Comic Zeal & Other comic readers

Thanks to Curly99, who has brought another reader to my attention, Comic Book Reader in the interests of finding 'the best' I may give this one a shot.

Its currently an interductory £1.19, and amongst all the usual CBR/CBZ etc supported formats and the ability to handle copying files through iTunes, it also has the abilty to download comics from the web or from sources such as Dropbox.
 
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Hi

Bought the original comic zeal for the touch and loved it. Just got a 16 gig ipad and was wondering if there was enough reasons/features to buy the ipad version of comic zeal?

cheers
 
Hi

Bought the original comic zeal for the touch and loved it. Just got a 16 gig ipad and was wondering if there was enough reasons/features to buy the ipad version of comic zeal?

cheers

Doesnt your CZ now work for the iPad as well? I thought one of the new updates made it a universal app.
 
Thank you for such a detailed thread. I'm enjoying ComicZeal myself now.
Very smooth rendering, looks great.
 
I couldn't find 'comixology' but I did find 'Comics' in the iTunes store. Closer inspection shows its developed by comixology. I guess that's what you guys meant
 
I couldn't find 'comixology' but I did find 'Comics' in the iTunes store. Closer inspection shows its developed by comixology. I guess that's what you guys meant

Yep, thats the one. :thumbsup:

And just because I am the selfless comic person that I am, I bought Comic Book Reader mentioned a few posts above.

I will have a play about tomorrow and report my findings.
 
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Yep, thats the one. :thumbsup:

And just because I am the selfless comic person that I am, I bought Comic Book Reader mentioned a few posts above.

I will have a play about tomorrow and report my findings.
Are you the "ComicBook Guy" from The Simpsons :)

Tempted to try Comic Book Reader as it's cheap, I look forward to your review.
 
I was actually hoping to find some Simpson comics :(
 
Comic Book Reader
Version 0.25 [7th August 2010]

Price: £1.19

Website: http://zombieprocess.org/ (Although no mention of it there yet?)

Importing: As usual, comics import through iTunes, and import once every few seconds.

Formats: The usual; CBZ and CBR. Manga mode is also supported.

Organisation: All books are imported into an unsorted pile on a bookshelf, which you can then create folders from. Select Create Collection, then enter the name of the folder. In the example below I have entered Tales of Suspense for all the early Iron Man comics. Press create, and it automatically drags all comics names Tales of Suspense and moves them into this folder.

cbr_collections.jpg


This works well on comics that are properly named, but if your comics are named without spaces (for example comics called Hulk001 and Hulk002) they cannot be grouped together and there seems to be no way to force comics into a groups manually. Although you can simply rename your comics properly (see the batch renamer later in this thread) it becomes more of a problem for something like Tales of Suspense comics that you wish to group with Iron Man, or for instance Showcase Comics with Flash - you simply can't do it.

Viewing Experience: Select your folder, and it opens in a coverflow type menu structure as shown.

cbr_coverflow.jpg


Select read, and your comic opens in a standard fit to height. Page turning is nice with a simple flick or touch to the edge of the screen.

cbr_portrait.jpg


There is no single or double tap to zoom, instead you pinch to zoom to enlarge the page, which does snap to the edges and sits nicely, although it is a little floaty. It does not flick wrongly to the next page as you move around the page though. Sadly any zoom such as fit to width is lost as you move to the next page, let alone between comics or sittings.

A tap to the centre brings up a menu that allows you to select any of the comics within the folder you are browsing, while a slider bar at the bottom or the page count at the top allows you to move through the book as you want.

cr07.jpg


Landscape mode From version 0.25, there is now a landscape mode, and very good it is too. No need to zoom or muck about, it simply automatically fits to width perfectly, and scrolling to the bottom of the page has no floating whatsoever, something that even Comic Zeal does to a small extent.

cbr_landscape.jpg


And like Comic Zeal, if you scroll to the bottom of a page and then flick to the next page, it takes you to the top of the next page as you would think.

