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Suggestions for a Retina comic book reader?

M

MacAttacka

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 23, 2012
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At the moment im using Bookman to read some cbr/pdf comic book files. They only look marginally better than on iPad 2. The scan files are closer to 1080p resolution so the app itself is holding things back.

Are there any other retina optimised comic book/pdf readers out there?
 
MacAttacka said:
At the moment im using Bookman to read some cbr/pdf comic book files. They only look marginally better than on iPad 2. The scan files are closer to 1080p resolution so the app itself is holding things back.

Are there any other retina optimised comic book/pdf readers out there?
Click to expand...

If they're PDF files, why not try opening them in iBooks? I imagine the Apple apps are all retina ready.
 
I use ComicZeal it hasn't been "Retina Enhanced" but the programmer says that it will take advantage of the higher resolution of the iPad G3. Comic scans do look much better on the Gen 3 iPad than on the iPad 2 in it.

http://www.comiczealapp.com/
 
have you tried changing the optimization level in the app? might make a little improvement until the author updates the app.

MacAttacka said:
At the moment im using Bookman to read some cbr/pdf comic book files. They only look marginally better than on iPad 2. The scan files are closer to 1080p resolution so the app itself is holding things back.

Are there any other retina optimised comic book/pdf readers out there?
Click to expand...
 
I'm using ComicFlow . Comics are retina resolution, but the interface buttons aren't.
 
Comicflow shows CBR/CBZ in retina resolution. The only major gripe is that you have to connect your iPad to computer in order to delete any CBR/CBZ that you have already read.
 
ComicGlass.

As of now, the only retina enhanced comic reader app. Fortunately, it also happens to be the best all-around!
 
Wow, im impressed with Comic Flow. The Retina optimisation really works. The scans Im looking at are far clearer. I did a test between bookman and Comic Flow, same magazine and compared a piece of tiny text on both. Comic Flow was much sharper. Horrible horrible example but shows that retina apps on the retina screen work!

This is bookman (non retina) Completely illegible (100% pixel mapped)
jajo8i.jpg


This is comic flow (retina) somewhat legible (100% pixel mapped)
jpee11.jpg


The shot above are of a 1080p resolution magazine scan on the new iPad using bookman comic viewer (non retina optimised) and comic flow (retina optimised). I found the smallest and fuzziest piece of text and looked at that using both apps. The images were taken with a 3mp phone camera and then I used photoshop to get 100% pixel mapped shots and cropped them so we have a fair comparison. I saved them an maximum quality jpegs and posted them here. Im just showing that there is a difference with retina/non retina apps for scanned material over xVGA resolution. Both images were taken on the retina ipad not iPad 2.
 
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MacAttacka said:
At the moment im using Bookman to read some cbr/pdf comic book files. They only look marginally better than on iPad 2. The scan files are closer to 1080p resolution so the app itself is holding things back.

Are there any other retina optimised comic book/pdf readers out there?
Click to expand...

Wouldn't the quality depend On the resolution of the source material?
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
Wouldn't the quality depend On the resolution of the source material?
Click to expand...

Yep, but i personally had some scans from the 90s of some magazines I used to collect. Something like 200dpi I think. This is not like modern PDFs or ePub files. These are just image scans to cbr. The source is higher than XGA but lower than QVGA. The point is, these scans will look a lot better on the retina screen with a retina app as long as the source is higher than XGA. For me, this is a big reason to go for the new iPad.

Here are the original images as you'd see them on screen.

Bookman - non retinal
15d2jwl.jpg


Comic flow - Retina
2me4ui8.jpg
 
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I'll chime in for ComicZeal. I scan my own comics at 1200DPI, and ComicZeal renders the comics ~ 200MB in size for a 32 page comic flawlessly. It is just such a world of a difference from the original iPad. So loving this device for my comic needs.
 
I just bought comicglass. It's the only one I've ever tried, but it seems to work really well. Options take a bit to figure out, but it does the job
 
A simple free one I found yesterday was cloudreaders. Hasn't been updated, but it definitely showed high res of the comics I tested on it.
 
Just bought a copy of Comic Glass! Very impressive. I really like the ability to share my complete collection from the web server on my PC and being able to browse/download the books I want at will when on my LAN.

It isn't quite a polished as Comic Zeal and documentation/support appears to be mostly in Japanese but it has some great features i wish CZ had.
 
Out of the three main readers mentioned in this thread (ComicGlass, ComicFlow, and Comic Zeal), what are people's pics? I use ComicFlow at the moment because it is free, but if the others have certain features that are worth the price I'm willing to spend some money.

Thanks
 
comicglass...the best comic reader app.

Morien said:
Out of the three main readers mentioned in this thread (ComicGlass, ComicFlow, and Comic Zeal), what are people's pics? I use ComicFlow at the moment because it is free, but if the others have certain features that are worth the price I'm willing to spend some money.

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
Could you comment on why? What makes it best? Using ComicFlow now and the only thing I think I'm missing is a pan and scan feature. But does such a feature work well with cbr?

Thanks
 
Roy Hobbs said:
I've tried them all.....ComicZeal is the best handsdown
Click to expand...

I've hated ComicZeal since it was updated with the new UI. For me it's very clumsy and a lot is unnecessary. I use Bookman because its simple. I want to check out ComicGlass though. The comics won't look better until they're scanned at a higher resolution. Comixology has updated most of their comics to "CMX-HD" and look really good.
 
i used to use Bookman for comics, but the feature that it lacked which made me switch to comicglass was the ability to set pages to zoom 'autofit' and keep that setting between pages. i've also found that it renders the thumbnail pages much faster than Bookman.

i haven't tried Comiczeal in a while but the last time i test-drove it, the import function via itunes was abysmally slow.

GraphicsGeek said:
I've hated ComicZeal since it was updated with the new UI. For me it's very clumsy and a lot is unnecessary. I use Bookman because its simple. I want to check out ComicGlass though.
Click to expand...
 
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