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Suggestions for a Retina comic book reader?

Bookman and Comic zeal is all I use. I use the Old version of comic zeal though with the white icon. I just can't stand how the new version looks overall.

Bookman kicks butt.
 
Ive been playing around with Bookman and Comic Flow (both free) and Ive been looking at some very old magazine scans. I was impressed enough with the quality of both apps on the iPad 3.

Then people in this thread recommended Comic Glass. WOW. JUST. WOW!

The difference is truly remarkable. My source material is just over 1080p, so not full retina but enough to make better use of the iPad 3. The colors pop, blacks are deeper, text much sharper. Even in dual page landscape all the tiny text is very readable. Without zooming in you look closely at the screen you can almost make out the printed dots that make up the image. When you do zoom in you can see them all.

Even at regular viewing angles as long as your source material is above XGA your comics and magazines will look a lot better on the retina. Comics are one of those few apps that really show how mind blowing the retina screen really is because you can appreciate every bit of that pixel detail. I have built a 30GB library of comics on my iPad 3 and I can honestly say its looks even sharper, vivid and more readable than printed paper.

Comic Glass is essential for anyone who does any reading on the iPad 3
 
I do not see any difference in quality using Comicbook lover vs Comic glass.

Also Comicbook Lover let's you file and group all the books in series.
In Comic Glass all your books are just one big long list.

CBL also has a nice wallpaper.
Glass is plain white.

IMO- Comicbook lover is a better all around experience and it's free.
 
Bokes said:
I do not see any difference in quality using Comicbook lover vs Comic glass.

Also Comicbook Lover let's you file and group all the books in series.
In Comic Glass all your books are just one big long list.

CBL also has a nice wallpaper.
Glass is plain white.
Click to expand...
You missed ComicGlass's bookshelf view, available at the top of the screen. Looks much better than the default list.

You can also group books into series in ComicGlass, it's pretty easy. Take a look at the options, there are a ton of customizations.

ComicBookLover is good for a free reader, but CG offers a lot of extra features over it like image filters for improving contrast, landscape viewing options such as 2-page view, page preview thumbnails, and "zoom lock," where you can zoom out the white margins on older comics and have the setting maintain across page turns.
 
Tedddman said:
You missed ComicGlass's bookshelf view, available at the top of the screen. Looks much better than the default list.

You can also group books into series in ComicGlass, it's pretty easy. Take a look at the options, there are a ton of customizations.

ComicBookLover is good for a free reader, but CG offers a lot of extra features over it like image filters for improving contrast, landscape viewing options such as 2-page view, page preview thumbnails, and "zoom lock," where you can zoom out the white margins on older comics and have the setting maintain across page turns.
Click to expand...

Thanks Teddman,

I found the Bookshelf layout view- MUCH better.
But i still can not figure out how to group the books in series.
I looked through the options and tried a few things that I thought would work- but did not.

I want to be able to view my titles in the bookshelf mode....tap on the title and then see a list of all the books for that title. (In CBL I just tap series in the toolbar)

As an example- All spiderman books should be filed under the TITLE Spiderman. (One icon)
Then when i select that Spiderman icon- it should show me all my Spiderman books.

How do i do that in comic glass?
I think if i could get it to do that- i would choose it over CBL.

Thanks Much.
 
I have baught and use ComicZeal. Is there any comic book reader app though that can stream comics off a NAS?
 
Bokes said:
Thanks Teddman,

I found the Bookshelf layout view- MUCH better.
But i still can not figure out how to group the books in series.
I looked through the options and tried a few things that I thought would work- but did not.
Click to expand...
From the upper-right corner of Bookshelf view, tap the Edit button. Then at lower right, a folder icon will appear. Tap that to create a new series folder.

Now you can tap Edit again and select the comics you want to move to that series folder, then hit the Move button at the bottom of the screen. You can then select the new series folder you created. You can rename and edit any series folder by tapping and holding on it, btw.

Also, if you rename a folder of comics on a computer to end in ".pkg" and transfer it to ComicGlass using iTunes, ComicGlass will recognize it as a series upon import and auto-create a folder.
 
Get comic glass.

Price is reasonable.

For US comics, it offers reading from left to right. For Japanese manga, it offers reading from right to left (for Asian version users)

It can group series by adding comic to folders. Organize comic by folders.

It remembers the last page you read on your comic and it also gives you the option to read it from first page.

Retina display support.

Many customization. You need to explore more to find out.

Constant updates !

I have read extensively to search for a comic apps. I finally bought comicglass and I greatly recommand this app to everyone
 
I was wondering if any of these comic readers allow for different cover thumbnails to be set? For example, some people share comics and set their credit information as the first page rather than a cover. Do any of these apps allow for different covers to be set? Re-order of pages? Anything like that?
 
ComicBookLover FTW. There is an app that they provide that lets you sync comics to your iPad over Wifi and it retains all the tag info that you input. I tested it with a mix of 12 CBZ/CBR averaging 25MB per comic and it was pretty quick. It is so nice to be able to send over comics AND keep their tag info neat and tidy.
 
Another vote for ComicGlass. Love it! Organizing into folders by title is a little pain, but works nicely once complete. I like the link to Dropbox, where I can archive comics I've read to remove them from my iPad, but download them later if I want.
 
-1 for Cloud Reader. Not worthy.
Text and images are a little fuzzy.
However, they get sharper when I touch the screen (going to the next page)
Really weird.

I will try Comic glass.

For me, one of the key factors is being able to use Drop Box.
 
nobodyhome said:
I was wondering if any of these comic readers allow for different cover thumbnails to be set? For example, some people share comics and set their credit information as the first page rather than a cover. Do any of these apps allow for different covers to be set? Re-order of pages? Anything like that?
Click to expand...

