Best way to have manga on a kindle

craigg · 10-17-2010, 04:32 PM

A big part of the reason I got a kindle was for manga. I'd heard it was great for it.
I've tried mangle so far and...its not the best. The bottom of the image always seems to be cut off, the bottom half of the bottom panel is often lost.
Then with landscape pages they end up with the writing too small to read and no way to zoom.
I've also looked into another program (the thread my manga program) but can't get it working on windows.

Is there a good way to get manga working on a kindle which lets you zoom well and doesn't cut off part of the page?

curstpriest · 10-17-2010, 06:55 PM

You can convert it to PDF, crop the margins.
I think calibre can convert it.
You can unzip the CBR/CBZ (its just zipfile renamed with jpegs)
Go to acrobat/nitropdf/whateverthehell you have) -> create PDF from multiple files

This is what I do on the DX, but that thing can show a full page.
Why are you trying to read comics on a 6in screen.
This is like trying to watch TV on a wristwatch.

craigg · 10-17-2010, 08:12 PM

They generally come in image files rather than cbrs.
Never seen managa in cbr actually, only western comics.
And a kindle screen isn't much smaller than manga; it should fit into a landscape kindle perfectly with two epages (or one which has two places to scroll) per page.

curstpriest · 10-17-2010, 10:50 PM

Again, cbr/cbz = .zip of images, so you get the images in this format most likely, that or .rar it's just a naming convention. Regardless your best bet is to create pdf from series of images. They are named sequentially so you can create pdf from series of images. There are free tools out there as well if you don't have acrobat.

Balerion · 10-18-2010, 05:26 AM

CBZ files work on my K2i (CBR files don't).
CBZ = Comic Book Zip
CBR = Comic Book Rar

*** make copies of any folders/cbz/cbr files while doing this, just incase you muck it up

How to make a CBZ - select all the image files you want in the comic book (pages 1-9 need a leading zero, so 01,02,03 etc), and create a zip archive file of them (Windows... select all (CTRL A), RIGHT-click, "Add to archive" etc).

*** NOTE - use a picture manager program like Office Picture Manager or simply your OS to rotate any landscape (double) pages so that they are in a portrait (kindle position) with the picture sideways :-)

HOW TO TELL WHICH ones are portrait and landscape...

In an explorer window, make sure the "dimensions" column is up with the view on "details"... you should get something like this

01.jpg 800*1000
02.jpg 800*1000
03.jpg 800*1000
04-05.jpg 1600*1000
06.jpg 800*1000
then you can just RIGHT-click (usually) and select rotate C/CW

Once you have your zip file, double-click it to open it to check that they are all still in the order they should be.

If you're using windows (this whole reply assumes that your are), in an explorer window go to ORGANISE ---> Search and folder options (vista/7), or TOOLS ---> Folder Options (XP). In the VIEW tab of the folder options window, you'll find an option called "HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES"... uncheck (un-tick) this option, APPLY (and APPLY TO ALL FOLDERS), OK, and then get back to the folder with your zip file.

RIGHT-click the file and select RENAME, or just select the file and press F2.... the whole name of the file should now be selected and editable. Move the cursor so that you can (and do it)... delete and replace zip with cbz. Click ENTER and ignore the window telling you that the file may become unusable, by selecting CONTINUE or YES... whatever the option is that it gives you. You will now have a Comic Book Zip file :-)

HOW TO CONVERT CBR TO CBZ. Following the above method to UN-hide extensions for known file types (if you haven't already), rename the extension of the file from cbr to rar... again accepting the warning about changing the file extension. Your Comic Book Rar is now a normal RAR file. Extract all the images in the file to a folder, rotate any landscape double pages and create a CBZ as described above.

Hope that helps somewhat.

BTW... I haven't had a single problem with CBZ files on my K2i, except that when I sometimes open a comic, I have to hit MENU and BACK to do a quick refresh to eliminate any cross-over of a previous page.

Balerion · 10-18-2010, 05:33 AM

There's no metadata for a Comic Book Zip (as far as I know), so the name of the CBZ file is what pops up in your Kindle's file viewer :-)

craigg · 10-23-2010, 05:59 PM

Wait...cbzs work in the kindle without doing anything?

Balerion · 10-24-2010, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by craigg

Wait...cbzs work in the kindle without doing anything?

Sorry for the delayed reply... you've probably tested it out by now and answered your own question, but...

yes... CBZs work on a kindle without doing anything to them.

