Needless to say it’s been a hectic couple of months.
The iPad is just perfect for Comic Zeal, there was never a question that I’d be creating a version of Comic Zeal for it.
There are three things I’d like to address today, first I’d like to take you through the Comic Zeal 4 interface, then we’ll talk about importing comics and we’ll talk about upgrading and versions last.
Interface
Let’s start with the interface and look at our first screenshot:
You’ll notice a lot of familiar elements there. The pop-up view holds what used to be the main navigation screen from the iPhone version. Adam has designed new icons for each of the categories and these are shown at the top of the screen.
You’ll also note that the comic title and page number are shown on the same toolbar as the icons. There is no longer a distinction between reading and selecting comics like there is on the iPhone app. It works really well, as you end up selecting the little covers on the pop-up to see the larger version on the main view. It’s a very effective way to browse and if you’ve started to read a comic the bookmarked page is shown instead and serves to give you a quick catch-up on what you’d got up to while choosing a comic.
At the moment we’re still showing the ‘hide interface’ arrow on the top right, Adam has come up with a better option for this but it’s not made it into the first release.
We’ve moved most of the controls to the top of the page because if the iPad is on your lap then it’s going to be awkward to reach buttons on the bottom of the screen. You’ll end up having to thrust your elbow forward and be tempted to press the buttons with your thumb (try it now, pretend to press a button just in front of your belly). When the controls are at the top of the screen you can use your index finger to press them.
We’ve made an exception with the page turning controls, those should be and are accessible by thumb.
Naturally, the reading interface can still be dismissed by a double-tap to give you a full-screen view of the comic.
When the interface is hidden you turn the page by sliding the current page left or right. Sliding it to the bottom of the screen stops the reading of the current comic, shows the interface again and displays the comic selection pop-up.
To finish off talking about the interface I just want to show you what this all looks like in portrait, in case you’ve not seen them before, some of the other comic display options and the splash screen:
Importing Comics
Comic Zeal 4 is able to read CBZ,ZIP,CBR and RAR files natively. So you can just fire up SyncDocs on your PC or Mac, drag in a whole bunch of CBZ files and import them into Comic Zeal. *** Please note you no longer need to do this! this was only when CZ 4 was first released, have a look at the iTunes file description for instructions on how to use iTunes file sharing to sync your files ***
Comic Zeal will still need to process the comics and resize the images, although they’re now 60% larger than they were before. This process is going to be optimised and tweaked once we get our hands on a real iPad. At the moment we have no idea how long it will take to process the comics and it could be that on release, using Comic Zeal Sync is still the best option.
You’ll still need to use Comic Zeal Sync to read PDFs, we don’t know how the iPad will deal with opening the huge PDF files that a lot of you have.
At the moment we can’t talk about any other options for transferring the comic files into Comic Zeal so please don’t think I’ve forgotten to mention it, I just can’t talk about it.
Pricing and versions
So why is this called Comic Zeal 4 and not Comic Zeal iPad?
The plan at the moment is to have both versions on the app store (this means that Comic Zeal 4 will be an additional purchase).
As the tools to do it become easier we’ll make version 4 iPhone compatible too and at that point we’ll stop development of version 3. Whilst both versions are on the store I’ll do my best to ensure that any big version 4 features that are feasible on the iPhone also make it into version 3.
So Comic Zeal Version 4 isn’t just for the iPad, at some point it will also be available for the iPhone, just not yet.
Notes
I hope you’ve enjoyed this preview, before you return to your wandering through the internet I’d like to mention some things:
First, thanks to Jim Shelley for allowing us to use his Flashback Universe comics to promote Comic Zeal and make them available for download. All the landscape screenshots are from his comic ‘Paladin’.
Second, please keep in mind that the images you see here are taken from the iPad simulator, the real device has a much larger bezel.
Third, you can click on any of the images on this page to see them full size.
Has this or will this app be submitted to Apple with the intent of making launch date?
Brian, the app has been submitted and is awaiting approval by Apple. We’ve done our best but as we’ve never run it on an actual iPad they may very well have some feedback.
For a future release can we get an option to turn on a “page-turn” function, so that we can pretend to turn the comic pages like iBooks does?
The iPad version looks great! Keep up the great work!
phunkysai, there is a very big difference between iBooks and CZ, and that’s that CZ allows you to be zoomed in to a page. So in a lot of instances it would just look strange. I’d like to see it in action sometime though so if Apple ever makes that graphic transition available to us mere mortals I’ll give it a go.
As a longtime user of your iPhone app, I must say: very nice work. It’s clear you’ve thought long and hard about the iPad version, and have decided to allow the content to shine — as it should be. I can honestly say your app is one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on an iPad.
Will Version 4, once available on both platforms, be a universal iPad/iPhone app; meaning, if you buy one you get the other as part of the price? And if so, would early adapters to Version 4 for iPad get access to Version 4 for iPhone once it is released?
Keep it up, your efforts are appreciated!
Thanks for your quick response! I’m very excited about buying app on the iPad at launch – I can honestly say this app is reason #1 for buying the iPad. Any idea about where pricing will be?
Nagle, thanks for your kind words. Once V4 supports both iPad and iPhone they WILL be a universal app, I will simply remove V3 from the App Store and have only one CZ version. That version will run on both devices so yes, early adopters of the iPad version will also get the iPhone version when it is ready.
Brian, long-term pricing will depend on what the market expects. It will start at USD$7.99. Once the market is settled a little I’ll jiggle the prices and see what happens.
Is there any possibility that you’ll add a “show two pages in landscape mode” option?
This simple option made reading comics on a digital screen feasible to me, and it would be really great to use that on the iPad screen.
Definitely, just give us a little time to get used to the iPad and fix whatever problems we have on release. It also depends on how the SDK changes as I’d like to make V4 available on the iPhone as soon as possible. If Apple makes some of the things I’m waiting for available soon then I’ll concentrate on that for a little while.
Holy Smoke! The reason to buy an iPad for me. (already ordered one)
I was wondering about the large .pdf files too. I hope they’ll just work on an iPad without conversion.
Very nice work! I’ll 100% buy it when released
7,99 seems a bit high. But then again Comiczeal is one of the reasons I’m getting an iPad. However it would be nice with an upgrade price for us old users, but I guess thats not even possible.
I don’t think that 7.99 is high at all, actually I think that you’ll find that full-fledged applications on the iPad will go for a higher price than the iPhone average. If there WAS a way to do upgrades I would though, unfortunately, like you guessed, there isn’t.
This is actually one of the driving forces behind my ipad pre-order! Thanks!
Like many of the above, I too view Comic Zeal as a top reason for purchasing an iPad. I appreciate you guys giving us a preview of your work so far. Very, very exciting!
And as for the price, anyone who has developed a quality application from the ground up wouldn’t complain about your pricing at all. I look forward to supporting your efforts.
The new version does look great. I am so used to reading comic books laying on the couch or in bed that reading them on a computer screen just doesn’t feel right even on my 30-inch monitor. It is like the iPad was custom made for reading comic books. You can fold the iPad in half and stuff it in your back pocket, right?
Pricing on the iPad is going to be interesting. Some free apps on the iPhone like AP Mobile are not going to be free on the iPad. Apple is charging $9.99 for iWork apps Numbers and Pages as an incentive for buying the iPad — maybe they are also trying to set a suggested price as well.
There’s only a few programs that I use a lot day in and day out. Those programs by right should be the ones I pay the highest amount for. Comic Zeal will be an app that I use at least more than most and the $7.99 opening price is dirt cheap compared to others that I have paid for and never use.
Just wanted to say that ComicZeal was one of my first purchases for my iPhone and it’s fantastic. And $7.99 is not too expensive. Can’t wait for the iPad version – it would be a bargain at twice the price. One question – will you allow native .cbr and .cbz formatted files on the iPhone version or just the iPad? It would be nice to be able to skip the “shrinking” process, although I understand the filesize and battery life tradeoff. Thanks for making this great app – I literally use it every day.
Ted, I don’t know about ‘native’ cbr and cbz files yet. It will have to wait until we have the hardware and can see what it does.
Thanks for the reply emiliano…in terms of the page turn, I was only thinking it would make sense in portrait mode, when you are looking at the entire page of the comic.
As far as being able to implement the page turn, several iphone apps (Stanza, iVerse comics, Classics, and others) have already implemented it in their iphone apps. Is the iPad SDK different than the iPhone SDK for implementing page turn?
Phunkysai, Apple doesn’t make any of the page turn transitions available to third-party developers at the moment. The implementations that you’ve mentioned have all been done by individual developers and represent a fair bit of time investment. It was started by ‘Classics’ and it was a big part of their value proposition. Book readers have an advantage, they know what the margin size and colour will be so they can pre-render the transitions. If you look VERY carefully when you turn a page in classics you’ll see that the actual page image only gets shrunk horizontally. Everything else you see is a pre-rendered sequence of images. I’ve not seen the iVerse one (I know, I know). When I look at the iBooks implementation it’s obvious that it is much more dynamic, which means even MORE development effort but also that it will become a standard. As such I expect that either Apple will make it available to developers or that someone else will implement a version of it that is either free or we can license.
People who are bashing iPad all over the world should come and see this. Amazing work guys, have to cover this.
This is what I’m talking about – beautiful app, great functionality, great support, a fair price… Comics were definitely one huge reason for my iPad preorder, and now I’m even more excited. I really hope it’s available day one with the iPad, but either way this is a must-buy for me.
Thanks!
OMG OMG OMG I can’t wait, I was so hoping this was going to be made. I figured until you did that I would use the iPhone app. I hope it comes out before I get my iPad. They just charged my account today, just don’t know when the 3G version will arrive. >dancing<
Keep up the great work, I do have one question. Is the iPhone version going to have the screen lock issue resolved? That would be a big help to tied me over until my iPad arrives with it's hardware lock
Oh never mind i just did an update and now the lock works on my iPhone, woo hoo!
Thank goodness! I didn’t know there WAS a screen lock issue.
Quick question (and I might have just overlooked this):
Can the little “show menu” arrow button be made completely transparent? I don’t like how it’s visible even though the menu is gone.
Jazz, yes, there is a setting that can be accessed through the ‘Settings’ app on the device to hide the arrow. In that case a double-tap can be used to show/hide the controls. That functionality is present in V3 as well.
manga (japanese comics) are one of my big reason of getting an iPad and I just learned of this application from TUAW today.
Just out of curiosity, would you be able to read a comic from right to left and flip the pages from left to right on Comic Zeal?
In addition, how is the unicode support for book titles and such.
I know these are newbie questions but it would be great if someone could answer them. If they are both a definite yes, I would definitely buy it.
thanks.
William, the support for Manga at the moment is limited to showing either the top-left or top-right corner of the page on a page flip when zoomed in. Obviously that’s not really important on the iPad (although it was VERY important on the iPhone). I’d like to change the page turn direction soon but haven’t yet. Unicode support isn’t great in V3 (actually, the limitation is in CZ Sync mostly), but I’ve tested all kinds of characters on the V4 import and it seems to be working fine.
Comizeal on the 9.7″ screen looks gorgeous. Time to print out a screenshot and tape it to my to-scale cardboard iPad!
I will gladly pay the $7.99 price because it will simply be worth it for me. I look forward to it being available. Since I’m getting the 3G version, I’m hoping it’ll be available by the time I get my iPad. I LOVE the iPhone version! Keep up the good work!
Add me to the list of people who’ve been anxiously awaiting the iPad for just this reason (CZ4). I would squee, but that would just be unbecoming.
Outstanding work. I’ll definitely be buying on 4/3.
I hope to get it on the store for you by then. Fingers crossed.
When will there be a new CZ-sync? Will it convert the images to the correct size for the ipad? If we use the old CZ-sync, won’t the images be resized too small?
Also, will collections also be title-based as CZ3 is now?
Actually the current size doesn’t look too bad but CZ 4 will do its own importing and resize the images to a larger size.