Comic glass lets you do this. Tap on any page you are viewing and select "create jacket" button.

Other features I like in Glass is the folder organization. Arrange comics on my mac as I want them in a folder, add a .pkg extension to that folder and transfer the whole thing to Comic glass. Dropbox integration is also nice. Also, can import/sync with a web server, so you can set up a web share on your mac and keep stuff organized that way.

  • They other day I also bout Comic Zeal, figured what the heck, I'll give it a try. Interface looks nice, but I find I still much prefer Comic Glass. Some things I like about Zeal are:
  • it has opened a few comics I have that Glass has some issues with, so that is nice.
  • Also, I like the fact that you can create "virtual copies" of books to organize into multiple series, and it doesn't take up extra space. So you can make a "current reading" folder and add a bunch of stuff to it. It doesn't duplicate, just adds what I would call a sym link.
  • The ribbon is interesting, but takes some getting used to.
  • slightly faster page turns
What I don't like, or like better in Glass
  • No retina support
  • Slow import of comics. Once you copy them over in iTunes, then it has to process and import them in the app. Can take a while if you imported a bunch. No such delay with Glass.
  • I find the wood background and textured background in Zeal to be distracting.
  • The bookshelf view in Zeal is "neat" with the boxes, and ability to show bags, but Glass is ultimately more useful to me as it shows the full title.

So, Glass is still my go-to reader, but if I get a book that doesn't work in it, I'll try it in Zeal.
 
Viper2005 said:
I'm using ComicFlow . Comics are retina resolution, but the interface buttons aren't.
Click to expand...

Comic flow has been really buggy for me. Comics I put on disappear and I can't seem to get them back.

----------
flope004 said:
-1 for Cloud Reader. Not worthy.
Text and images are a little fuzzy.
However, they get sharper when I touch the screen (going to the next page)
Really weird.

I will try Comic glass.

For me, one of the key factors is being able to use Drop Box.
Click to expand...

It was my go to for iPad 2 but it needs an update badly.
 
I use many comic readers.

Comic Zeal is great, it supports iTunes transfer and it is easy to manage. That ribbon has much potential but needs to be updated for usability.

Instacomic is even greater for portability. Super fast, retina updated. It is also quite cheap to buy. It syncs via webdav, dead easy to transfer comics without iTunes. This is a great feature. Instacomic is simple and robust. Just uploaded a few series via wifi through Transfer. I was back on my Ipad3 reading them in no time

None of the above has dropbox integration so I am gonna try ComicGlass now and see if it is better overall.

My priorities:
easy sync, simplicity in managing multiple series of comics, fast rendering, retina.
 
mikepro said:
Comic glass lets you do this. Tap on any page you are viewing and select "create jacket" button.

Other features I like in Glass is the folder organization. Arrange comics on my mac as I want them in a folder, add a .pkg extension to that folder and transfer the whole thing to Comic glass. Dropbox integration is also nice. Also, can import/sync with a web server, so you can set up a web share on your mac and keep stuff organized that way.

  • They other day I also bout Comic Zeal, figured what the heck, I'll give it a try. Interface looks nice, but I find I still much prefer Comic Glass. Some things I like about Zeal are:
  • it has opened a few comics I have that Glass has some issues with, so that is nice.
  • Also, I like the fact that you can create "virtual copies" of books to organize into multiple series, and it doesn't take up extra space. So you can make a "current reading" folder and add a bunch of stuff to it. It doesn't duplicate, just adds what I would call a sym link.
  • The ribbon is interesting, but takes some getting used to.
  • slightly faster page turns
What I don't like, or like better in Glass
  • No retina support
  • Slow import of comics. Once you copy them over in iTunes, then it has to process and import them in the app. Can take a while if you imported a bunch. No such delay with Glass.
  • I find the wood background and textured background in Zeal to be distracting.
  • The bookshelf view in Zeal is "neat" with the boxes, and ability to show bags, but Glass is ultimately more useful to me as it shows the full title.

So, Glass is still my go-to reader, but if I get a book that doesn't work in it, I'll try it in Zeal.
Click to expand...

All information I was looking for! Thank you!
 
what app would be best for me?

right now i'm using manga storm to grab my favourite manage but i'm leaning towards an app which is a bit nicer to display a few comic series. any suggestions?

i have an iPad 3 so would like to take advantage of retina but will it be any use for translated manga scans?

i just tried Comic book lover and dropped a RAR file on it and it could not read it. The rar file is a volume which contains 10 folders, each consistenting of a chapter. can no CBR decipher this? if not can they decipher folders or must I rar each one up?
 
Last edited:
Anyone know if there is a comic reader( cbz,cbr) that has great page turning animation, like IBooks?



I have comic zeal for function, but I would also like a second comic reader for fun to play around with, because I like really like that animation.
 
resurrecting an old thread, but i finally bought an ipad , the air , so light. wife has had every model, but they all felt like bricks in my hand.

but anyways, im a huge comics fan and getting into digital comics now. used comicbooklover the past 2 weeks and just want more organization out of a reader app.

is there anyway to manage the series into folders?

the thread mentions comic glass. does glass have better organization of a collection of comics into individual folders/series?

Thats what im really looking for. i've copied about 20 comics over, but they currently are all scattered in one directory within comicbook lover. its easy to find now, but if i had 100+ comics, i would want better organization.
 
Comic Zeal puts comics in bins (kind of like folders) if you name them right. For instance if you needed a bin named "Archie and Me", you could rename them like

Archie and Me ~ 12 - 1969.cbr
Archie and Me ~ 13 - 1969.cbr

and so forth.

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