I'm yet to test whether its better to resize the images (see here or do a search for MANGLE) before using them, but they work fine. I guess resizing them would help bring the file size down a bit (eg. Scott Pilgrim vols 1-6 is 570MB in total, without resizing), because the "working symbol" at the top of the screen can take a little while (5-10 seconds) to load and index the CBZ when they are big files... but that doesn't worry me much... the files work fine once they've loaded (except for what I mentioned before, in that when opening a CBZ, the last image can appear in the side margins... MENU and BACK quick refresh solves that one-off glitch though)

Also, when reading a CBZ on your Kindle, if you click MENU, you'll get the standard image viewer options like ENABLE/DISABLE FULL SCREEN, STOP/START DITHERING etc... although... I have found that when I reopen a CBZ comic and it is set to FULL SCREEN, I'll still have the top titlebar up... all it means is that you have to disable and then re-enable the full screen viewing to fix it... another little glitch, but who cares?! kindles can view CBZ comics... it's frakking awesome

therenee · 10-24-2010, 09:37 AM

Thank you very much for the info, I didn't quite understand cbz files before. Now I can read some of the manga I couldn't previously get to work on my Kindle.

craigg · 11-09-2010, 01:24 PM

I've noticed the colour seems a bit dim and greyed out vs the actual image on my computer.
Any ideas?

tomsem · 11-09-2010, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Balerion

Sorry for the delayed reply... you've probably tested it out by now and answered your own question, but...

yes... CBZs work on a kindle without doing anything to them.

I'm yet to test whether its better to resize the images (see here or do a search for MANGLE) before using them, but they work fine. I guess resizing them would help bring the file size down a bit (eg. Scott Pilgrim vols 1-6 is 570MB in total, without resizing), because the "working symbol" at the top of the screen can take a little while (5-10 seconds) to load and index the CBZ when they are big files... but that doesn't worry me much... the files work fine once they've loaded (except for what I mentioned before, in that when opening a CBZ, the last image can appear in the side margins... MENU and BACK quick refresh solves that one-off glitch though)

Also, when reading a CBZ on your Kindle, if you click MENU, you'll get the standard image viewer options like ENABLE/DISABLE FULL SCREEN, STOP/START DITHERING etc... although... I have found that when I reopen a CBZ comic and it is set to FULL SCREEN, I'll still have the top titlebar up... all it means is that you have to disable and then re-enable the full screen viewing to fix it... another little glitch, but who cares?! kindles can view CBZ comics... it's frakking awesome

Actually (at least on my K3) you do not need to rename to .CBZ - .zip works just fine. None of the sites I've seen that describe Kindle's picture viewer mention the fact that the images can be packaged in a .zip file, and they all say you need to create a 'pictures' folder and put the images in a subfolder. But a subfolder in 'documents' works and of course .zip is a better way to package since 1) it saves space and 2) you can actually delete the .zip as with any other item (when put unzipped in a subfolder, you can delete the item but it does not delete the files, and Alt,z restores the item).

And in addition to the menu options, note that the Aa menu lets you change orientation, view at full resolution (Actual Size = true), and set different Scale options (when Actual Size is 'no'). I find 'fit height' works especially well and lets you pan large images with the joystick/5way.

Some shortcut keys:
'f' toggles full screen, a little more convenient than using the menu.
'r' rotates image 1/4 turn CCW and then back
'q' zooms in (when not in Actual Size mode)
'w' zooms out (")
'e' reset zoom (")
'c' toggle Actual Size

When viewing manga in Actual Size, it helps to set the menu option to 'Anchor to Top Right' so that you start out in the correct corner.

Enabling 'pan to next page' lets you navigate to previous and next page with the 5way up and down. Especially useful if you are already panning in Actual Size mode.

At any rate, this is awesome! I've been messing around with Mangle but with these new (to me anyway) discoveries think now it is not worth the trouble. I am still interested in using PDF as image container (annotation, bookmarks, page numbers, reading progress, contrast adjustment), Mangle may help with that in terms of creating images that are the right size to avoid rescaling distortion - but I have to modify the code to do this.