Looks cool but its disappointing that you didn’t take the approach instapaper pro is taking. The Instapaper Pro iPad app will be a free upgrade for pro users. Why have you chosen to screw your early adopters?
It should be the opposite, have this replace the current app and raise the price so it’s a free upgrade for people who paid full price for the current app. Then make the iPhone version available as new app.
I’m sorry Justin, I don’t understand why you believe you should continue to receive all further efforts on an app for free. Can you elaborate on your reasoning? The earliest adopters of CZ have received around 15 free updates over 1.5 years. Is that not enough to get for free?
Will CZ4 support a branching file/folder structure?
I wasn’t a fan of the wooden background, so good to see it has been replaced with something more appropriate.
Daryl, are you aware that you can change the background to whatever you like in V3?
7.99 for an app like this is well worth it. Obviously alot of extra work had had to go into it. They’ve hardly chosen to screw people over. Most developers of pretty much any platform will charge again for a major revision. Most of the time you’ll only get free upgrades on minor revisions. Oh and comparing it to another random app it rather ridiculous. Unless you know exactly what financial backing both sets of developers have and what kind of money both apps are bringing in it’s impossible to compare fairly. Instapaper is incredibly popular whereas I’d see ComicZeal as more of a niche app. I paid for verison 3 and I’ll happily pay for v4.
You just sealed Comic Zeal being my first iPad app purchase.
Looks great guys, can’t wait to buy!!!
How does resizing work, exactly, and why do it at all?
If you have explained this elsewhere, please link me, but:
CBZs and CBRs vary in their scanning… some have great resolution, really detailed and fine. I guess I’m wondering if you are resizing all the images so they are the same width as the iPad screen, so there is no pinching/zooming, or if you are picking an arbitrary width?
I read comics on my computer screen and scroll around the image (full size) with my finger. Is that not the intention here?
I am worried that in re-sizing, the text will become blocky and unreadable.
Again, if you’ve got a blog post explaining all this, feel free to just pop me a link. I’m really curious.
Douglas, on the iPhone the images are resized to 1024 pixels in the largest dimension, so 1024 high where the image is portrait or 1024 wide where the image is landscape. The size is chosen as that’s the highest size that ONE image object can be on the iPhone. With the iPhone the point was to allow you to take the comics with you and read them where you wanted. Earlier versions of CZ had really poor file management as I only envisioned users having a few comics on the device at a time. As people started trusting the software more and more I’ve found out that people store thousands of comics, essentially moving their collection to the device and using it as their preferred reading method. I think that’s the mindset that’s going to prevail on the iPad so I’ve upped the maximum image size, assuming that the device won’t have an issue with a much larger image. As I’m still working on the simulator, and it doesn’t have the same limits as the device I believe that keeping an image size limit is prudent. That may change in the future, specially if the import of comics turns out to be an issue time-wise.
I went and read your FAQ, which gives me some info on the “why”… most readers really don’t need the full resolution to enjoy a comic, and images are processor expensive.
I guess I’m still not sure to what resolution you are down-scanning to, since you still do zooming and panning in your program. Are you picking a width that is X times the screen width, or something? Does it vary based on the original images?
don’t worry about charging for the iPad version- you can afford to lose customers like Justin – in fact i’d argue that you cant afford to keep customers like Justin
if CZ on the iPad works as well as the ipod touch version then its a bargain at 7.99
if its better – and it will be a better comic reading experience just because of the screen size on the iPad – with extra features then its an even better bargain
Justin – if its a bug fix it should be free – if a developer puts a lot of time in adding functionality and improved user experience then its only fair to pay for it if you want it – remember you can keep on reading on your ipod/phone – no ones taking that away from you – the product is still as good as it was and will continue to work
It’ll be nice when some developers make the iPad version free to owners of their iphone app but no one should expect it and should regard such freebies as a mark of extreme generosity on behalf of the developer
I think I will sorely miss the bookshelf paradigm, but I may be wrong.
Either way, I’m glad to have CZ on the iPad!
Joey, we haven’t had bookshelves for quite a while now!
.:Drools:.
Want.
Brilliant. Consider me a fan already! $7.99 is the equivalent of…3 comics? 4 maybe? Definitely a good deal. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you that the simulator met with the reality of the iPad and you won’t have too many “glitches” to have to tinker with once the actual product is released.
I’m curious; does the CPU work necessary to unzip these files have a major effect on battery life?
As others have stated here, my #1 reason for getting an iPad will be this app. In all honesty I’ve stopped using the iPhone app just because the screen is too small to read on comfortably, so no fault of Comic Zeal’s.
One things that immediately strikes me:
1. Only $7.99? That’s too low. I’m not rich, nor am I particularly well-off, but $7.99 for an app that I would be using a lot seems a bit like I’m ripping you guys off. Consider making a more expensive version, even if the only difference is the price; providing Apple lets you do this.
Is there goiing to be a search function in the IPAD version.
Chris, not in the initial release but it’s one of my priorities.
Looks great guys!
Oh, and 7.99 is cheap for something like this. This app is also probably the #1 reason I’m getting an iPad.
Oh, emiliano, don’t try to sway with your confounded logic!
I guess I hadn’t noticed that the “shelves” had gone away. However, I do like the idea of going back to something full screen, that represents a collection, whether that be a nice wooden shelf of books, or a cardboard box of bagged comics. I’m just not sure how I will like simply pulling up a floating list, but hey, maybe it’ll be fine!
Of course, I’ll really can’t know until I’ve tried it.
I definitely love CZ, and I’m looking forward to buying it for my iPad!
I love comiczeal on the iphone for reading manga and comics but as david said it is a little too small to read comfortably, I just hope comiczeal is availible on launch because I dont want to have to wait to read my ever growing list of manga and comics on my ipad
Is there going to be an updated ComicSync to support the new resolution before the iPad launches? I would like to start converting
Not yet, I’m afraid that at launch some of the comic import features that we wanted haven’t made it.
The process for importing files through iTunes wasn’t finalised so I wasn’t able to include it.
Please use the current Comic Zeal Sync/wi-fi transfer for the first week after release, by then I hope to have the iPad native import ready for you, which means you won’t have to use wi-fi or any other software at all. Comic Zeal 4 will import your cbz/zip/cbr/rar files directly.
iPad apps are now on iTunes – CZ4 is there. C’mon Saturday!!!
Hooray! Thought it wasn’t going to make it! Already purchased …
Here’s the direct link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comic-zeal-comic-reader-4/id363990983?mt=8
Will CZ 4 for ipad allow me to just put .cbr files into the ipad without conversion? It is a real hassle to have to “convert” image files to view and have them shrunken. I would love to just drop my .cbr into itunes and be done with it. Would you PLEASE
give us the option to view full-res pages without down converting? It doesn’t seem like battery drain is much of an issue at all for the iPad and I would like to zoom into full quality sometimes.
Choco, yes to both your questions, just not on this first release because the tools that Apple gave us didn’t have support for shared file in the last few days so I had to rip out all of that code and replace it with the CZ 3 version. Probably for the best as it wasn’t properly tested, no iPads. So please use the CZ 3 sync method with CZ 4 for the first few days while I get the beta testers to give the final code a good work out. Unfortunately I won’t have an iPad during this time, Ah, the tyranny of distance, and Steve.
So to recap, CZ 4 will have drag and drop of cbz/cbr/zip/rar files and (assuming the iPad can handle it) full resolution page images. Just give me a little time to get the code tested and to Apple, in the meantime use the same Sync method you used for CZ 3.
Got my UPS tracking number, got my cbr, and bought the app. Now I just need my IPad. I wish I would have found this before emailing my questions related to these. Put I slap the first 5 star review pre-emptively. It would seem that the buzz of the union between comics and the IPad is looking to reinvigorate and advance comic reading in digital format. I’m excited to see how Comic Zeal will grow.
Me too Jay, exciting and busy times ahead, thanks for your support on the pricing issue. Already getting bad reviews on CZ 3 over it!
amendment to previous: as I read this forum Im reading the occasional whine about cost. Emiliano, void of your professional responses I will speak as if I were propositioned about my products/ services/ and value. I will do what everyone who works retail wants to do when they are being harassed, devalued or under-appreciated “Hey people what did you pay for the first app??? $4? 5? How much use have you gotten out of it? You must have liked it enough to be in a pre-launch forum with the programmer. Times are tough we are all trying to live a more economically conservative lifestyle, but programmers have to eat too. I guarantee you’ll get as much use out of this new app to rival the average video game. I beat God of War in one night, I’m sure I dropped at least fifty dollars on that. This app is the symbolic key to the car. The IPad as a whole is going to offer programmers more processor, resolution, and size to provide a much more evolved sophisticated product. In final summary, don’t justify that thousands of people will buy this app and these programmers should reap there rewards through volume. The truth of the matter, at 150,000 apps/ largest programming platform on the market, if you can’t support your cyber-artists he’s not going to be able, or be motivated to keep cranking product.
Well having never used this app for the iphone I’m not sure whats supposed to happen when I sync using SyncDocs with the iPad. Right now all it says is “Launch the handheld application that requires syncing, and choose sync”. So far nothing.
Hi Steve, the instructions are here: http://www.bitolithic.com/infos , it’s for the iPhone but the buttons are the same, just in different places.
I’m looking forward to being able to use iTunes new file sharing feature! The Sharing App is the buggiest, most user unfriendly thing I’ve ever had to use. I think you guys could learn a lot from Apple’s iBook App and the Marvel App.
I love the on-screen brightness control and shelf display format in the iBook app. These solutions are thoughtful and make use of the large screen. Both features, I think, would be welcomed additions to ComicZeal.
The Marvel App, also has a fantastic user interface, as well as large crisp images and a BLACK BACKGROUND that is so much easier on the eyes. Please get rid of the yellowed paper texture backdrop or at least give users the option to change it!!!! Those two bright off-white bars on either side of the pages are really distracting and ugly.
And what’s with the long right-to-left swipe closing the comic? I’ve closed the comic I was reading 3 or 4 times while trying to turn the page! It happens especially with double page spreads, where I’m assuming you require the swipe movement to cover over 40-50% of the width of the page before registering the page flip?
Good start guys, but I think your beta testers are slacking.
Brad, the closing comic thing and itunes file sharing will be fixed in the next version.
Just to let you know, Comic Zeal beta testers are the best, most dedicated, kind and patient people I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with. They have made Comic Zeal what it is and I’m eternally grateful to each and every one of them for every minute of their time they’ve donated to me. If they’d had iPads prior to the release I’m sure they would have picked up the bugs you mentioned and more. Unfortunately they didn’t and I had to go with a version I had tested myself on the simulator. The simulator turns out to behave very differently to the real device.
The app is working pretty well for me so far. Transfered a bunch of files over and they read great, even compressed to the iPhone standard. Excited for the upgrade that’ll make transferring the files easier.
One issue I found is double page spreads do not flip to the next page very easy. Often when I do this, I get kicked back to the file screen. A workaround is to drop down the interface and use the arrows to go to the next page.
Jeremy, I’ll fix the page flip bug in the next release, my apologies.
Great app for the iphone! Can you please enlighten me on a better way to sync through usb instead of the wifi sync doc application? The usb sync was a ton easier and when I sync wirelessly more than 10 comics at a time, I get time outs and it takes a long time to download. Also, why do iphone backups take such a long time?
Great application overall! I would get it the ipad for this, but it works great on my iphone so I really do not need the ipad.
Craig, Apple forced us to remove USB from the iPhone version. Have a look at the ad-hoc network setup instructions we have on the FAQ page. iPhone backups take a long time because the comics are being backed up to the PC/Mac and it’s just not too fast. Apparently it’s a lot better on the iPAd.
Comic Zeal 4 and the Marvel app were the first ones I downloaded. Figuring out the hoops to jump through was a bit of a challenge at first (I thought you’d be able to sync via the wired connection) but I was quite amazed at the results once all was said and done.
You have yourself a real winner here. Can’t wait to see what the upgrades will bring.
