Why even have a creator?
Some people have asked why ComicZeal doesn't read CBR/CBZ files.
In the iPhone, processing=battery. The more thinking the device has to do, the quicker the battery runs out.
A normal comic file as can be downloaded from the internet is way too large for the iPhone. Each page is roughly three times the size of the maximum image that the iPhone can easily display (1024x1024 pixels). If the large images are used on the iPhone, they must be broken into smaller pieces and shown to the user as they scroll through the page. This takes up a lot of processor time. Processor=battery so the battery life suffers.
There's no point in throwing away battery life on a level of detail that the typical iPhone user will never see. Any detail beyond being able to read the text easily is not likely to be appreciated in a portable device with such a small screen.
Additionally a CBR/CBZ file is normally compressed, uncompressing these files also uses up a lot of battery (lots of processor power required).
On the limited hardware of the iPhone it makes sense to process the images outside of the device. The iPhone is then provided with the right size images, ready for quick display.
What it does
The main job of the ComicZeal Creator is to find directories full of images and turn them into ComicZeal's '.cbi' format files.
It also does a couple of other things to make your life easier.
1. it creates a mini website containing the comics it has found.
2. It starts up a local web server for you to browse from your iPhone and download the comics.
What it doesn't do
It probably won't do any of the things we've described above terribly well at the moment. This software is in BETA, that means that it still needs a lot of work, the way that work gets done is if you let us know what goes wrong for you.
It would also be great if you could let us know what works well for you so we know features have been tested.
Tell us about either one using the 'contact us' link at the bottom of this page.
Instructions
Please read the instructions before using or emailing us.
CLICK FOR INSTRUCTIONS
Recent Changes
8/12 Fixed problem with creating comics with categories in Windows.
1/12 Added support for gif images.
Improved the handling of international pathnames.
Better sorting of images.
27/10 Made the creator much more resilient to errors in images and filenames.
Changed the format of the output website.
Changed the website generation to use comic names for categories and not the original directory structure.
Added functions to rename and categorize comics during processing.
Simplified the interface.