In either Portrait or Landscape, after a comic is finished it offers you the next comic in the folder which is a nice touch.

cbr_end.jpg


Theydon's Thoughts: The new landscape mode is very good and a very nice improvement. Is it a Comic Zeal beater though? Not quite. I much prefer Comic Zeal's method of display with the comic boxes, and they would need to improve the folder organisation and portrait zoom modes to beat Comic Zeal. It is however a quarter of the price and better than the free readers by miles with these recent changes.

This review is my own personal opinion, and reviewed on a non jailbroken iPad running the latest OS. I will endeavour to review and amend any apps that receive updates to help you make your own mind up, and happy to receive any differing opinions.
 
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The naming thing above really bugged me, so I found a very powerful file renamer and am blasting through some of the Iron Man and X-Men that are named in a non helpful way.

Download - Bulk Rename Utility

You can rename, replace or remove words add suffix/prefix's, number counts and loads more. :smashin:
 
All that is needed in itunes is a tick box for each file sharing app to indicate whether you want to back it up or not. Job done. For Comic zeal no backup is needed as far as I can see.


BTW with regard to the series info in your original post I found using the ~ in the name works best (in my test) for creating the series properly.
 
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Completely depends mate - if you have some comics already, then yes - or try one of the free options i mention in this thread. If you have no comics, then get the free comixology app and buy comics through that.

I have bought and tested some of the apps to try and help you decide by comparing them to Comic Zeal, which imho is the best comic reader app. With more updates coming, it can only get better.

Now if Comixology had a way to import your own comics, that would be something - as you have the reader ability as well as the store - if they do, I will be testing it again, you can be sure of that.
 
Picked up Digital Comics for my iPhone the other day, will test in on the iPad later.

Looks to be like Comixology, but the app allows you to 'play' the comic, so it moves from frame to frame with no intervention. Not sure if you can import your own comics yet either.

I am also updating the main Comic Zeal review as well.
 
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Digital Comics
Version 1.5 [September 2010]

Price: £Free

Importing: None. You buy through the app itself, althought the store is very limited at the time of review.

dc11.jpg


Formats: Proprietary.

Website: Digital Comics for the iPhone OS

Organisation: Like Comixology, showing a cover flow type interface with a store and list of free comics available. A nice little touch is that depending on your current comic or series that you are reading, the background image changes to match.

dc13.jpg


Viewing Experience: It is very much like Comixology, but with one very important detail - you can 'play' the comic. You start with a normal full sized fit to height image, but once you hit the play button, the screen moves to the first panel to be able to read properly. After a brief (adjustable) time to read and appreciate the art, the screen moves on to the next speech or text box. Now this worked very well indeed on the smaller iPhone screen, but now with the new iPad support, it just feels wrong as the zoom is far too close causing way too much moving about.

Take this panel from Wanted. The zoom goes way beyond fit to width in Lansdscape mode, causing you to not see the rest of the detail from the same panel of the comic.

dc16.jpg


Then add in the fact that some zoomed panels cut off words or speech until the screen moves about again.

dc15.jpg


Also the comic seems to launch into landscape mode even if you are holding it in portrait and I could not find a way to force this to portrait to see if the 'playback' worked better in this way and I also tried a few other comics to see if it was specific to any one title.

Theydon's Thoughts: The frequent moving all around the page starts to have the overall effect of making it more of a cartoon than a comic, especially when you add in the little vibrations from effects such as gunfire - that's not the best explanation really, but the zooming and moving simply does not work in the same way on the iPhone (which I thought worked very well) as it does on the iPad. It seems as thought they have just blown the app up in x2 mode, without taking into consideration of the iPads native dimensions.

I know that not every comic has easily identifiable panels like say The Walking Dead, so a good test is something like The Darkness which has text with no proper panels, meaning images are large and the text is scattered - but Digital Comics' solution is just too cluttered. Look at Comixology for instance - which removes some of the background or non focused image/text to concentrate your view to the current scene.