De, I’m sorry you had to jump through hoops to get the sync working. iTunes shared files functionality will be available in the first update. Thank you for your kind words!
Best app ever, and the most used app I have since yesterday morning when I finally got my iPad (which I am typing on right now). Thank you, I have a renewed interest in all my comics with this amazing interface!
Jesse, thank you!
According to the SDK, you should use the /Library/Cache directory if your application produces large data files:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/iPad/index.html#documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/FilesandNetworking/FilesandNetworking.html
This directory is not involved in the backup process so adding more comics would not increase backup time. Could this be provided as an option for those that don’t care to have their comics included in backups?
+1 on a way to get rid of the yellow background. Very jarring when panning around dark comics.
The problem with the cache directory is that it’s not guaranteed to survive an application update. So there’s a possibility that all comics and data could be lost in an update.
I’ve added an option to change the background to the to-do list.
I would be in a similar boat to most people here. I’m loving the app, and have used it on the iPhone, despite the obvious drawbacks the small screen has. My main gripe isn’t however with the current method of transferring. That’s just the way it has to be done. My main gripe is that there is no way, that I can see, to order your comics into groups. I would have no issue converting all my comics for the app, but having no way to, say, group issues into story arcs for both easy file management and as a group within the app to see what story etc, is something that would be a bigger concern.
I’m not used CZ4 yet, as I’m waiting for my iPad so ignore me if I’m irrelevant now!!
Chris, in the app you can move a group of comics into an new category by pressing ‘edit’, selecting the comics, pressing ‘move’ and then pressing ‘other’. That will let you enter the name for the new category.
Absolutely loving this app on the iPad. Quick question, though: On the iPhone, when I leave the app and come back, it displays the last comic I was viewing where I left off. On the iPad, when I come back I just get the woodgrain table and have to reselect the comic from the “Recent” menu to continue. Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?
Freon, that’s a bug that’s on the to-do list.
First of all, love the app. Been using it for months and it was a prime motivator for me getting an iPad. My favorite aspect of the Marvel app is the simple way to turn the page – just tap left or right. I don’t know how you feel about that, but i would kill to be able to have that as an option in Comiczeal.
Will, I’ve not had a chance to use the Marvel app yet, but how does it know if you’re tapping to change page or to change the zoom?
Hey, the app works great so far, but since it is 8 bucks I was wondering if you could address the issue brought up by Brad in regards to the brightness control (a must, I find the native brightness adjustment faulty at times, and with it you can make the colors pop) and then yellow background, black is a lot easier on the eyes.
Additionally, I have found that going from one issue to the next is more cumbersome than it should be. There should definitely be a shortcut for that, perhaps maybe a double or triple tap?
Thanks again for providing the one paid app I consider most worth having
Cdk, brightness controls and background change are now on the do-to list too. So is a way to get to the next comic quickly but that’s not as high a priority.
I’m getting very excited about CZ and my inevitable iPad purchase. Emiliano, I also request a brightness slider. Long comic sessions might require a few brightness adjustments.
Would like to see a way to get to the next issue in the series quick as well. Would be less painful if the collection popup would remember its state when you close it.
For the backup thing – maybe open a bug through ADC and they’ll add a new persistent but not backed-up directory. This is a general problem that many apps seem to have.
Tap to change page would be awesome too. Tap middle to change zoom, left for back, right for next. Kindle app does something similar. I don’t find myself using the zoom much on the iPad as is.
Will comiczeal be available for the HP Slate? I’m trying to decide between the iPad and waiting for the Slate. I love comiczeal on the iPhone, it’s my favorite app!
Vylan, I don’t have any plans to port it over to another platform at the moment. I really enjoy working on the iPhone and iPad. Does that help your decision? Thanks for your kind words.
Quick bug report: If you set the drop arrow to disappear in Settings and you’re on the main screen (with no comic open) and you make the menu disappear, there’s no way to bring the menu back without reopening the app.
Added to to-do list, thank you.
Is there a way to clear the contents of the “recent” tab? Mine is already super long. Also can we create our own folders to organize our collection better?
No way to remove the contents but it’s been suggested that the order should be reversed, that makes sense to me. You can move a whole bunch of comics into a new category by selecting the ‘Other’ option during a move.
Well, the way the marvel apps works is that it automatically adds a slight boarder to each page, so you just tap in that blank space to turn. It works quite well.
I hope to have a look at it soon, I wouldn’t want to copy it though!
Excellent app. One of the main reasons I bought the iPad was for this great app you wrote and I would have paid much more for it. I have a few, hopefully constructive and helpful comments.
a. The sync app was terribly buggy and frustrating to use. I am glad that you eliminated it and added in the file sync.
b. However, the compression takes an awfully long time on the iPad. I am actually now torn between using the sync app and dealing with timeouts versus waiting for the ipad to compress the files.
c. Speaking of that, it would be really neato to have a way to compress the comics before syncing them as an option. That would be the best of both worlds. Maybe leave both as an option.
d. You should publish directions on how to use the new file transfer, it took my newbish brain awhile to figure it out on my own.
e. It would be nice to be able to rename categories and comics on the iPad.
f. It would be nice to be able to organize comics into categories before you transfer them. One cool thing might be some sort of app that compresses the files and adds metadata before you add them to the file sync. Or maybe organize them into folders before you sync or something.
g. You should write a desktop app for organizing a collection and viewing them on the ipad/pc. Right now I thing your biggest competitor is comicbooklover. They have a sweet desktop app but no real ipad/iphone app. You have an awesome ipad/iphone app but no desktop app. I think it would rock if you had both.
Jeff, some answers for you:
a. yes, me too!
b. I’ll be working at making the import faster as soon as UPS delivers my iPad to Australia and I can perform some testing.
c. you can use CZ Sync to convert the files into cbi and then get the cbi files from the Comic Zeal Sync directory and dropping them into iTunes, sorry to ask you to use it again though!
d. directions are in the iTunes application description, you probably downloaded it in the few hours between Apple approving it and me waking up!
e. you can rename categories by moving it into a category with a different name, can’t rename comics though, that whole area of functionality could do with an update.
f. … yes
g. I’d like to have both too, but it would mean a complete re-write as the tools use to develop for iPhone/Pad are not suitable for desktop development. Well, they are for the mac but it would have to work on both Mac and Windows so either way a re-write is necessary. If I had lots of time it’s certainly something I’d like to do but I’m not in a position to pursue that at the moment.
Thanks for your thoughtful questions and comments.
Yes, please add some sort of tap to flip pages. Swipe is nice, but it is annoying if holding the iPad with one hand.
I just downloaded the new version of Comiczeal. Like the direct syncing within iTunes. Only thing is that it is very slow when you re-open the app and it dumps all the comics into the app itself. 35 average sized comics took nearly 20 minutes to finish. Also, I can’t see a quality difference between adding through iTunes versus SyncDoc. Has high resolution been implemented?
Steve, yes, high resolution has been implemented, the images are not downsized at all.
I’ll be working on improving the import speed very soon.
I think it’s fantastic you got an update out this quickly. Thanks!
Comiczeal is better than the Marvel App.
Ok, so just to be clear:
If I already own the version 3 iPhone version, do I have to buy Comic Zeal 4 ?
Pierce, yes, CZ 4 is a major update.
Hello
WIll this affect your ability to add brightness controls to the app?
http://gizmodo.com/5510678/apples-ipad-apps-wouldnt-have-been-approved-by-the-app-store
Cdk, no, there are other methods to implement brightness. Like having a semi-transparent black layer on the whole interface. Apple’s is the only way that will save power though!
Awesome awesome app! Thank you! What about adding an option to change the background graphic/color?
Jason, background colour change is already on the to-do list and will probably get done relatively quickly.
Are you guys ever going to speed up the syncing times? I use goodreader to sync my comics by unziping the CBR files and importing them into custom folders. I bought this app to mass sync my comics but it takes way to long to sync multiple issues at a time :-/
Dee, improving import times has a very high priority. I thought it was better to get this update out there than wait for the courier to deliver the test iPad to Australia! Hearing about the widespread wifi issues the iPad is having I’m glad I did.
Here’s another feature request:
I tend to enlarge the comic to fit the width of the device (whether portrait or landscape) and I was wondering if you could put in a setting/toggle/button that would allow for that to be done automatically.
Another feature:
Along with that request, if there was a way to restrict scrolling to just up/down, so that you’re not revealing the background under the comic when you set it to “fit width.”
Fit Width is a setting I’m used to on CDisplay, a freeware PC comic viewer. In addition to that setting, CDisplay adds a setting to “suppress fit width for double pages” so that the big panoramic scans don’t show up zoomed.
Jazz, you mean a way to use the orientation of the device as a zoom essentially? That makes sense, I’ll need some time to get to it though.
Another Feature Request:
The ability to display two pages at once.
Jollysword, already on the ever-increasing to-do list! If it’s any consolation we got through most of the CZ 3 to-dos before CZ 4. Some have been done in 4 (international character support for filenames for example).
Holy cow, over 100 comments on one blog post. You guys are building a following, I hope you know how to use it to your advantage. Fast updates and fast direct answered questions is a damn good start!
Sorry for insulting your beta team, but I think this crowd sourced suggestion list is doing a better job.
Here’s a few more bugs I’ve found:
1. Start up Comic Zeal with the hide arrow setting set in the settings panel. Click to hide the navigation without having a comic open. You’ll then be stuck on a yellow screen, no amount of double tapping will bring the navigation back, restart is required to fix.
2. In the collection modal, tap edit, choose a comic, tap move and the choose to create a new folder/series, leave the name field blank and hit submit. The app will then crash.
Add me to the list of people who would like to see the following:
1. Faster import.
2. Tap on far left or right of screen to flip page.
3. Optional 2 page view.
Also, I’d love if the page could be moved around a little more on scree like the Marvel app. Like you can move the page to the point that you get a peek at the next page but don’t have to flip. This is just personal preference because while reading a real comic I sometimes like to peek ahead to the next page.
I’m glad the yellow background will be gone soon and I’m really enjoying the lose less quality. Though I would have been happy with 2x the max resolution (2560×1440) as a standard compression rate. But obviously, with 16, 32, & 64GB, I guess storage isn’t as much of an issue as it was on the iPhone version!
Hi Brad, answers!
1. yes, already captured, doesn’t have as high a priority right now as getting the import right, plus it’s a tricky fix, the issue stems from the fact that on the iPhone the comic page always took up the whole screen and was always shown in the reading mode.
2. thanks, added to the to-do
requests:
1. yes, priority #1
2. need to look into it a little more, how to differentiate between a tap to change page and a tap to zoom in the area?
3. yes, already on the to-do
Thank you!
(you leave my betas alone mean man)
Hi, Even though the iPad isn’t out here until the 24th (I’m British by the way) I’m looking for apps already and came across yours now I was just about to buy it when I noticed the amount of time it takes to import a comic…
Thing is I’ve got almost 1,700 comics in CBR format that I’m going to want to put on my iPad and carry around with me all the time… You might think that strange but I got a head injury when I came off my motorbike and have to sit and read for 2 hours a day everyday to remake the pattern recognition connections all over again, so can you please make importing your 1st priority…
Cheers Lee
Lee, sorry to hear about your accident, your therapy doesn’t sound strange at all.
Speeding up imports is my #1 priority at the moment. I really needed to get rid of wifi sync ASAP so I didn’t get a chance to optimise, that and the fact that like you, I’m in what Apple calls ‘the rest of the world’. Thankfully UPS has been nice enough to get one to me today.
Ciao! Just wanted to say that if you import a .cbz file >20mb it seems to just want to crash and kick out to the home screen. I have had no issues however with my .cbr files, but can’t seem to import the .cbz’s for the life of me. At the moment, to even use the app, I have to connect it to my macbook pro and open iTunes and remove the .cbz file having issues… a bit of a pain. I guess I will have to try this sync option to convert the files as a temporary work around until this is resolved… and for my 8 bucks it better be.
I will say this is a pretty good comic reader, and one of the many reasons i purchased my 64gb iPad.
