Do you store it in zip files or as loose jpgs? Separate directories for chapters or whole volumes in one? What if it comes prepacked in zips?
unzip, unzip!
I unzip everything.
There's arguments for doing either.
Unzip. And I hate to go through dozens of different zips within zips with some batchreleases. There is probably a way to unzip all automatically in the directories they'd belong but I am too stupid to find out.
I use PowerArchiver (which is sadly not freeware anymore), and it lets you just select a bunch of zips and right-drag them where you want them extracted, et voilà. You'll still have problem when people insist on putting an explicity subdirectory in each zip, though.
And I keep all my manga unzipped, one directory per volume.
If you're willing to buy a program, try ACDSee... it can read straight out of zip/rar/tgz files and stuff, so it's great for manga...
Keep it zipped.
Mostly because I'm too lazy, and it's somewhat easier to transport/burn etc I feel.
Zipped.
I find it easier to manage compared to having hundreds and hundreds of loose files. Besides, the program I use for reading manga (ComicsViewer) supports loading from ZIP and RAR files, so I see very little point in unzipping.
Single zips makes it more cumbersome to read entire volumes, because you have to keep switching between zips. Also, you don't have hundreds of loose files, you have one directory per volume, which is even less of a hassle.
I buy the volumes and put them on my shelf!
Save the trees!
>>9
In ComicsViewer, I can simply select a directory to view, and all the images of that folder and those of subfolders and zip/rar files will be presented in linear manner. So, if I'm at the last picture of 001.zip, and I scroll down to go to the next picture, I will automatically go to the first picture of 002.zip.
Besides, if I unzip, I'd need to make a directory for every chapter, and not just for every volume.
> Besides, if I unzip, I'd need to make a directory for every chapter, and not just for every volume.
Only if the translators use a really retarded naming scheme. Very few do, and for those times, there are mass renamers.
Ah, but what about if I don't wait for the scanlator to finish one volume or just want to reread one chapter? Not every scanlator uses the chapter number in their naming scheme and even if they do, I'd need to open an Open dialog, type in something like "Mari&Elie-Alchemist_v01ch06*", press enter and select the first file.
What the hell kind of image viewer would force you to do that?
With ACDSee you just click on the first page and page through them one by one after that. With my own manga reader (http://4-ch.net/manga/kareha.pl/1100296167/), I can also just open the first file of a chapter and read from there.
>>6
The chance of ACDSee reading inside a RAR file is 1 out of 10 since RAR has a fluctuating format. :( It works great with zip files.
>>16
If you have all the image files of one volume in one directory without any subdirectories for chapters, unless your program has some feature that recognizes naming schemes and categorizes the files based on that (which it doesn't, as far as I can tell), it's impossible to jump to the first page of a chapter in that volume without finding it manually first.
Which means, either go through every page of the volume until you found the first page of the chapter (can take a long time, depending on where the chapter is located in the volume), go through the list of files to find the first file of a chapter (considering there are generally over a hundred files in one volume, it can take pretty long), (in Mangariini) estimate where the chapter is located and click the scrollbar (depends too much on chance), use some filterstring to filter out all the files not in that chapter in that Open dialog (takes less time than the other options, but still slower than just selecting a chapter from a list).
But when do you actually need to do that? Personally I either read a volume pretty much in one go, or I read the chapters as they are released, and in the later case it's easy to find the first image of the latest chapter, especially if you just unpacked it before reading.
Well, it wouldn't the first time that a reference was made about something that happened in an earlier chapter, which I missed or simply forgotten about.
Also, sometimes I just want to reread Kuroyan's Gamera reaction.
> and in the later case it's easy to find the first image of the latest chapter, especially if you just unpacked it before reading.
I suppose you could copypaste the filename of the first file... still seems rather farfetched to me, considering I have yet to see why one would unpack it in the first place... well, unless you use a program not made for reading comics for reading comics, in which case, like you said earlier, you'd have to switch zip-files everytime you finish a chapter.
One reason to unpack: to get rid of those huge thumbs.db
I unpack the zip, and then I double-click on the first new file in the list (or right-click and select Send to > Mangariini). No need to dig out a program out of some menu, no need to use any file requesters...
Why wouldn't it? New files would go at the end of the list anyway.
>23
I do not have any thumbs.db file in my folders, thankyouverymuch.
Mind you, I turned it off - as I turned off virtually everything automated in WindowsXP.
The problem is that scanlators include that monster [sometimes it is several megabytes] in their distribution - prolly because it's invisible to them - and I have no use whatsoever for it.
XP and all its useless automated garbage. --
It is annoying when you find the idiot editor included thumbs.db. How the hell do they manage to do that anyway?
When they compress the folder as a whole and don't check.
http://sigh.org/mangadb/ seems very good if you're using linux.
http://members.ferrara.linux.it/calicant/mapagi/ seems ok... but kinda retarded...
Try Sequential Image viewer, it views all the images in rars and zips sequentially
why dont they make pdf, easy to read, compact can put even books there and also OS independent
>>29
I second this. I've been using CDisplay for a long time and I won't touch anything else.
Hamana is much better than Cdisplay and works great for both zipped and unzipped manga
miyano.s53.xrea.com
I like CDisplay as well.
I also often use for manga viewing ComicBookDS, because I don't often like to sit in front of my computer and read comics. There are problems, such as the delicate balance between readable text and field of view on the smallish screens, but it is made up for by the simple fact that I can have entire series of manga on my DS Lite which is much smaller than the average single volume.
.cbr
I prefer .png raws, myself. I use LCD screens exclusively, and so that JPEG noise bothers me. Not really a good option for pirates, but when I scan them I do levelling and cleaning too.
>>37
I just take whatever I can get that looks nice.
There are some older scans from Viz's release of SANCTUARY and they're a nice size, but they weren't really cleaned. But the uncleaned look made it look like you're actually looking at paper. It was kinda nice!
As far as portable reading goes, something like the Librie would be really nice for this sort of thing if you wanted to read on the go. The DS screen is just a bit too small, I don't like panning around when trying to read something.
Well all my manga is zip format (cbz) but some of it is rar but i normaly extract the jpeg or png's and then zip it up (make it tidy and that!!!!
i only got into comic about a year ago (horror comics (american) (coz i had a jod to design some horror poster for a festival) (liked the art in the comics)
started watching bleach again and found the manga and BOOM!!!!!!! (you have 1 major manga fan) already read like 8 different manga series)(and own about 20 more)
but was dissapointed to fin out there all png / jpeg (bot cbr / cbz (but then i found out cbr are rar files /// and cbz are zip files (sweet) just keep all you zip files and rar files like they are (only need to change em if you want your comic reader to reconise the,m when you double click them (insted of adding maualy)
i bet i can add this comment (im not a member) just came across thios site at random (ohh well non of you will be able to read my hard work LOL!!!
few spelling therert WHOOPS! (well it looked like i can leave comment) sweet! (above comment was supposed to say 'bet i CANT' leave a comment (but i probably guessed that! (*_*)
I always unzip. Zipped files are for transportation and nothing else, in my opinion.
I usually have one directory per chapter, except for rare occasions when (if I'm reading something older) people have been kind enough to provide archives for each volume. In that case, I just do a directory per volume. Much simpler.
Of course, if I really like something, it has been released in the US, and the translators haven't completely fagged it up, I will buy a hard copy and put it on my bookshelf. It's not too expensive, and I'd like to encourage bringing decent comics not made 40 years ago over here as much as I can.
I use a bookshelf.