The store after 2+ months is still very small (identical to launch?), but like Comixology, your purchases will soon mount up.

To sum up, Comixolgy is still the clear winner (the largest store and proper iPad support) for those wanting a comic viewer to purchase Comics through, or ComicZeal if you have your own to read.

This review is my own personal opinion, and reviewed on a non jailbroken iPad running the latest OS. I will endeavour to review and amend any apps that receive updates to help you make your own mind up, and happy to receive any differing opinions.
 
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Curly99 just sent me a link to say that another Comic Book reader has raised its head - Comic Book Pad.

Its a bit pricey at £5.49 for a new and untried app, and I will add it to my wish list incase it has a sale day - feel free to gift it to me to test if you want dear reader! :D

Its USP seems to be:
It lets you view your comic book while playing music on iTunes
which it will until OS4 comes along.

Oh, and Digital Comics above is not an iPad app :confused: it expands things to x2 zoom as an iPhone app does, despite the website giving the indication that it is iPad ready.
 
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Thanks for the reviews Theydon, I am using Comic Book Reader at present and they have updated it since the review you wrote. Ability to organise/stack in long boxes is the big one. I was thinking of trialling Zeal to compare, but now there are new boys on the block with slightly more expensive alternatives...

Let me know what you think (and if there are any more promo codes Radi will feedback myself :) :blush:)
 
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Thanks for the reviews Theydon, I am using Comic Book Reader at present and they have updated it since the review you wrote. Ability to organise/stack in long boxes is the big one.

Have they? I dont see anything on iTunes about an update, and the app is still not listed on their website :confused: . If there are any updates, I will review and amend though. :smashin:
 
Have they? I dont see anything on iTunes about an update, and the app is still not listed on their website :confused: . If there are any updates, I will review and amend though. :smashin:

Oops - my mistake, Comic Viewer is the one I am using now :blush: I had never looked close enough...

It has been updated and is simple but effective, in landscape mode, you can view two pages at once, just like a real comic (and you can turn those nasty looking staples off)

Swipe to turn pages

Single-finger image panning after pinch-zoom

Landscape zoom support (double-tap and pinch)

Landscape slider for jumping to a page

Larger touch area on sides of screen for page turn


Apologies for the confusion
 
Its on my list to buy should it have a 50% sale....but please feel free to write a review here for it! :smashin:
 
As above, I use Comic Viewer, I liked it because of the ability to use the browser to access comics, but actually I am only reading the comics that I already have at the moment - I love the iPad for reading comics and find that is what I do for the longest period on it - rereading all my comics :). I do not find it a problem to read for long periods - I have not tried reading books/text for long periods of time but the mix of text and images in comics is no problem.

As for Comic Viewer itself, all the problems I was having have been ironed out with the new update - I can import comics through iTunes easily, a wait while they are all unpacked - this can take around 30s per comic though - but you can read the first one and they should all be finished in the background by the time you finish.

Then, the comics are presented nicely on shelves (a la iBooks) you can now stack them together in long boxes and name the box what you want, this keeps it tidy and if you have lots of comics is invaluable.

The reading interface is simple and smooth, tap or swipe to change page, the landscape double pages automatically switch to landscape so to see them you have to switch orientation lock on. The landscape view shows 2 pages at once so has a very comic feel to it, but is too small and I cant be bothered to pinch on every page - it doesn't remember the zoom level and where you are on the page (as Zeal reportedly does). It also has a brightness display which is good for late night reading.

All in all great- was going to change to Zeal but they updated, now I'm not sure if there is a benefit of changing...

