatible with your ereader. I had a difficult time writing the .epub code. When I followed the .epub standard exactly they wouldn't appear on my iPad in iBooks, so I ended up tweaking the code to make the epubs iPad compatible. Those tweaks probably broke .epub support on other ereader devices. My advice is to output to .cbz format to get all the image processing done, then pass the output through Calibre to produce the .epub.

Out of curiosity, why do you want epub format for comics? Image folders, .zip/.cbz, or .pdf allow a lot more flexibility since epub readers don't seem to handle images or zooming very well. After playing with epub manga on the iPad I abandoned its development.

[rainblown]

Originally Posted by lilman

Your properties look good. The problem is most likely Canti isn't producing an .epub compatible with your ereader. I had a difficult time writing the .epub code. When I followed the .epub standard exactly they wouldn't appear on my iPad in iBooks, so I ended up tweaking the code to make the epubs iPad compatible. Those tweaks probably broke .epub support on other ereader devices. My advice is to output to .cbz format to get all the image processing done, then pass the output through Calibre to produce the .epub.

Out of curiosity, why do you want epub format for comics? Image folders, .zip/.cbz, or .pdf allow a lot more flexibility since epub readers don't seem to handle images or zooming very well. After playing with epub manga on the iPad I abandoned its development.

Well, I have a Sony PRS-650. I tried a image folder and the pictures are all over the place and mixed up with other non manga images. I haven't tried zip or cbz, but I heard that EPUB or LRF is the best way to go for PRS-650 since it's native to PRS-650.

[lilman]

Originally Posted by rainblown

Well, I have a Sony PRS-650. I tried a image folder and the pictures are all over the place and mixed up with other non manga images. I haven't tried zip or cbz, but I heard that EPUB or LRF is the best way to go for PRS-650 since it's native to PRS-650.

I used to use LRF when I had a prs-505 for a week. I think I did source image folders -> pdf -> lrf. This was before Canti, and I can't remember what program I used for pdf -> lrf. You should ask around the Sony Reader board since you have different needs from Kindle users.

[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.

[darkside40]

Hi there,
just found your program here while i was searching for an App that can convert my Manga just the way i want it for my iPad, including the right Manga like Page order.

The only thing which bothers me is that it dont support ePubs for iTunes.
They just dont show up on the iPad.

It is possible to read them as PDF, but then it only shows it to me site by site also in landscape mode, as ePub it would have the nicer Layout.

[lilman]

Originally Posted by darkside40

The only thing which bothers me is that it dont support ePubs for iTunes.
They just dont show up on the iPad.

It is possible to read them as PDF, but then it only shows it to me site by site also in landscape mode, as ePub it would have the nicer Layout.

I abandoned ePub development a while ago. Last I checked it was compatible with iTunes, but maybe it isn't anymore. Anyway ePub comics are rather horrible. Zooming is a pain, pages sometimes render really small, and a lot of the screen is wasted by the virtual book. I recommend either pdf comics (not using iBooks) or better yet cbz comics. Stanza is free and is way better than iBooks for comics. If you don't mind spending money on a dedicated comic reader, Comic Zeal currently provides the best comic reading experience on the iPad (it's what I use every day for my comics). Fast zooming, manga mode (so you can read even cbz right-to-left), and awesome series organization.

[darkside40]

Okay than i will try another Reader App. I came across a free one named ComicBookLover which also has a Manga mode and support .cbz files.

I will just let Canti make the Archive for me and than take a look how the software performs.

I just have to get CantiGui running on my Mac, i can tell you installing ImageMagick is a pain on that thing.

[grogthegreat]

Merry Christmas and that you for such a great program!
A few helpful hints for those running Windows XP 64bit: The part of the program that creates the properties doesn't have our OS in mind so it fails to find image magick, unrar handler, and rar handler. You need to add the C:\\Program Files (x86)\\xxxxx\\xxx by yourself for each of these. Make sure you spell everything perfectly!
Secondly: I had to copy my Java folder in "Program Files (x86)" to my "Program Files" folder or the program would fail when dealing with multiple folders. Easy to do but might be very very hard to figure out for those that know nothing of programming.

