iPad iPad as a comic viewer

[theLiterator]

Well, I've done it; I've jumped on the iPad bandwagon. I needed a super portable device, because much as I love my T1, it's a terrible web browser, and I want something I can write on when the inspiration strikes.

That said, I already have a couple of apps picked out/purchased, such as Penultimate and Writepad and Byword, so I'm not too worried on that front (though if anyone has any advice for handwriting apps and wordprocessing apps from the POV of a writer or of a clerk/administrative assistant, that would be awesome.)

What I realized this morning, as I was mournfully cruising through my rather intimidating collection of zipped mangas, was that the iPad would also be far superior to my T1 for reading comics and mangas.

I'm a fan of pre-emptive action and free apps are no biggie to delete, so I grabbed the Marvel and Viz apps, (I foresee way too many in-app purchases for those). But a lot of my manga is already acquired, so that led me to the next thing.

I was wondering if you guys could provide me with some advice regarding a comic-viewer that satisfies some specific requirements:

- Side load comics. I'm on the equivalent of dialup with a 6GB per month transfer limit, so Dropbox is kind of a waste of the GBs.
- Format isn't terribly relevant, though I'd prefer either .zip or .cbr/.cbz. However, I'm not afraid to convert. I actually find conversion and tweaking kind of fun.
- Full screen. I think this must be obvious as far as needs/wants go for a comic reader, but none of the screenies in the app store seem particularly full-screen.
- I don't like apps with in-app upgrades. Those annoy me. I would prefer to have a one time purchase price or a free app.

I actually have a some manga I've converted to PDF and EPUB already, so I'm not averse to using Adobe or iBooks to read them if that's the advice you have to give.

Also, any other advice to a first-time iPad user would be awesome. Monday can't come soon enough!

[Shack70]

I use Comic Zeal, it does everything you ask for. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic...363990983?mt=8

[ilovejedd]

ComicGlass ($2.99) here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic...363992049?mt=8

I especially like the multi-tap navigation and the ability to customize tap functions. Several ways to side-load comics to ComicGlass (both via USB and wireless), although I find myself using wireless most often via the developer's free Windows program, CGSync GUI.

[theLiterator]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

ComicGlass ($2.99) here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic...363992049?mt=8

I especially like the multi-tap navigation and the ability to customize tap functions. Several ways to side-load comics to ComicGlass (both via USB and wireless), although I find myself using wireless most often via the developer's free Windows program, CGSync GUI.

This is going to sound kind of ridiculously interview-ish, but I find it's a good way to decide if I can live with an app:

If you could magically change one thing/fix one bug in the app, what is it? (What's the most annoying thing in the app?)

[theLiterator]

Originally Posted by Shack70

I use Comic Zeal, it does everything you ask for. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic...363990983?mt=8

Is there anything in particular that sold you on this app over the other you tried?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by theLiterator

If you could magically change one thing/fix one bug in the app, what is it? (What's the most annoying thing in the app?)

Make it prettier? I tend to use the simpler list/folder view as opposed to the book/shelf view and that one isn't so pretty (but I find it more efficient and functional). Perhaps add support for comic metadata (e.g. like the ones made by Comic Rack)?

I've been quite happy with it so far and there are a lot of customization options that I haven't even looked into. I think the only annoyance I've encountered is for big files, it would sometimes stop generating page thumbnails for the scrollbar and you have to close the comic/manga and open it again for the app to generate the rest of the thumbnails.

[theLiterator]

Cool. That's awesome!

Most of what I have is sorted by chapter, so I shouldn't have any issues with large file sizes. It goes to the top of my list!

Now, to wait patiently for the mail plane. **fidgets**

[david_e]

.....

[GlennD]

I use Bookman (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-c...436673025?mt=8) and love it. You have the option of either using it's built-in FTP server to transfer files to it, or use the "Open in" functionality, or of course use iTunes to transfer. I tend to use File Browser to browse my media share and grab stuff. I use the FTP function for more files at once. I like the organization; it lets you create folders and open them up without having to view the whole library at once (rather like iBooks).

If I had to change one thing, occasionally it doesn't handle two page spreads as well as I'd like - not sure if that's because of how the CBZ file is packed or labelled or what.

[murraypaul]

Another vote for Bookman here.
I used to use ComicZeal, but switched to Bookman for two reasons:
- Unlimited folder structure
- Transfer via builtin ftp server not just iTunes file transfers
It has been a while since I used ComicZeal, so it may now offer these.
If you are going to be reading at night, you also want a comic reader that offers its own brightness control, to go lower than the system one allows. Both ComicZeal and Bookman do this.