Jason, I got the bitolithic iPad yesterday (I’m in Australia), and when I pried it from Mrs. Bitolithic’s hands I did some testing on the real device and found a memory leak on import. I’ve fixed that, made imports a LOT faster and page turns easier and have submitted to Apple.
I’m happy iTunes sync is now in place, as I could never get WiFi sync to work at all. But now, I added a directory full of comics (about 150) and when I run ComicZeal, it says “Importing Comics” followed by a comic name, displays that for about 15 seconds and crashes. Every. Time.
This is insanely frustrating. Reading .cbz files is one of the major reasons I picked up an iPad in the first place.
Tim, yes, my apologies, there was a memory leak that didn’t show up on the simulator, the fix is already with Apple for (hopefully) approval.
Guess you’ve heard it over and over, but, yeah, the import thing is a real killer. I have found a solution however!
Go to settings, change auto-off time to never.
I import a good chunk of comics just before bed.
Plug it in, fire up CZ4 and let it import all night.
Looking forward to being able to do it any time of the day!
Love the app bro. Best comic reader out there, and I’ve tried most of them.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks Porter! I’m glad you’re enjoying CZ! It’s been a very exciting time for me too, new platform, exciting software and responsive users. Times like these don’t come often in a developer’s life.
One issue that I’m not sure is CZ4, but I strongly think it is. I went a bit nuts dropping comics onto it, and I think the way it stores them on the device is negatively impacting iTune’s backup. After installing about 600 MB worth of comics (not that much for a 32G device really), my syncs now take on the order of 2 hours to back up the iPad. I suspect it might be the monolithic file that is created ont he iPad after it imports the comics, and any change there forcing iTunes to sync the whole file.
I’ll have to wipe my comics to know if it’s for sure CZ4 that’s doing it, but is anyone else noticing a really slow backup now?
Ash, there is no monolithic file for the comics so you won’t get the long backup times once the original backup is finished. At the moment there isn’t anywhere we can put your data thats guaranteed to be kept safe during app updates AND not backed up. So if we want to keep your data safe (which we do!), we need to get it backed up to iTunes too.
Yah… I feel like a dunce. I’m wandering around iTunes, trying to figure out how this “direct import” thing works. I’ve tried dragging and dropping, not getting anywhere. I’ve wandered around bitolithic, but I can’t find a how-to, just this mysterious phrase:
“You can use iTunes to import cbr,cbz,cbi,zip and rar files directly into Comic Zeal.”
Elsewhere, “Dropping them into iTunes.”
…and… how, exactly?
Douglas, go into the Apps tab for your device. Underneath all your apps and home pages, scroll down and click on Comic Zeal. Drag and drop your comic files into that box where it says “Add…”. Hope this helps.
ALSO, ANOTHER BUG REPORT: When you’re reading a comic and you click on the top menu icon that says “comics” to go to another issue, it takes two taps on that icon before it responds for some reason. It highlights on the first tap, but doesn’t drop down the comics pop-up.
(appending last comment)
whoops, I meant the icon that says “Collection,” not “comics”
I agree with JazzFlight, had the double-tap error myself. Also, when trying to move a comic/comics and using the “other” selection to make a new folder, the keyboard pops up but it won’t type anything.
Love the program, though, my wife calls my iPad my $600 comic reader (whole rolling her eyes at me)…
*while rolling her eyes…
Jesse,
I had this problem to, you have to tap at the end of where it says “series” in the text box to move the cursor there, then you can start typing. This was pretty confusing for me too since it looks kinda like series is some default text that is in the textbox.
Emiliano: Maybe it would be good to set focus to that text box after the keyboard loads.
+1 for Left/Right tap for forward/backward page flipping respectively. Otherwise…looks great (downloaded app about 2 minutes ago
Adam, will do.
Wait a minute… Bitolithic is an Aussie company? Comic Zeal is now a done deal for me – as soon as the iPad is released here, of course…
Anthony, we sure are! I’m really eager for the darned thing to be released here too. I feel like a tool taking it out in public so it’s been hidden and not used as much as it should be.
Hi,
Comic Zeal looks great on the Ipad, it’s my new favorite app.
There are several small issues which will surely be addressed in updates. Some move attempts crash the app, sometimes a second edit bar appears, the virtual keyboard pops up and has to be dismissed before the name command can be used, and the “Other” choice requires scrolling through every existing name before it can be selected. Minor things which don’t really detract much from the quality of the program.
The big issue for me isn’t the load times, it’s the sync time. In an earlier post it was said, “there is no monolithic file for the comics so you won’t get the long backup times once the original backup is finished,” but what exactly does this mean? I spent one evening adding files and the next sync took 3 hours. I spent another evening adding files and had to stop the sync because it was going to take 6 hours. The “other” section on my usage bar keeps growing and growing. I’m pretty sure that a sync would now last longer than the Ipad battery can sustain, even plugged in with the wi-fi deactivated.
So far, I’ve been working around the need to sync — and I like Comic Zeal enough that I don’t mind doing that. At some point, such as an OS upgrade, there won’t be a work around.
Thanks for the great app. I’m looking forward to every improvement.
Lowbill, what the monolithic file comment was referring to was that once the sync has happened, the same files won’t be backup up time and time again. The first time though, they have to be backed up. Unfortunately there isn’t anywhere to keep the files where they won’t be backed up and are guaranteed to be kept safe in between app updates. The speed at which backups happen just isn’t something we can affect. There is just a lot of data that has to work its way back to the PC via the little USB cable.
Thanks for the quick reply.
First, I want to correct part of my earlier comment. It’s not necessary to dismiss the keyboard to enter a series name, it just looks that way since the “Series” input line isn’t auto-selected.
Are you saying that the program’s data is stored in small files and only the files which have changed will be backed up in the next sync? That the way around a long sync time is to let Itunes back the Ipad up more frequently? Perhaps this could be spelled out explicitly in some sort of manual or help file?
One other thing I’m curious about: where does Comic Zeal get the name for each comic? Is it the archive name or is there some other source? If it’s the archive name, it would be nice to know the best naming structure so issues of the same title are automatically boxed together. Is there a maximum length for a name? How does the program know issue numbers?
Again, thanks for your quick response. This is my first experience with Comic Zeal, so every bit of help is appreciated.
Lowbill, yes, the data is stored as a lot of little files. The names for the comics is just the filename of the original file. I’ll add a note about how to automagically sort them into categories somewhere. Do you guys think the FAQ, iTunes or the program description? For now you can read about it in the instructions for CZ Sync.
Hey E, I have another possible change for you to consider. Can you switch the function of double and single tapping? As it is now, it is the exact opposite of how apple uses these actions. In safari a double tap will zoom and I’m sure this is what most users expect to happen in CZ. I know I make this mistake at least once a day.
Choco, you can already do that, just have a look at the Comic Zeal section of the Settings app on your device. The setting is ‘double-tap loupe’.
E,
Thanks again for the quick reply and the recent update.
Importing is much faster, so I decided to make sure I have consistent filenames and reload my comics. One file didn’t sort properly and caused CZ to close when I tried to move it. I noticed that there were two consecutive spaces in the filename. When I deleted the superfluous space and reloaded the file it worked fine.
After six or eight hours of loading files, I reloaded Itunes and then initiated a backup sync. I stopped it after thirty minutes when it became apparent the backup would take at least four hours. This was with loading only a small portion of what I hope to put on the Ipad.
I don’t want to sound snide, but won’t a restore take at least as long as a backup? Even with incremental backups, won’t it be easy to have a restore time which surpasses the battery’s capacity? You certainly have good reasons for how CZ is designed, but it would be nice to have some other option. Right now, if I want to keep my files backed up it will apparently add 50% more time to the process.
Again, thanks for your quick replies and for the update.
Lowbill, I’ll chase up that double space problem.
There seems to be some confusion here and in the app reviews about backups. It appears that people believe that Comic Zeal has some choice about if files get backed up or not. Others believe that there is something we should be doing to make backups faster.
Neither of those is true, backups are handled by iTunes and your device, it’s got nothing to do with Comic Zeal. If you add 60 gigabytes of data to your device, those 60 gigabytes will be backed up in iTunes. There is nothing that we can do about this.
I’ve added the following text to the iTunes description ‘Please keep in mind that whatever comics you add, iTunes will want to back up. So don’t add tens or gigabytes at once or your next sync will take a while!’.
Hi Emiliano, ComicZeal was one of the first apps I bought for my iPad and I’ve been happy with it ever since, great app
I do have one request, though, and I apologize if it’s already been requested (just too many comments to read through…), which is better options for sorting comics. Generally speaking it works fine, but I do have a few issues with it. Sometimes I merge series together because they interact a lot or are from the same family of titles, and there’s no good way to put them in a box together and have them retain any semblance of order. Traditionally I’ve just added a numerical identifier in front of them indicating order (001, 002 etc), but ComicZeal reads this oddly. I’ll use Fables as an example: I have 000 Fables Graphic Novel, which is then followed by 100-150 (a mix of the two titles plus minis) and then after that is 010-099 and ends with 001-009. I hope that makes sense, if not I can take a picture of the screen and email it to you.
Along the same lines sometimes I have to insert a title into a previously created set and it’s easier to tack on a letter rather than reorder everything. For instance, I have Avengers Initiative 18a (AI: Special), but it appears at the absolute bottom of my Avengers Initiative box.
Even being able to manually sort by holding and dragging would be great. Either way this is a great app, and thank you for developing it so I don’t have to lug my collection of TPBs around
Suraph, yes, will definitely put in a better way to sort and renaming. Now that CZ Sync is out of the loop these things are becoming more important.
The lack of any ability to rename files once they’re on the iPad is somewhat crippling. (I realize I can move from one folder to another, but this does not solve the problem of poorly named folders that I seemingly have no control over). Any chance we’ll see that feature added down the road?
Rob, you may not be able to rename the files yet but you can rename the folders (in a way, a bad way, but a way) by using move, just select a folder and move it to a new one by using the ‘other …’ entry in the move list.
Glad to see the import problems have been fixed. I’m still waiting for the background color change option to be added, that’s still my number one complaint.
Just wanted to post again to point out a new bug I found. I had a comic with 0.5 in the filename (A Wizard 1/2 issue) that took a crash and a couple of tries to delete. I’m not sure if it was the period in the file name or what. Just thought it’d be worth looking into at some point, since your going to be revisiting the file naming system when you add the edit options anyway.
Brad, was that after the 4.0.5 update?
Thanks for being so responsive emiliano – tried what you suggested, did wonders to help me organize things. This is a killer app.
Rob, that’s great news.
Hi, just quick question I am getting an error message saying that there isn’t enough space to transfer file but I have plenty of space left on ipad is there a limit to how much you can transfer to comiczeal
Kurt, is Comic Zeal giving you the error message? There shouldn’t be a limit, at least, I don’t remember coding one!
Loving the ipad version of comiczeal, the iphone screen was always too small for me, and i confess one of the main reasons i bought the ipad was to read comics on it.
But….
I Need to be able to place folders into other folders.
As it is once i move one folder into another all the comics are unfoldered.
For example i downloaded DCs blackest night, which means one main series, 6 crossovers with 3 episodes each, green lantern and green lantern core crossovers with 7 episodes each and 8 tie in episodes into other series.
Putting all those comics into one folder creates a cacaphony of titles and series.
Nor do i want 15 folders on my main screen since i also have many other comics.
I want 1 folder that says blackest night, them in that folder a small group of folders that says, blackest night main, blackest night batman, blackest night superman, blackest night wonderwoman… Etc etc.
Then one folder that says tie ins, and in that folder a bunch of other folders for every tie in title.
Sorry this got so long, just wanted to make sure u understood exactly what i meant.
Exodus, that’s something that’s in the works but I can’t tell you how quickly it will happen. Not even sure if it will end up taking that form. I realise that we need to categorise series, events, arcs, crossovers etc. I’m not sure how yet. It will probably be part of the next ‘big’ upgrade (4.1 or maybe 4.2).