It would be nice if Amazon actually finished the picture viewer to retain full screen mode and fix the redraw issues, and removed this feature from its 'experimental' ghetto.

hellraiser06 · 11-10-2010, 05:36 AM

So, far this is the process I have found to be most efective for mangas/comics: (This method is what I learnt here at mobileread thru this thread and/or some others. These are just the simplifications of what I do. I have tried various other methods out there for weeks before I found out that this is the best of em all. So, I dont deserve any credit for this method, but unfortunately I cant recall exactly where/how I developed this)

1) Have all the jpeg files in a folder
2) Convert them to the native resolution of the device (600x800 for Kindle 3 and earlier for portrait view; 800x600 for landscape) using Irfanview or some other software
3) Zip the resulting files with winzip, 7zip or whatever the hell you wanna use
4) Change the extension of the zip file to cbz (e.g. Asterix_01.zip -> Asterix_01.cbz) and put the file in the documents folder in Kindle. It will show up as a document on the Kindle.

I usually keep these settings on Kindle:
Actual size = Yes
Full screen mode on

Be advised that the 6" devices are not at all ideal for comics, but there are some out there that will look okay. e.g. I found that asterix is unreadable as the bubble text is too small, but Tintin was okay, since the bubble text was bigger. I tried Full metal Alchemist which was just fine as it has less of bubble text and that too is bigger if its there. So, as long as you use the above settings and the bubble text is big enough to be read on a 6" device, I think your experience will be fine.

craigg · 11-10-2010, 01:48 PM

Is there any convenient way to quickly resize a bunch of them in a batch?

And any clue on the contrast issue? Coudl it be related?

hellraiser06 · 11-11-2010, 05:00 AM

Yes, use Irfanview. It supports batch conversion.

bilgisiz · 01-07-2011, 12:19 PM

I have kindle 3.0.2 529960105 (Serial no. prefix B008) I put my mangas in device at cbz format i can read them well. When i push F i cant get into fullscreen mode. I can see actual size or fullscreen words on setting section. How can i read my mangas on fullscreen mode? Please help me...

10-17-2010, 04:32 PM	#1
craigg Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	Best way to have manga on a kindle A big part of the reason I got a kindle was for manga. I'd heard it was great for it. I've tried mangle so far and...its not the best. The bottom of the image always seems to be cut off, the bottom half of the bottom panel is often lost. Then with landscape pages they end up with the writing too small to read and no way to zoom. I've also looked into another program (the thread my manga program) but can't get it working on windows. Is there a good way to get manga working on a kindle which lets you zoom well and doesn't cut off part of the page?

10-17-2010, 06:55 PM	#2
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	You can convert it to PDF, crop the margins. I think calibre can convert it. You can unzip the CBR/CBZ (its just zipfile renamed with jpegs) Go to acrobat/nitropdf/whateverthehell you have) -> create PDF from multiple files This is what I do on the DX, but that thing can show a full page. Why are you trying to read comics on a 6in screen. This is like trying to watch TV on a wristwatch. Last edited by curstpriest; 10-17-2010 at 06:58 PM.

10-17-2010, 08:12 PM	#3
craigg Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	They generally come in image files rather than cbrs. Never seen managa in cbr actually, only western comics. And a kindle screen isn't much smaller than manga; it should fit into a landscape kindle perfectly with two epages (or one which has two places to scroll) per page. Last edited by craigg; 10-17-2010 at 08:15 PM.

10-18-2010, 05:26 AM	#5
Balerion Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 14 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: K2i K3w	CBZ files work on my K2i (CBR files don't). CBZ = Comic Book Zip CBR = Comic Book Rar * make copies of any folders/cbz/cbr files while doing this, just incase you muck it up How to make a CBZ - select all the image files you want in the comic book (pages 1-9 need a leading zero, so 01,02,03 etc), and create a zip archive file of them (Windows... select all (CTRL A), RIGHT-click, "Add to archive" etc). * NOTE - use a picture manager program like Office Picture Manager or simply your OS to rotate any landscape (double) pages so that they are in a portrait (kindle position) with the picture sideways :-) HOW TO TELL WHICH ones are portrait and landscape... In an explorer window, make sure the "dimensions" column is up with the view on "details"... you should get something like this 01.jpg 8001000 02.jpg 8001000 03.jpg 8001000 04-05.jpg 16001000** 06.jpg 8001000 then you can just RIGHT-click (usually) and select rotate C/CW Once you have your zip file, double-click it to open it to check that they are all still in the order they should be. If you're using windows (this whole reply assumes that your are), in an explorer window go to ORGANISE ---> Search and folder options (vista/7), or TOOLS ---> Folder Options (XP). In the VIEW tab of the folder options window, you'll find an option called "HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES"... uncheck (un-tick) this option, APPLY (and APPLY TO ALL FOLDERS), OK, and then get back to the folder with your zip file. RIGHT-click the file and select RENAME, or just select the file and press F2.... the whole name of the file should now be selected and editable. Move the cursor so that you can (and do it)... delete and replace zip with cbz. Click ENTER and ignore the window telling you that the file may become unusable, by selecting CONTINUE or YES... whatever the option is that it gives you. You will now have a Comic Book Zip file :-) HOW TO CONVERT CBR TO CBZ. Following the above method to UN-hide extensions for known file types (if you haven't already), rename the extension of the file from cbr to rar... again accepting the warning about changing the file extension. Your Comic Book Rar is now a normal RAR file. Extract all the images in the file to a folder, rotate any landscape double pages and create a CBZ as described above. Hope that helps somewhat. BTW... I haven't had a single problem with CBZ files on my K2i, except that when I sometimes open a comic, I have to hit MENU and BACK to do a quick refresh to eliminate any cross-over of a previous page. Last edited by Balerion; 10-18-2010 at 05:29 AM.*