This program is the best that I have found so thanks! You asked for any suggestions so here are a few:

1: If it is easy to do, make the program work on XP 64bit out of the box.
2: Have the option of putting all the chapters into one big PDF document. I organize my manga in Manga_Name>VolXX>CXX. If I select the volume, I get a PDF for each chapter. It would be cool if I had the option to get one PDF of the entire volume as if I had bought the book.
Right now a program called pdfsam does a great job of combining the chapter pdfs so till this becomes a feature (or is it doesn't) than we have a solution.
3: Could the program look one folder deeper? I know you don't organize your manga like this; but if you had your folders some thing like One_Piece>Volume01>Ch001 than it would let you select the "One_Piece" folder as the parent_folder and you would end up with your choice of a PDF for each chapter, a PDF for each volume, or one giant PDF for the entire manga.

Thanks for the great work. I'm not a programmer so I don't know how easy or hard my suggestions are to implement but please consider them.

Thanks again and hope you had a great Xmass!

[lilman]

Originally Posted by grogthegreat

I had to copy my Java folder in "Program Files (x86)" to my "Program Files" folder or the program would fail when dealing with multiple folders. Easy to do but might be very very hard to figure out for those that know nothing of programming.

I don't have the slightest clue why you need to do that. Then again I am unfamiliar with XP 64bit. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by grogthegreat

1: If it is easy to do, make the program work on XP 64bit out of the box.

Should be easy enough, just pm me the exact locations of ImageMagick, rar handler, and unrar handler on your system (you can just copy/paste that section of the .properties file) and I'll add that intel into Canti.

Originally Posted by grogthegreat

2: Have the option of putting all the chapters into one big PDF document. I organize my manga in Manga_Name>VolXX>CXX. If I select the volume, I get a PDF for each chapter. It would be cool if I had the option to get one PDF of the entire volume as if I had bought the book.
Right now a program called pdfsam does a great job of combining the chapter pdfs so till this becomes a feature (or is it doesn't) than we have a solution.

I wanted this feature too, but it currently isn't doable. ImageMagick has a tendency to fail while creating large pdf docs (anything over 200 pages is hit/miss). So unless I write my own pdf creation code (which I currently have no plans for since I'm busy with other projects) you'll have to rely on outside programs for making large pdfs.

Originally Posted by grogthegreat

3: Could the program look one folder deeper? I know you don't organize your manga like this; but if you had your folders some thing like One_Piece>Volume01>Ch001 than it would let you select the "One_Piece" folder as the parent_folder and you would end up with your choice of a PDF for each chapter, a PDF for each volume, or one giant PDF for the entire manga.

I've tried coding this before, and I can't remember why but it was logically a pita. Wait, they may have been because I was trying to do two things at once; I think I was trying to support one folder deep at the same time as supporting multiple chapters at the same folder level based on filenames... thinking about it now the former should be possible but the latter fails under certain conditions. Next time I work on Canti I'll try adding this in again.

Originally Posted by grogthegreat

Thanks for the great work. I'm not a programmer so I don't know how easy or hard my suggestions are to implement but please consider them.

Thanks again and hope you had a great Xmass!

Thanks for sharing your suggestions. For future reference I'm trying to move Canti discussion to its new home at bitcake, so if you have any more suggestions please leave them over there (there's currently a thread of Canti suggestions there: http://www.bitcake.com/?x=entry:entry101219-090355).

Happy holidays everyone!

[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

[yijiao]

thanks guy

[opticalsky]

I'm glad to see some vast improvements to this since I last been here about a year ago. I do have one last feature request. Just something for you to consider with your GUI.

Batch processing would be great. This way if I have 5 volumes of manga that I want to process that I don't have to do them one by one, so I can just select them all and hit run.

[lilman]

Originally Posted by opticalsky

Batch processing would be great. This way if I have 5 volumes of manga that I want to process that I don't have to do them one by one, so I can just select them all and hit run.

Canti already does this. Not only can Canti process an entire series at once, it automatically organizes by volume-chapter (including auto binding chapters of the same volume). You don't even need to manually organize the scans yourself beforehand (so no need to extract scans); you just point Canti to the series folder containing volumes and/or chapters and watch the magic happen.

Check the bitcake.com Canti project page, download the latest version, and read through readme.txt for the latest list of features.