I am getting the error message from itunes
Alright fair enough.
For my part i would be happy if moving one folder into another yielded a folder within a folder.
But its probably not that easy, and at the end of the day there is probably room for improvement to the whole edit system.
emiliano,
I continue to be impressed by CZ and your customer care. Your advice on filenames had made orgainzation much easier.
There still seems to be a problem with backups, though. Taking your messages to heart, I adjusted my workflow and am backing up frequently — but sync times seem even more out of proportion. When I load 6-8 comics (mostly Golden Age, about 60 pgs. each,) it may take 5-10 minutes to install the files but the backup sometimes takes 2-3 times that long. You can imagine my frustration.
Every time I start Itunes with my Ipad connected, or link my Ipad, there’s a message that provider data from sync services didn’t load, but then everything seems to function normally. It has done this since day one, even before I loaded CZ. I’m not asking you to diagnose my system, but thought that might be pertinent information.
Thanks for all the feedback.
Hi…I just converted a few files using the ComicZeal sofware and it downloaded fine on my ipad but when I want to open it it gives me an error saying ” The image is too small”. Can someone please help with this problem…thx.
Zooz, you don’t need to convert the comics with the most recent version of Comic Zeal 4
app is great, only drawback is that my two page spreads get loaded out of sequence, mostly at the end of the book, totally frustrating. is this an open issue?
Jordan,
Can you please manually de-compress the file and let me know if they are named correctly? If not, is there another file somewhere in the archive that shows the correct order for the images?
Exodus I had the same problem. The files are serialized at the beginning of the file name. What I did was had them synced to the root directory, some might show up as series but that is ok. Then create a new folder by hitting edit, move, other and name the folder. When you move them all there they should all show up in order.
Love this app! To everyone complaining about Itunes backing up taking so long. Just disable the auto-sync and set it to manual.
It’s just plain silly to backup 16-64 gigs worth of mp3s/pdfs/cbr when you already have them backed up locally on your PC. Once i imported all my contacts in (which is backed up on gmail) i felt no need to have space used for a 3rd copy of my files.
You really only need a regular scheduled when you CREATE files on your iPad and feel they need to be backed up on your PC.
Cdk: yes, but i need more folders INSIDE the other folders.
I cant have a folder with 400 issues in it.
Even if those issues are in serial.
I LOVE this app! Great job, some suggestions:
– Please allow us to change the background color to black, or have some options
– Could the sync tool have some compression options? I do see some quality loss when using the tool vs not
Thanks a lot!
Chris, I love all my customers but I do wish you guys would read the iTunes description for the app! Is it that you guys are using links you already had to Comic Zeal 3 for the iPhone?
I’m going to add background selection soon, you don’t need to use the sync tool or compression, this and instructions for renaming are explained in iTunes.
One other thing, when I try to move to a new folder it opens up the keyboard but I can’t enter any text. It just has one field that says “Series” but won’t let me edit it.
Any ideas?
emiliano,
After comparing CZ’s backup times with some other comic book readers, like Marvel and IDW, it seems on par. With autosync disabled it was tempting to take the approach Vinh described, but then any comics downloaded straight to the Ipad won’t get backed up, nor will other such data. It’s tedious, but the benefits of CZ are worth the time.
CZ doesn’t display underlines, but it does seem to see them as part of a title for organization. Is this intentional?
Some archives just won’t load properly. Oddly, the two archives which haven’t loaded for me were both issue 14 of their respective runs, but that’s probably just a coincidence. Even opening and re-archiving the files didn’t seem to help.
I really like the bookmark feature. It makes reading anthology series much easier.
Thanks again for all the great work.
Lowbill, the underlines thing is intentional, cbi files had them instead of spaces to get over some limitations.
It’s starting to look as though the iPad just can’t handle very large images. I’m looking into it but that could be why you’re getting the problems with some archives. Are the problems on very large page images?
Love the app, although for a guy like me who pretty much just wants to read manga with it, I could find no setting option to make the app read right to left, or any functionality to switch between Western and Manga modes as promised in the app description on iTunes. I tried messing with all the available settings to no avail. I’m bummed because I bought the app since it said in the product description that it could be switched to Manga mode, but reading right to left, as far as I can tell, is not possible at the moment.
Mike, I’ve removed that text from the iTunes description and will provide you with a proper manga mode soon.
“I’m going to add background selection soon”
How soon? I thought it would have been in one of the last two updates!
Brad, I can’t reply to your question until you prove you’re the guy in your avatar picture.
emiliano,
The image files seem the same size or smaller than files which have successfully loaded. Could it be how the files or archives are named?
The reason I was curious about undelines is that CZ doesn’t automatically combine files from the same series when some filenames have spaces and others have underlines. In fact, it appears that the files can’t be in the same box. It just means being more careful about naming files.
As always, thanks for the continued feedback and support.
Lowbill, I’m going to have a look at this early next week, I haven’t had a chance to so far but will do as soon as I can. I know it’s a super-ultra-high priority but there have been things higher up on the priority list over the last week!
I noticed that there is still a “rotation lock” button. It is completely useless. E, you should setup a forum for support and discussion. This comment system is kind of huge now.
choco, I thought the rotation lock button was useless too until I went to bed and tried to read in the dark, after a few rotations I couldn’t easily find the built-in hardware lock. Now I’m reconsidering.
Next major feature needed is the ability to load the next comic in an Album from a comic. Takes too many swipes to open Collection, Album, Scroll through to find comic, load comic, remove the headers.
Is there ever going to be an option to not resize our comics or at least allow us a larger size? The resize seems to go about 20% too small and I have artifacting around type and it becomes hard to read.
Rodrigue, why are you resizing your comics? Is this on the iPhone?
I would really like to read my comics via Bonjour on a network HD instead of syncing all the time. Would that be possible? A two page view in horizontal mode would be awesome and native support for .pdf files would make my life complete
xain, I understand that you guys want to be able to see two pages in landscape but can you tell me why? isn’t it a lot better to see one page that you can read the text on?
are we ever going to get a two page layout? That and the back ground/ swiping delay are driving me crazy.
also having a trouble naming a folder
Sean, what swiping delay?
What’s the estimated max image resolution / file size before the ipad app crashes? I have some cbr files that have caused CZ to quit mid-issue. I’m hoping that they just need to be batch resized or compressed in like, Photoshop or something…
Additional post:
Okay, I think I’ve figured it out: the double-wide pages were the root of the problem. They were something like 2900 wide and about 1.5 mb in size. I resized them down to 1800 wide and compressed to half size or so. Works perfectly now. I didn’t even have to compress the portrait pages that were around 1mb in size and around 2000 wide.
Maybe the limit is around 2500~2900 pixels wide?
I could be wrong and the issue could be something completely different, I don’t know, but I hope this helped anyone.
Jazz, it’s not just an image size thing, could be that there are two separate issues. It DOES however look like very large images will be slow and difficult to manipulate in the app. The hardware just isn’t built to do that kind of thing fast.
Hi Emiliano,
The need for two pages in landscape stems from the need to see two page spreads that havn’t been connected in the cbr file. Also, it just feels more natural to see the two at once, and most of the time I have no trouble seing the captions in landscape.
By the way, excellent job with this app. Its the first one I bought and I love it.,
Alex Lopez
Alex, Ah, that makes sense!
On a related note to the two page spread – it would be nice for the app to auto rotate the screen when displaying a joined two page spread and show it in landscape.
Thanks for the app – it is my personal killer app for the iPad! I look forward to future improvements.
biomech, you mean for it to rotate the image for you? Apple wouldn’t allow it and they’d be right to too! The device shouldn’t be telling you how to hold it. It should adapt to what YOU do.
yup..same reason here. Sometimes a drawing is spread over 2 pages. In vertical mode seeing 2 pages is impossible but in horizontal mode it would be perfectly possible to see bother pages at once.
In short: like the two views available in iBooks.
Two more little things:
Some files copied to comiczeal via itunes disappeared after being converted by the app on the iPad.
It’s also a bit uneasy to have your files being renamed to the folder “imported comics” in iTunes after you have processed them on the iPad.
Have you thought about a system a la ReaddleDocs (finder based) on the iPad for uploading?
And indeed the swiping isn’t that smooth.
Good Luck & Love
xian09, so you wouldn’t want any border at all between the images on the two page spread? iBooks ads a border but if the purpose of the feature is to see two pages as one then I don’t think you’d like that too much.
As for the deleted files, it could be that CZ couldn’t get any images out of the files, can you please email me so I can have a look at it?
xain09,
I’ve also had files either disappear or otherwise not appear in CZ after loading them. In virtually every case it turned out to be an archive within an archive, which some PD websites do to keep all issues of a title together. If the file is a rar or zip rather than a cbr or cbz, open the archive and double check. If it is an archive (or archives) within an archive, just extract the cbr/z files and that will solve the problem. There will still be the rare file which just won’t load.
Hope that helps.
Thanx. I’ll have a look “inside” the .cbr/.cbz files when I’m back @ home later today. Have a look @ the Retro Gamer App for the iPad to see what I mean. (free issue included with app)
emiliano, I second the recommendation of a message board forum rather than this comment list. Also, although I purchased CZ for my iPod Touch, I haven’t gotten for my iPad yet. You should check out the free app CloudReaders for a good implementation of PDF/cbr/cbz transfer and reading. It’s quick and easy to use. If you could take the ease of use of that app and combine it with the cool organization of your app, I’d buy the newer CZ in a heartbeat. Check it out and I’ll keep reading here looking for changes. Thanks for being an involved developer and an open communicator. I truly appreciate it.
Jayhawk, what is it about the Cloudreader transfer that you prefer?
Auto rotate is more of a usability issue – it is pretty near pointless to try reading it in portrait mode.
I think Apple’s philosophy is more in line with this – basically forcing you to do things the “best” way, ie their way.
Also, another app already has this feature, and the more I read books that heavily use two page spreads, the more i wish the functionality was there. Right now, I have to bring up the interface, disable the rotation lock, rotate, lock rotation, then remove the interface. This becomes painful to do every other page and really pulls me out of the reading experience.
Read more about the feature in the other app here:
http://gizmodo.com/5511926/best-ipad-comic-reader-comic-zeal-vs-comic-reader-mobi
@bi0mech I have read 20 comics in portrait mode today. You must have horrible eyesight.
I am currently backing up my comics, and its going on 24 hours and its probably only 40% done. I am backing up a lot, which I accept has some to do with it. I have 20gb right now on my ipad. I had around 5 on it last time It was backed up so it is adding another 15gb. Why is is it going to take 50+ hours. Now I cant use my ipad or I will have to start the backup again. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Andrew, it looks like this is a general complaint with the iPad. Third-party apps with lots of data slow down the backups. This is NOT a Comic Zeal specific problem but one with the way the iPad backs up files. You can cancel the backup by pressing the little cross to the right of the iTunes status pane so you can continue to sync etc. Actually, I’ve just had a quick look at the Apple forums and seen something which doesn’t sound likely but could be worthwhile trying. Some people are saying that using the USB cable that came with the iPad instead of an older one makes a difference. If you’re not using the iPad USB cable, can you give that a try? I don’t believe it can make much of a difference but it’s worth a shot.
Chocobavits, he meant trying to read double spread pages in portrait mode.
i’ve put some comics onto my ipad thru comiczeal 4, some are perfectly fine but the app crashes on some files after opening for like half minute (file spec.: a 2xxmb zip file, inside which, there’re about over 100 png files around 3129×2200). is these kinda files too large for comiczeal? coz some of the manga on hand r in similar spec. pls help. thx~
disregard that last statement. I just read through all the posts and I got my answer.CZ4 is definitely the app I plan on using most, that and ibooks. The program is great and it can only get better. it does have problems and needs updates that have already been discussed. but It is already fantastic. keep up the awesome work.
after using comiczeal sync to shrink them, it works now. however, i can’t quite nail the file rename function…
sort out the file rename function eventually! better to shrink those files before putting on ipad. now, 1 issue of manga is like 3x mb vs 2xx mb without shrinking.