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10-17-2010, 10:50 PM	#4
curstpriest Confused Posts: 402 Karma: 5538 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Bay Area Device: Kindle DXG	Again, cbr/cbz = .zip of images, so you get the images in this format most likely, that or .rar it's just a naming convention. Regardless your best bet is to create pdf from series of images. They are named sequentially so you can create pdf from series of images. There are free tools out there as well if you don't have acrobat.

10-18-2010, 05:33 AM	#6
Balerion Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 14 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: K2i K3w	There's no metadata for a Comic Book Zip (as far as I know), so the name of the CBZ file is what pops up in your Kindle's file viewer :-)

10-23-2010, 05:59 PM	#7
craigg Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	Wait...cbzs work in the kindle without doing anything?

10-24-2010, 09:37 AM	#9
therenee Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle 3	Thank you very much for the info, I didn't quite understand cbz files before. Now I can read some of the manga I couldn't previously get to work on my Kindle.

11-09-2010, 01:24 PM	#10
craigg Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	I've noticed the colour seems a bit dim and greyed out vs the actual image on my computer. Any ideas?

11-10-2010, 05:36 AM	#12
hellraiser06 Yaabbaa dabba doo Posts: 76 Karma: 5348 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: India Device: Kindle Touch wifi, Kindle 3 Wifi, Asus Transformer TF101	So, far this is the process I have found to be most efective for mangas/comics: (This method is what I learnt here at mobileread thru this thread and/or some others. These are just the simplifications of what I do. I have tried various other methods out there for weeks before I found out that this is the best of em all. So, I dont deserve any credit for this method, but unfortunately I cant recall exactly where/how I developed this) 1) Have all the jpeg files in a folder 2) Convert them to the native resolution of the device (600x800 for Kindle 3 and earlier for portrait view; 800x600 for landscape) using Irfanview or some other software 3) Zip the resulting files with winzip, 7zip or whatever the hell you wanna use 4) Change the extension of the zip file to cbz (e.g. Asterix_01.zip -> Asterix_01.cbz) and put the file in the documents folder in Kindle. It will show up as a document on the Kindle. I usually keep these settings on Kindle: Actual size = Yes Full screen mode on Be advised that the 6" devices are not at all ideal for comics, but there are some out there that will look okay. e.g. I found that asterix is unreadable as the bubble text is too small, but Tintin was okay, since the bubble text was bigger. I tried Full metal Alchemist which was just fine as it has less of bubble text and that too is bigger if its there. So, as long as you use the above settings and the bubble text is big enough to be read on a 6" device, I think your experience will be fine.

11-10-2010, 01:48 PM	#13
craigg Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: none	Is there any convenient way to quickly resize a bunch of them in a batch? And any clue on the contrast issue? Coudl it be related?

11-11-2010, 05:00 AM	#14
hellraiser06 Yaabbaa dabba doo Posts: 76 Karma: 5348 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: India Device: Kindle Touch wifi, Kindle 3 Wifi, Asus Transformer TF101	Yes, use Irfanview. It supports batch conversion.

01-07-2011, 12:19 PM	#15
bilgisiz Member Posts: 18 Karma: 8252 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: kindle 3.0.2 529960105	I have kindle 3.0.2 529960105 (Serial no. prefix B008) I put my mangas in device at cbz format i can read them well. When i push F i cant get into fullscreen mode. I can see actual size or fullscreen words on setting section. How can i read my mangas on fullscreen mode? Please help me...

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