For handwritten notes, I've only played with these for a bit, but of Penultimate, Notability and Noteshelf I prefer the latter.
Penultimate does't offer a writeable zoom mode or palm protection, and of the other two I never quite got the hang of Notability's menus and options, Noteshelf behaved more in the way I expected it to.

[steven522]

Originally Posted by GlennD

If I had to change one thing, occasionally it doesn't handle two page spreads as well as I'd like - not sure if that's because of how the CBZ file is packed or labelled or what.

If you are referring to out of order viewing, then personal experience points to bad file naming in the CBZ/CBR.

This:
Page01.jpg
Page02.jpg
Page0304.jpg
Page05.jpg

Will end up in this order:
Page01.jpg
Page02.jpg
Page05.jpg
Page0304.jpg

If you take a minute to unpack the CBZ(Zip) or CBR(Rar), and rename the file like so:
Page03-04.jpg

It will allow pretty much all comic viewers to handle it correctly.

[theLiterator]

Originally Posted by david_e

Regarding writing apps, first ask yourself if you will want or need to import the written docs from your iPad to a word processing app on a computer / notebook. That may help you narrow down your options, as it seems there are so many from which to choose.

Personally, I use Pages. I have it installed on all my Macs, so it was a simple decision.

The only syncing I truly need is either output as a .txt or .pdf; or perhaps google docs functionality.

I don't have a mac (sadly! I want an MBA if the iPad doesn't turn out being good enough for what I need, but I will wait to see the specs on the Ivy Bridge releases whenever they get pushed before deciding either way.), and on my Nokia E71x I tend to compose notes in the native email app and send them to myself. I'm given to understand that most apps have copy-paste support? I can always do it that way still, at the very least.

The T1 uses some extremely odd XML format to do their notes, and with that I've been saving it to my Ubuntu desktop and extracting raw text using gedit.

I didn't even think about syncing functionality. This makes me wonder if there's a good app for writing with USB syncing. I know most of the big ones advertise dropbox syncing, but that would be a waste of the MBs and my transfer limit is, as mentioned, tight.

[theLiterator]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

<snip>For handwritten notes, I've only played with these for a bit, but of Penultimate, Notability and Noteshelf I prefer the latter.
Penultimate does't offer a writeable zoom mode or palm protection, and of the other two I never quite got the hang of Notability's menus and options, Noteshelf behaved more in the way I expected it to.

I live in the arctic, in a building built in the early fifties, so fingerless gloves and wrist warmers are a fixture of my indoor attire and I'm not so worried about palm-protection, but I was wondering-- what is writable zoom?

My friend who uses his iPad mainly for work uses Penultimate because he likes the notebook structures: how does Noteshelf behave in regards to organizing files and handwritten "pages"? Or does it not do pages like a notebook at all, and instead have a more flowing page structure like typing something into a word processor?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by theLiterator

I live in the arctic, in a building built in the early fifties, so fingerless gloves and wrist warmers are a fixture of my indoor attire and I'm not so worried about palm-protection, but I was wondering-- what is writable zoom?

You can either write directly onto the page, or bring up a zoom window at the bottom of the screen. This displays a magnified portion of the screen, and you can write into it if you want to do more detailed work than you can do at 1:1 magnification. You can change the magnification and the portion of the screen devoted to the zoom, and move the zoomed area around. It will automatically move down a line when you press return.

My friend who uses his iPad mainly for work uses Penultimate because he likes the notebook structures: how does Noteshelf behave in regards to organizing files and handwritten "pages"? Or does it not do pages like a notebook at all, and instead have a more flowing page structure like typing something into a word processor?

They are broadly similar, both have an overall view which shows you notebooks with covers and names, and you can select a single notebook to open it. You can then view an overview of all pages in miniature from where you can add/delete/move pages, or view a single page full screen, and swipe between them.
They both have a single iPad screen for a single notebook page.

[athlonkmf]

I have been using comiczeal, but I got majorly annoyed by the fact the programmer only added features which IMO are only gimmicky. Issues concerning the task of the app have been ignored for years.
Until now, there are no double page reading mode, pan mode does not work correctly, You can't side load comics from web/FTP/smb/Dropbox
All it added was some filemanagement thing. The bookshelf mode has been requested ages ago, but just went through.

I've jumped ship through comicglass, and while it's not so flashy as comiczeal, it is made with the reader in mind.

One extra point for comicglass is the fact that it doesn't need to extract all files li,e cz does. Cz's way is creating millions of files as the comic archives are extracted. This causes a major slowdown in sync&backups. Cg just extract on the fly.