Emiliano-
I used the ipad app for a long trip and it worked wonderfully! The only issue was that once on a two-page spread for a large file (highly detailed) it crashed, but it has done that on the iPad photo album as well, so that may just be iPad, and perhaps could be fixed in the transfer process in future releases.
The big issue that has just come up that I cannot fix happened when I came back from my trip, deleted the comic collections I read and kept the ones I hadn’t but then uploaded some new ones through iTunes. They uploaded just fine and I can see them just fine, it only has an issue when I try and drag all of these into new collections. When I highlight the new comics in the edit function, then hit move, and then hit other, this brings up the edit box where it used to allow me to type in a new name. No matter what I do, I cannot get it to allow me to type in the new series name. It makes the keyclick sounds like it is doing it, nothing will appear, and then I tried to hit save and it shows it was moved to a blank collection, then when I hit save the whole thing crashes. It looks like the blank name for a collection is what crashes it, but can’t get it to let me name a new collection. Any thoughts? Anyone else face this?
Thanks, and if I didn’t say it before, this is one heck of a application, and you should really be charging more for it!
Matt, it looks like the iPad may have a limit on the maximum image size. Which makes sense really as the hardware is very customised to fit into the device, draw little power etc.
As for your problem entering the new name, are you tapping on the area to the right of the word ‘series’? that should get the cursor to come up. Let me know if it doesn’t, sorry about the bad experience there. I’m going to get it fixed in the next update for you.
just got a short question…how do I have to rename the cbr-files so a complete series will automatically go into one box?
Tim, have a look here: http://www.bitolithic.com/infos , in the wifi tab you’ll find the instructions on how to do this at the bottom of the page.
Thanks for the suggestions. I just wish I could cancel a backup and when I plugged it back in it would start back where I left off, so that way I could use my ipad during the day. not backing up is not an option considering how long it took to sync everything. I also plan on replacing my 32gb ipad with a 64bg, and I would rather simply restore and get everything back than have to sync it all again. At least it is only a one time thing, In the end it will all be worth it. Since it seems to be apples fault I hope they resolve it with a future update.
The reading experience in CloudReaders is the best to be honest. This app lacks any decent functions for folders or renaming BUT the reading is done very nice and smooth. Have a look
Xian, in what way?
I love this app. It’s great! I just have a suggestion that is not really important but could be cool and make this truly the killer app for comic reading. How about considering implementing the page turning effect just like how iBooks is doing?
Also, I thought it makes more sense to sort the “Recents” to having the last read at the top instead of at the bottom as each time, I need to scroll all the way down to return to my most recent read.
thanks!
Oliver, the page turn effect is something I’d like to do but not something I’m going to put time into right now. There isn’t an easy way to do it at the moment, so we’re talking a few days work at best. Also, I’m not sure it’s going to look at all acceptable when the page is zoomed in, so it’s a bit of a risk.
I’ve already changed the sort of the recents and it will be in the next update. You can subscribe to my twitter feed at @bitolithic to keep up with progress.
So I have two issues:
First, where the heck are your support forums? Seriously, having to seek help in a comment thread of the latest blog post is absurd, at best.
Secondly, I’m having a problem where an issue appears to be crashing Comic Zeal. It’s a CBR and it was working fine until I got to a specific page and then *boom* crash.
I’ve deleted the book, unRAR’d the files, checked them (they were fine) and then ZIPPED it and changed it to a CBZ… same problem. Except I can’t get the book to reset. It’s permanently stuck on that page, so I can’t ever open that issue.
Any suggestions on how to reset the book to page 1? I’ll probably have to rename the file all together.
Daniel, forums are a big commitment time-wise. I know that what’s happening here is not ideal but I also don’t want to lose an hour or so a day reading through posts and moderating a forum. Like so many things in our lives, this is a trade-off.
Naturally the preferred way for you to seek help is through the support email listed in the iTunes app description.
I’m glad you sorted the page size issue. Unfortunately this is shaping up to be a big one as there is just not way that the iPad can open those images up. I’ll change CZ Sync to generate larger sized comics soon so that they’ll look better on the iPad but it’s going to require and extra step for some comics and there won’t be a way to know ahead of time which ones those comics will be. Inelegant.
Okay, fixed the problem–turns out the page in question had not been reduced and was 6000 x 12050. Apparently CZ4 hates that (go figure).
Once I reduced it to 1920, it was fine.
Do you know if apple plans on implementing anything into itunes in the near future that will eliminate the need to back up all of the comics. I am imaging a system like ibooks where you can import the comics into comic zeal on itunes and organize them through their interface. The season music backs up so quickly is because it is not actually backing up but simply building a file that tells apple which files to re-sync in the case of a restore. It saves space on your computer and also time. I was just wondering if you have heard anything relating to that.
Andrew, I’ve not heard about anything like that. I don’t think it’s necessary to go that far though, I think that if the backups were optimised that would be enough. One of the readers here has done a lot of experimentation and has found out that iTunes makes many, many files during backups. I’m sure Apple will optimise the whole process sometime soon.
Trying the beta of 4.0.6 right now. To preface, my preferred way of reading comics in the app is landscape, with the comic manually zoomed so that it reaches the edges of the screen. Then I scroll up and down to read. I find this way it keeps me from reading spoilers further down on the page and it’s also a clearer zoom level than in portrait mode. Here are my thoughts:
-Love having a black background. Now it’s not so noticeable if the comic is not zoomed all the way to the edge of the screen. I still want an option to have the pages automatically fill the width of the screen so I wouldn’t even have to worry about this. The iPhone version of ComicZeal 3 did this automatically.
-The page turn sections of the screen are a nice addition IF you don’t use the edge of the screen to scroll the page up and down. Unfortunately, I do. After setting the zoom for the page, I lightly scroll up and down with my finger on the right edge of the page (and now I can’t do that). I feel that a solution would either be to add a setting to disable the page turn sections (restoring the old way of doing things) or to only detect a page turn on a tap in that section, not a drag. Currently it just locks the page in place when you hold your finger down in that area. I also don’t think we need the page turn arrow to pop up (or we should be able to hide it in settings).
-Great addition of returning to the same comic/page that you left, but the app should remember your zoom level and area of the page too. Otherwise, I have to resize again when I open the comic.
I like most of the new additions, and it’s great that ComicZeal will fix a problem comic if the app crashes (haven’t tested that feature yet). I just feel that it needs a few fixes before submission to Apple.
Jazz, page fit option is on the way, just not in this update. It’s a bugger about the page turn getting in the way of your scroll, I’ll see if there is a way around it. If there isn’t, how about having the page turn area at the bottom of the screen only?
Letting users toggle the tap to turn would be optimal, but please don’t limmit the page turn to only half the screen. It seems likely that touching the side would sometimes “miss” if you tapped too high. Maybe if you made the tap zone very thin you could reach over it if you want to scroll.
Is there any way to keep the comics from compressing down in size when I sync? When I put the files through ComicZeal Sync they go through a “shrinking” process. A lot of my text becomes kind of hard to read
Rodrigue, there is no need to use CZ Sync on the iPad, have a look at the iTunes description for CZ 4.
I gave a look at that other viewer (CR) a couple of people mentioned, and can’t agree that it displays comics well. It doesn’t properly size the pages (they’re often stretched) and the optimize function either shrinks them or overscans them. If you manually size the pages in CR, they don’t advance as they should. Also, about 10-20% of the time the page order is wrong (though this could be a problem with the archives, not CR.) ComicZeal has none of these problems.
emiliano,
I know you’ve heard way too much about backup times and I assure you I’m not writing to complain, but there’s something I’ve noticed which you might want to know.
The time it takes to back-up files I’ve added to CZ seems to be increasing on a fairly steady curve. Early on, it took about 5 minutes to back-up a new file after the archive had been exanded into CZ. After I’d added a few gigabytes, it was taking about 10 minutes per file. Today, with about 15-16 gigs of files already backed up in CZ, I added 10 new files and it took 3 hours to back-up those ten files.
Again, not a complaint, just an observation. Perhaps my situation is atypical.
Lowbill, it could be that iTunes is not great at detecting that you’ve only changed a little. Could it be that you re-organised your comics and it’s detected them all as being changed?
Are you running the most recent version of iTunes?
@Lowbill – I’ve seen a major decrease in backup times. Just added a couple of gigs last night and backups weren’t terrible – maybe 30 minutes for around 100-125 cbrs…
emiliano,
I’m running the latest version of iTunes.
I could only guess as to what the problem is with my back-ups, but there’s a definite correlation with the number of files I add to CZ and the time the back-up takes. It doesn’t seem to be backing up every file every time, but as I add new files the time it takes to back up just those new files steadily increases. It’s never been particularly fast, but now it’s downright glacial — the last time I loaded comics into CZ, the eight issues took over two hours to back-up. That was less time than my previous backup, when I added ten files and it took over 2 1/2 hours.
It doesn’t seem to be iTunes or my system, either. When I tested that other reader, it loaded and backed up files very quickly (that was the ONLY area where it compared favorably with CZ.) That program doesn’t unarchive files to import them, so perhaps that could have something to do with the difference in back-up times.
If there’s some setting in CZ or iTunes I need to change, I would certainly be happy to do so. CZ is my favorite iPad app but I’ve had to stop adding any new comics because they take much longer to process than they do to read.
Thank you for following up on this.
i use a mac and i have comiczeal 4 for my ipad and i cant figure out how to get files onto my ipad. i downloaded comiczeal sync and converted a file to .cbr
thanks in advance
1. Connect the iPad to your computer.
2. iTunes should open automatically, but if it doesn’t open iTunes.
3. In the left column, click on Devices > (your iPad)
4. Click on the “Apps” tab.
5. Scroll down from the “Sync Apps” section to the “File Sharing” section.
6. Click on “Comic Zeal”.
7. Drop your comic files into the “Comic Zeal 4 Documents” section.
8. Open Comic Zeal on your iPad and it will complete the import!
I bought CZ the other day for the iPad and have some suggestions:
1. I name my comic files using # (i.e. “Uncanny X-Men #500). If I have multiple issues (say 500 and 501), CZ groups them but shows the name as “Uncanny X-Men #”. It seems you look for the first numeral in the file name and treat everything before it as the series name. You should ignore the # character when presenting the series name in the collection list.
2. Grouping doesn’t work if text appears after the issue number. For example, say I have a mini-series called “Wolverine #1 of 4″ and I have all 4 issues in CZ. CZ should but it does group these into a collection because of the “of 4″ text appearing after the issue number.
3. It would be nice to be able to expand the collection list to full screen to give a larger cover flow view, like how the iBooks shelf looks.
4. In-app brightness control would be very nice.
5. The uber feature would be to allow connecting to a PC/MAC/NAS file share directly in app over wifi to browse and read comics from the host machine. No copying down or syncing needed.
Nice app so far. Thanks.
Hi Jaremy,some comments on your comments!
1. It’s a bit of a slippery road, there are a lot of ways to represent the ‘#’, some people may use ‘no.’, others ‘number’, others ‘issue’. Why not just move all the comics into a group called ‘Uncanny X-Men’?
2. Similar to 1, there are a lot of different ways to represent that information, CZ can’t catch them all. You CAN however move the issues to a group manually.
3. Yes it would be.
4. Coming in an update.
5. This is a VERY complicated thing to do, it’s not as easy as just connecting, how do we handle thumbnails, so we create them when we first see a comic? do we store them locally? What if the names remain the same but the contents of a comic change? When do we delete them thumbnails? what if a network connection is lost, intermittent? Are the collections shown as merged? Are they separate, what if you have multiple sources with the same comics? How do you handle slow wi-fi networks that will make page turns a pain? Do we copy the comics locally or read them fully from the network? If locally how will users react to the delay in copying and decompressing a comic? If remotely how slow will it be to de-compress files over a wi-fi network? For each of those answers remember that a lot of people will want an option that you haven’t picked.