NB at present there is no support for PDF, may bother some, and as mentioned before you can turn the "staples" off - they look okay in screen shots but as they are on every page (not just centre) it just looks fake...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic-viewer/id369599706?mt=8#

FEATURES
* Integrated web browser to download comics over Wi-Fi or 3G
* iPad File Sharing allows you to add comics over USB using your computer
* Full-screen Library lets you browse your collection by cover
* Organize your comics into Stacks, under a single icon
* Automatic rotation of landscape images
* Read in single page portrait, or two-page spread landscape view
* Move back and forth by swiping or tapping the edge of the screen
* Show or hide controls by tapping the center of the page
* Double-tap or pinch to zoom in and out on a page
* Page slider allows you to jump to a specific page
* Automatic bookmarking remembers the last page you read for each comic

REQUIREMENTS
* Apple iPad
* Archives created with ZIP or RAR (files with extension .cbz, .zip, .cbr, or .rar)
* Image file formats of type PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, or TIFF
* Image file names numbered in ascending order (e.g. Page1.jpg, Page2.jpg)
 
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....it doesn't remember the zoom level and where you are on the page (as Zeal reportedly does).

That bit is a real deal breaker to me and something that CZ does so that I dont have to think about it - its really annoying to have to keep pinch zooming should you rotate your iPad.

One other question - If you are zoomed in while in Landscape mode, scroll to the bottom of the page you are viewing, and then flick to page turn, where does it take you?

To the top of the next page, or at the bottom of the next page?
 
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That bit is a real deal breaker to me and something that CZ does so that I dont have to think about it - its really annoying to have to keep pinch zooming should you rotate your iPad.

One other question - If you are zoomed in while in Landscape mode, scroll to the bottom of the page you are viewing, and then flick to page turn, where does it take you?

To the top of the next page, or at the bottom of the next page?

will check when I get back to the pad tonight.

I wish there was a fit to width option that also locked the movement. i.e. I read in portrait - one page at a time, it is a great size but if there's lots of dialogue being that bit more zoomed in - not fitted to height, is easier to read. If I manually do it then try to move the page down, the page moves all over the place - because I'm generally reading and moving the page with the thumb in one hand or other, it moves sideways and down - if it was fitted to width and then didn't scroll left and right just up and down I would get that app (does CZ do this?)
 
will check when I get back to the pad tonight.

I wish there was a fit to width option that also locked the movement. i.e. I read in portrait - one page at a time, it is a great size but if there's lots of dialogue being that bit more zoomed in - not fitted to height, is easier to read. If I manually do it then try to move the page down, the page moves all over the place - because I'm generally reading and moving the page with the thumb in one hand or other, it moves sideways and down - if it was fitted to width and then didn't scroll left and right just up and down I would get that app (does CZ do this?)

I normally use Comic Zeal in portrait mode, slightly zoomed out so its fitted to width, meaning there is another few centimetres off the bottom of the iPad. Scrolling with the thumb or finger (or using the assisted panning mode) takes me to the bottom - the action does not move the comic all over the place - its kind of an elasticated floaty effect that moves the comic back to the intended place but does allow movement if you need it.

To try and explain better - if I was at the top of a page and then swiped my thumb slightly diagonally upwards to the right, it would drag the comic down and to the left, but snap back to the corner, fitting to width properly showing the bottom part of the page.

And as mentioned in my review - if I turn the iPad sideways, it automatically remembers my chosen fit to width 'setting'.
 
I normally use Comic Zeal in portrait mode, slightly zoomed out so its fitted to width, meaning there is another few centimetres off the bottom of the iPad. Scrolling with the thumb or finger (or using the assisted panning mode) takes me to the bottom - the action does not move the comic all over the place - its kind of an elasticated floaty effect that moves the comic back to the intended place but does allow movement if you need it.

To try and explain better - if I was at the top of a page and then swiped my thumb slightly diagonally upwards to the right, it would drag the comic down and to the left, but snap back to the corner, fitting to width properly showing the bottom part of the page.

And as mentioned in my review - if I turn the iPad sideways, it automatically remembers my chosen fit to width 'setting'.

Thanks, sounds better. Just tried landscape zooming and weirdly it treats each page seperately, remembering it displays 2 pages to view- like a comic. So you can zoom one page - not massively zoomed either, and the other stays as it is. Then when you go to the next 2 pages it's is back to fitted to length. Hope that makes sense
 

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