How do you read your digital Comic books?

[IronChaim]

I've been reading more digital comics and web-comics lately, and am curious as to what others prefer in a reading-experience/content-layout based.

For digital comics (e.g. digital versions of the physical product), I'm perfectly happy with a PDF or JPG-per-page that I may have to zoom in on or scroll vertically, as long as I can rotate my phone to landscape and it extends to the full width. I'm perfectly happy scrolling back up and down if needed.

I actually don't like the "frame-by-frame" reading experience - it doesn't always translate well and I feel like I loose some context compared to when viewing the full page (and I get confused switching back and forth between full page and frame view, so usually just keep the full view on).

TBH - I haven't tried any apps, so not sure if there's a different presentation there.


For web comics that are designed for the web, it looks like there are two types:
1) Newspaper style - just a few frames so you can read it all at once. No need for zoom, pagination, etc.
2) Long vertical pages: Each page contain several different content sections which result in a long, continuous vertical scroll (like web-born manwha).

I guess the there's less 'reading' preference on web-comics, since it's really designed to fit the type of comic the author/illustrator wants to create.

Anyone have any preferences they'd like to share?

[ottdmk]

I really don't enjoy frame-by-frame. I prefer full pages. Thankfully, my Lenovo Tab2 A10-70 is great for that. I read a lot in Marvel Unlimited. I also have some books in ComiXology, and a fair number of PDFs that I just use Adobe Reader for. Works great for all of them.

[drjenkins]

I use ComicRack. It's free, but I think a nag went away when I donated some time ago.

[DDHarriman]

I read in PDF format full page (replica of the “paper version” page size).

Reading on a tablet (windows one here) I use adobe acrobat.

Reading in eBook reader, I’m still a proud user of a Kindle DXG, so no need to zoom or anything special as the screen size is enough.

In small screens (smartphone android) I use Comic Reader Mobi who, with its lens enlarging technology, permits enlarging the dialogs, making the reading a very pleasant experience.

[Krazykiwi]

Another vote for Comicrack.

It's the Calibre of comics with endless amounts of customization and metadata features, but it's also a flat out good reader - you can go panel by panel or page by page, as you like, and switch between at any time - and plays nicely on my Android devices too. I have all my (and those of my teenage daughter) comics in one database that runs as a server, and use the app on my tablet to pick up a story arc at a time to read.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Krazykiwi

Another vote for Comicrack.

It's the Calibre of comics...

For me, ComicRack (Windows) was too shaky and unstable to bother with. I had a big collection with all the metadata scraped from ComicVine. It was beautiful. Then it crashed and lost everything and I just never bothered to start over. It seems to have been abandoned by the developer and always felt like alpha-state software.

I buy my comics from ComiXology and use a Chrome plug-in to strip the DRM and create a .CBZ file.

I read them on my Lenovo Tab2 A10-70 using a variety of apps: Perfect Viewer is likely my favorite, but I'd also recommend Challenger Comics and even ComicRack (Android) (though it's something like eight bucks and isn't an improvement to me over Perfect Viewer).

I never read panel by panel. But I do sometimes use border cropping which zooms the page a little to remove the white gutter older comics have around the panels.

I've also purchased a 9.7" Windows 10 tablet. The comic reading apps on Windows aren't nearly as nice as the Android selection. The best by far is Cover. I've also tried older traditional Windows comic readers like CDisplay Ex, but they I don't like how they function with touch screens. I tried installing ComicRack on the tablet, but it just kills my cheap-o tablet with an Atom processor and 2 gigs of RAM.

Sorry this post was so long...

[GERGE]

Chunky on iPad. My comic server has 100s of GBs comics inside, I serve them to Chunky with ComicStreamer and manage them with Mylar.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by GERGE

Chunky on iPad.

I enjoy playing with the different reader apps almost as much as I enjoy reading the books. I've tried every different app I could find on both Windows and Android and have toyed with the idea of getting a used iPad just to see what the waters are like there.

Have you tried any of the Android ones? If so, how do the options compare?

[salamanderjuice]

Recently a Kobo Aura One. I mostly read manga though so the 7.8" screen is very similar in size to paper volumes and the lack of color isn't a big deal. I don't mind reading color stuff on it either, most of the comics I read as a kid were B&W Essential Marvel trades anyways. It does CBZ, CBR too which is nice. Previously I was reading on a PW3 but I prefer the full page and sometimes it was a little too small.

[AcidWeb]

I use Kindle Voyage.

[radius]

I do the vast majority of my reading on a Nexus 9 Android tablet (8.9" 3:4 screen) with Perfect Viewer and whatever comiXology's app is called. I strongly prefer full page views.

When I can sneak my wife's Surface Pro, I read on that using Cover. Its screen is almost exactly standard North American comic size.

For manga, I will occasionally use Kindle Comic Converter and make an epub or mobi version, but I have 6" devices and that is just a liiiiitle too small for many manga, depending on the level of detail.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by radius

I do the vast majority of my reading on a Nexus 9 Android tablet (8.9" 3:4 screen) with Perfect Viewer and whatever comiXology's app is called. I strongly prefer full page views.

Do you use border cropping? Perfect Viewer is my favorite Android comic app, but I think it gets too aggressive in border cropping. ComicRack and Challenger seen to handle that better.

When I can sneak my wife's Surface Pro, I read on that using Cover. Its screen is almost exactly standard North American comic size.

I'm jealous of your Surface Pro. I wish Microsoft would follow through on their plan to get Android apps running on Win10.

[Nothingness]

I read digital mangas on the PC using the application MangaMeeya.

[radius]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Do you use border cropping? Perfect Viewer is my favorite Android comic app, but I think it gets too aggressive in border cropping. ComicRack and Challenger seen to handle that better.

I agree about the border cropping on Perfect Viewer so I don't use it. Especially since I've been reading a lot of modern-ish comics lately which makes it less useful anyway.

[IronChaim]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I have some new things to try out during my downtime :-D. Consensus seems to be that full pages (or at least full page width on smaller screens) are preferred over any sort of frame-by-frame navigation.