Oh, one other thing. Give us a 2 page view option that will show 2 pages side by side when in landscope orientation.
I saw it mentioned already too, but slick page turning animations like in iBooks would be wicked cool as well.
I’ve noticed the same thing with my iTunes backups that others have. As I’ve loaded about 2GB of comics into CZ4, my backup times have skyrocketed from the point of minutes to hours.
Also, as a feature request, I’d like to see an option to have the navigation controls that appear on the bottom do so without the menu on the top coming up.
Giolon, I just don’t know what to do about the backups, this is an iTunes thing as far as I can tell. The only option is to move the comics out of the shared directory but then you are likely to lose them when you update Comic Zeal. I plan on releasing a lot of updates so eventually this will happen, if for some reason (let’s say an iTunes update or firmware change), this happens all at once then the effects to CZ would be devastating.
Your suggestion about the controls is good.
Lowbill,
I am having a similar problem while moving files to comic zeal through itunes file sharing. When I started it took maybe 2 seconds per comics, now it takes 2 or 3 minutes to move each comic. I restored my ipad to new, and am trying again. I have decided to cut down my collection some so I can avoid this problem. Not the best solution but it will work for now.
Andrew, not that I think this is going to make a difference, but I DID read a report that this goes much faster if you change iTunes tabs while this is happening. Can you try it and see if it makes a difference?
emiliano,
I realized that I didn’t really answer your question about file management. I haven’t done a lot of reorganization but have a point of doing a back-up every time there’s been any sort of change in CZ.
Thanks for the reply emiliano. As a software developer myself, it’s great when developers collaberate with their users. I have a few follow on comments:
With regards to a # or no. delimiter, perhaps this could be an option. Let us set a delimiter string manually for the collection sorter to use. Everything prior to the delimiter becomes the collection name, everything after the delimiter is ignored for sorting purposes. This would satisfy both of the sorting concerns that I had as well being flexible enough to allow for individual naming schemes.
I wasn’t aware that I could manually sort collections, but still, that’s something I wouldn’t want to bother with. I have many many more comics than fit on my iPad so I only sync what I’m actively reading. I’d rather not have to manually rename files or spend the time to manually sort and name collections on the device. My approach, and I expect many others too, is to sync, read, and delete rather than actively store collections on the iPad for extended periods of time given the memory sizes of the devices.
With regards to the file share access, I agree there many considerations, but I would suggest making it fairly basic. I mean, just make it a cover flow file browser. Generate thumbnails as you browse. I wouldn’t even mind you saving a little comiczeal.thumbs file in each folder I browse through for faster thumbnail loading. 802.11n is zippy enough to transfer a book to iPad memory, unpack it, and get it on screen fast enough. When a book is closed just dump it from memory completely. You don’t need to save reading position or any of that in such a mode.
This is how I read comics prior to my iPad. My books were stored on my main office computer. I accessed a Windows shared drive in Explorer on my laptop using a large thumbnail view. Thumbnails showed up quick enough and cached to the remote folder for repeated views. I read with CDisplayEX and it takes maybe a few seconds to load a book and be readable over 802.11n.
I’d happily wait a few seconds here and here if I could browse my entire collection without syncing. With this file access as well, you don’t need to do ComicZeal style collection sorting. If we are accessing shared folders, our collections are already sorted as we want them. CZ just needs to let us navigate, see the collection, and launch books.
Comic Reader Mobi was planning such a feature, but CBM is now a defunct app. I’d *love* to see CZ make this possible and would more than happy to help with any use case, requirements, etc to get it.
Jeremy, I’ve added the # delimiter to the to-do list as something to look into when examining the sorting code again. I’m considering the network share thing but it’s important that however it gets implemented it is easy to use for everyone and for everyone to understand the limitations. In this particular area it may be worthwhile to see what the document sharing features of the iPad bring, for example, Drop Box support can now be provided by the drop-box app calling CZ when it encounters a comic.
Is there going to be support for FTP?
I would also like to see some type of in-app ability for adjusting color and sharpness. Like how Comic Book Lover does it.
Steve, I don’t plan on adding FTP support in the near future, I think iTunes file sharing does a great job of transferring files across. Colour adjustment is something I’m looking into with one of the betas but I don’t see it as a core function of CZ, if it is ever added it will be because it became ‘low hanging fruit’ as a result of other changes I have in mind. I’m not sure if there is a requirement for a sharpness control, CZ is already very good at not losing quality or sharpness and I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t be happy with the delay in processing pages if a sharpness control was implemented. Is there a particular reason you wanted sharpness control?
Any idea if you transfer those marvel collection Cds of comics over? They’re PDF files (I have the fantastic four collection) but I’m having no luck. Tried converting with the sync program and each comic took a long time and then when I put it on my iPad I could see it but not open it.
Oh and I tried in Goodreader and they open fine BUT with that Marvel watermark. Would love some help! Any one else dealing with this conversion?
Neil
Neil, I’ve heard of this problem and have a sample problem file to look at, I’ve not had a chance to yet but will soon.
Just chiming in to say that I saw similar speedups when not being on the ipad Apps tab while updating comics with a large-ish library (~4gb, ~200 issues). Not sure if it’s polling the file contents interface as it updates, but it definitely seemed to be actually usb-speeds after switching.
Emiliano, I absolutely LOVE your app. comics are the main reason I got my iPad. I use ComicZeal 90% of the time on my iPad. I have the iPhone version and I love having the wooden background because it reminds me of iBooks. Could you please implement that in your iPad version? Maybe add shelves as well. It would look so much warmer with it.
I also have the same problem as few other guys with the app crashing on big comic books, but if I use your shrinker they become smaller than the iPad native resolution, and they don’t look as good. Any suggestions on how to shrink my 2000+ wide comics to let say 1500 without having to extract them first, then shrink them in PS and then repack them?
Thank you for an amazing app!
Attila, the update that’s just come out will shrink the pages as you read them so you won’t have the crash problem any more, sorry for the inconvenience. The wooden background with shelves is tricky, a lot of people don’t like it and making it an option places limits on what you can do on non-shelved backgrounds. I would personally like it but it’s always a balancing act.
Jaremy..just rename your files before syncing without having to deal with the # problem. I use a freeware program called renamer. I don’t think is an issue the developer should have to deal with really
Could you then just enable the option to use any page in the comic book as a wallpaper – like you have in the iPhone version 3? That way I can make a custom comic book with wooden background, import it and then save one of the pages as the wallpaper.
I love the new update! Great job. I’m excited to see the new features.
By far the best comic book app on the iPad/iPhone available!!!
A great application Emiliano, thank you for your hard work.
Now a couple of things that I offer to your attention.
1- I loaded more than 20 gb of comics in ComicZeal Library.
I found that, with a large library, trying to move a single comic in a existing folder cause the application to close without completing the operation.
2- Is it possible to have a “Fit to Width-Fit to Height” switching option (ex. by tapping the screen with two fingers)? This way I could get an optimal zoom ratio instead of selecting it manually every time I open a new comic.
Thank you for your attention…..
an happy italian user
Gualtiero, 1. Does it happen when you try to move ANY comic or a particular one? 2. Coming (hopefully!) in the next update. Thanks for commenting!
Is it possible to sync comics with the comiczeal sync program remotely? I’ve tried setting up port fowards to the port 5353 and also the port specified in the syncdocs program (port 89) and then added my ip address to the domains tab of the sync feature in comiczeal 4 but it seems to just hang at “Searching for syncdocs services”.
Kevin, it’s not intended to be used that way. It may be possible to get it to do that, I just don’t know.
Could you just make it to read PDF files?
I’m not sure what you mean Neil.
Are you looking into my question or just ignoring it? Some feedback would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
It took me two days to Answer your question Kevin.
Emilano, the first problem reported happen to me with every comic I try to move.
I tried 6-7 times with different comics and with the updated version of ComicZeal 4 too.
It does not occur if my library is smaller. But when I upload 2000-3000 comics, unfortunatly, I find impossible to move a single file to an existing folder.
Waiting for the next update
Thank you for your reply.
Gualtiero, can you move them to a new folder? can you move them to another existing folder? (ie. is it just the one folder you’re having problems with?)
I’m having the crashing issue as well. When I try to move individual issues into folders, it always crashes before moving the issue. Not a huge issue, as I can still read it, but annoying.
Thanks for the updates. It’s a great program as is.
William, how big is your library?
Overall, great app. I have a fairly large library of manga in CZ but after I endured two or three 8-10hr iPad backups in itunes, I have resolved to minimize changing the comic library as little as possible. One feature request I have is the ability to navigate chapters/volumes within a series without having to go back to the drop-down list. Some of the series that I have on my iPad span hundreds of chapters. It would be nice if the program could remember the last chapter read and had the ability to flip to the chapter previous or chapter following without having to use the “Collection” drop-down menu and scrolling past 200 or so titles to find the next one to read.
Ehegi, going to the next issue is a problem I’m looking at addressing. I don’t want to have a ‘go to next comic?’ dialog, and I also don’t want it to happen automatically as I think it would confuse people. I think the best option at the moment is to streamline the process of selecting another comics. So when you turn the last page of the current comic the collection pop-up appears and the current comic is already centered. As soon as you tap another comic it is displayed and the interface hidden. That way it’s the same amount of taps as a dialog but more flexible, specially if the comics are out of order. What do you all think?
I was just asking if you could make the app be able to directly read PDF files.
Emiliano-
Second question for you, is there anything you know of with your app that would make the back up time for the iPad go extremely long (longer than 36 hours)? I was told that it is probably being caused by a poor database on an app, and since I have about 150 comics uploaded to it with your program, thought this could be it. Have you seen or heard about this other places? Thanks, and the update to the program you just released has been great, wonderful program!!
Matt S, I’d be interested to know why someone thinks that the structure of the database would affect the backup times, any more info?
Emiliano,
I can move comics to anew created folder but not in an existing one.
The problem seems to appear with every existing folder.
Gualtiero, thank you. I’ll see if I can reproduce it.
Emiliano, thanks for the reply. Your idea about the collection popping up with the current issue centered does sound like a workable solution and certainly would be a boon for people whose collections are out of order. Would a simpler solution would just be 2 new buttons, prev and next chapter? I know it’s always a balance trying to keep the UI useful while not too cluttered. However, I think that the utility these two new buttons would add would outweigh the clutter. Currently, with the improvements you’ve made to page turning, I have no issue with a hidden UI most of the time and bringing up the UI when I want to do some serious navigating. Another situation where prev/next chapter buttons would be useful is when finding the right chapter to read in a collection of hundreds of chapters. In those situations, I often start with the chapter I think is in the right area, skimp the first few pages, then figure out whether what I’m looking for is in prev or later chapters based on the plot of the issue I’m on. Would be nice to be able to just jump to the next chapter directly from within the current chapter in that situation. Anyways, thanks for your work on this product! I really enjoy it.
Ehegi, I’ve just finished working on the first option and I’m relatively happy with it. We’ll see what the beta testers think in a few days. I’ve added the buttons to the to-do list for a later release as I think they would be useful too. Thank you!
Emiliano – I’m not saying it is your programs fault, but when I spoke to apple support, they said that the long backup times are caused by programs that put too many individual files in the backup set. I will post a link below to a forum thread that talks about it. Again, nothing said specifically about your program, I was just wondering if other users with around 100 comics in the program are having a similar issue.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2387381&start=15&tstart=0
Matt, there is one file per page and some thumbnails. That’s it. I can’t believe that that is ‘too many individual files’ as you were told. Specially as you can drag and drop the whole ‘Imported Comics’ directory from iTunes to your desktop in just a few minutes.
Awesome, awesome app. Definitely my most used iPad app. Latest update made it even better. My only major complaint at this point is also the long backup times. I know you previously said something about wanting to make sure users data is protected, but I would rather the comics were not stored in the backed up app data since I have copies on my computer anyway, or at least offer the user a choice if possible. Not only do the back up times get more obscene as my collection grows, but now I have unnecessarily duplicated data. Also, once the comics are imported into the back up data, they disappear from the File Sharing list in iTunes. I’m pretty sure Apple intended apps to just load from File Sharing temporarily, not copy everything into back up data, when they implemented the system. I certainly wouldn’t mind waiting a few seconds for each comic to load if it makes content management and backups easier.
Mike, it’s not about the data being protected, like you say, most people have a backup. The issue here is that all the comics in the device could be deleted during a COMIC ZEAL UPGRADE. If that were to happen then we would get killed in the reviews.
I’m thinking about getting an iPad and one of the biggest attractions is reading comics on it. Do people find they need to zoom into panels or is the iPad display big enough to read each comic with the full page displayed?
Thanks, really enjoying using the App on my iPhone.
What will the option “on next start delete comics” do exactly (settings on the iPad)? Delete all finished comics? All comics?
I want to be sure before testing something I will regret!
Steve, it will delete ALL comics and bring CZ back to the default state. Sooooo, yeah, you don’t want to press it if you want anything less.
arg — the backup times are killing me!!
Raj, I’m sorry, there really isn’t much I can do about it right now apart from recommend you file a bug report with Apple.
Looks like I was ahead of the curve on the backup issue.
Anyway, based on other apps I’ve used which allow data importation, this doesn’t seem to be Comic Zeal specific. All of the other apps seem to have the issue to one degree or another. And it seems to have more to do with the number of files involved rather than the size of the files (though size is a factor.)
In short, this is something Apple needs to look into for all app developers’ sakes.
A hint for those people having trouble organizing comics within CZ: the file names for the issues of a series all need to have the same format, especially where underlines are concerned. CZ doesn’t display the underliines, but it does see them and organizes files accordingly — and usually CZ will close when an attempt is made to combine files with different naming formats.
My personal preference is to remove underlines from file names and to put issue numbers in a two or three digit style so everything is consistent. It’s a little extra up front work, but assures that CZ’s automatic organization works at its best.
Hope that helps.
Emiliano – Can you please answer about people who have the GIT company Marvel compilations? I’ve got FF and the Avengers, and I want them on my iPad!
I been using the Cloudreader thing and it’s good… but I have the watermark on there and the organization of it is just a big long list of file names.
I like all the screen shots of your app and want to use that… but if you don’t support .PDF files… or have a good way to convert and/or shrink them… then I can’t use it.
Seems like two people have been asking but you’ve sort of not been answering.
Maybe other people here can answer what they’ve done?
Thank you very much,
Peter
Peter, I try to answer most of these posts, I didn’t know I’d missed some. You can import pdf files in to cz using Comic Zeal Sync available from our website. The iTunes description for CZ 4 mentions this.
Converting PDF via the synx program is a pain, I currently use goodreader for the pdf’s I have, but i’d rather just have them all under comiczeal, are there plans to make it import pdf’s directly liek it does with cbr, etc (Ipad)
Carlos, yes definitely, I haven’t done it yet as there have been things that have detracted from the user experience more. Also, I’m fairly sure that it’s not going to be as fast as processing the files with CZ Sync first.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents about the 2 page spread request – its essential! A lot of 2 page spread artwork in comics is meant to be taken in as one whole artwork and then read panel by panel. Imagine looking through an art book and finding Davinci’s “last Supper” split into 2 separate pages on different sides. This is the one missing feature for me that prevents comiczeal4 being a “killer” app. But you’re almost there guys! Thanks for the hard work and I await your updates with great excitement!
Gene, the issue here is how to implement this within the CZ user interface. I personally like working with and seeing one page at a time, I’m not a fan of presenting pages as one long strip of images. I’ve got one idea but before I say anything what do you all think? how do you want to see it done?
I have comics with 2-page speads (stored as a single image, not 2 separate pages). Has anyone else noticed that the pages are reordered so the 2-page spreads are at the back of the comic? Seems to happen with directly imported comics and with CZ Sync shrunk versions. Very confusing. Is there a workaround?
Found the reason of slowly backup with many comics in ComicZeal.
The program decompress each CBR and CBZ file in single folder.
1.000 comics of 25 pages each become 25.000 files.
Backing up 100 files for a total of (example) 5 gb take a lot less than than 2500 files for the same amount of data.
I tried to import 25 GB of comics in Comic Reader Mobi. This program keep on the ipad the original CBZ and CBR without decompressing.
The backup process took 3 hours.
With the same amount of comics in ComicZeal, afrter 12 hours the Backup was at 20-25%.
Is there a way to decompress the files once loaded in memory Emiliano?
Hi all, am after some help…. the author talks about file sharing via itunes…. i cant find any info anywhere on how to do this with the ipad, I also cant seem to get this “Syncdocs” thing to work either, it comes up as a winrar file, but doesnt expand into anything except gibberish…anybody give me some pointers? i just want to put my own cbr files onto my ipad and view…that why i bought this app.
Darren, please read the iTunes app description for CZ, instructions for file sharing are there.
First off, great app! It has renewed my love for comics. As part of this new love, I bought a bunch of Marvel compilations on DVD. I am having trouble importing the files using the sync program on a Mac. Every time I drag a PDF into the program, it immediately returns an error message: “Comic Has No Pages”. Is there something I am missing in this process? I already read a few and the pdf definitely DOES have content in it.
Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
marc
Marc, have you installed ghostscript form the same page you downloaded CZ Sync from?
OK just so you know, you da man….and I’m a moron, lol. Thanks!
Marc, not at all, unfortunately it’s just not too intuitive.
Hello, First off thanks for this great app
i just have one complaint, if you could add a feature start the page at top right or top left always that would be great since flipping through my 2 page manga is a pain
Thank you
Nesfe, yes, I’ll add it in one of the next couple of updates and will link it to the manga setting.
My mistake about the two-page spreads. The iPad thinks XXX0405.jpg comes way later than XXX34.jpg. Doesn’t happen on XP, but maybe that depends on how you have set up your sorting. Anyway, problem solved just by naming the 2-page spreads appropriately (e.g. XXX04-05.jpg).
Incidentally – this is an excellent program!
With the latest update, this program is almost perfect. A single tap zoom sucked.
But…
Why backup? It’s a waste of space and time. Why do I need to backup the stuff that’s already on my computer? The only thing that needs to be backed up are memos, maybe high scores, and emails. Or stuff like that. 8 hours to copy 64GB of data? That’s silly.
I turn that crap off.
Use Google to find out how to do it!
F$&ck the backups!!!
Ineedfiles, backups are not only about what happens if you lose or break your iPad, without them you may lose all information when you UPDATE an app as well. There is no guarantee that the data files will be kept during an update unless the files are put in the locations where they are backed up.
The latest release states that you added a system wide file association for comic extensions. However, the iPad still is not recognizing this. Either thru Dropbox or File Browser. Is there something else I need to do?
Noob, sooo, silly question … are you sure you’re running the latest release? In Drop Box, how are you trying to get Comic Zeal to open the file?
I love this App!
One request and this might be a dumb question so forgive me if it is.
If I have uploaded my own comic to look at is it possible for the App to recognize where the panels are and scroll through them as I flip? The M@rvel App seems to do this well.
John F. That’s just not possible with an app that reads cbz/zip/cbr/rar files. The way Marvel does it is that they have a human tell the app where the panels are. Computers are just not very good at finding them because in many cases the panels are conceptual instead of graphical.
Are we ever gonna be able to rename our files with in comic zeal4 right now its such a pain cause the way some of the files are worded makes the numbering all outta order? I am so confused why this hasn’t been added in the updates yet.
Ever since my ipad arrived I bought CZ4 with no complaints besides the renaming issue. PLEASE fix i beg of you.
And last question.Is it possible to ever go to the way it was back when the very first comic zeal came out on iphone I remember the covers in the menu being much more clearer back then?
Thanks
Chad, renaming issues isn’t as easy as you may think. By far the best place to rename them is on your PC before importing. I WILL be adding renaming functionality but please understand it can’t be as simple as a pop-up.
I’ll look into the cover issue. A lot of that code is going to go the way of the dodo soon(ish) so I’ll see if I can fix it during the re-write.
Thank you!
I’m having the same problem as Noob, just downloaded comic zeal, today. When I tap the file in dropbox I get a notification that ‘This file type can’t be viewed’
Fatjake and Noob, look here: http://comiczeal.tenderapp.com/faqs/other/how-do-i-send-a-file-from-drop-box-to-comic-zeal
I have the iphone app version on my iPad. Is there a way to upgrade to the ipad version without losing the comics that are already loaded onto my ipad. I don’t mind paying for the ipad app, I just don’t want to lose what I already have loaded up.
Eldogg, unfortunately there isn’t a way to do that, my apologies.
Emiliano,
Transferring a rar file seems to work fine from dropbox to cz4, but not other file types (cbr for instance). Is there something I’m missing?
Chris, I’m not sure that you’re missing anything but is SHOULD be working.
I’ve been a fan of ComicZeal for a while now and of course bought the ipad version as soon as it was available. One issue I am having however is that while I have read all of the comics in ComicZeal of a specific series, when I try to move them all to their own collection box, Comic Zeal crashes. While it’s happened on a few other comics, this is the only time it’s happened with an entire series. I thought maybe it had to do with the titles but I’m not entirely sure (x-treme X-men… perhaps the double – is causing problems?). Like I said, I can still read them, but it makes my default window REALLY long.
silks, PLEASE email me at emolina@bitolithic.com, I’ve been chasing this one down but I need more information. I haven’t been able to reproduce it yet.
I can not sync anymore. I just upgraded ComicZeal on my 3G iphone to the latest version, and now i just can not sync. What happend?
rstempler, are you talking about wifi sync?
backups! have to agree totally with ineedfiles here. i have about 7gbs of comics on the ipad and its been backing up for over FOUR HOURS, and its hardly just over halfway! its totally unnecessary to back up the cb files surely – why not just the database of names etc and placeholder/read status? all the original files are already on the mac and now they’re being duplicated. to have to spend this much time on backups is insane! imagine if itunes duped all the music and movie files as well into the backups. keeeerikey that would take a year. 64gb in 8 hours – not likely, more like 8 days…. help us emiliano-kenobi, you are our only hope. look at this afresh please. its such an swesome and useful app. this backup has got to go
typrat, how would you feel if you lost all the comics on your device the next time I released CZ update?
Terrible!
But its not as bad as the backups – I would rather spend the short time copying the files back to the iPad than having my iPad non-functional for over 8 hours (it still hasnt finished backing up yet and I’ve never had more than an overnight 8 hours to leave it. All my comics are already on my mac, this is my backup. The ipad is the reader and portable version only, no need for it to have all the only copies. Now to me (not a developer of course 
the analogy would be this: imagine iTunes Making a SEPARATE backup of all the music and movie etc files on the ipad too. It would have one copy of all on the mac in the first place and then make a whole ‘nother one! – in the process duplicating gigs of data. iTunes just leaves the original source files where they are and matches the changes during backups by deleting or moving files to the iPad from some database (I suspect). It doesn’t then copy all the files back off the iPad to the Mac during the next backup? Make sense? I guess you’re the man when it comes to the software schemes etc on how to manage/do this best, but I am just pointing out something thats a huge user side issue (ie 8hour+ backups). Not to detract from all that is awesome goodness with your app you understand. Just that this is quite a serious issue when you got 10Gbs of comics on your pad! Just the messenger… 
I agree with Typrat, i have 11 gigas of manga in my ipad and i pretty much gave up on backing up my ipad on itunes. Maybe an option button to allow or not allow backups inside comic zeal could be the best answer. That way we all win
Thats just a suggestion , i downloaded backoff on my pc and stopped backing up in itunes so it stopped being a problem for me
I have to agree with the backup issue. There needs to be some way to make it so you can do this quicker. As it is I now stop the backup anyway so you’re not saving your users anything since we don’t backup due to the huge amount of time it takes.
It might indeed be a feature but its not used because of the time constraints.
So a few comments from me
I love the app and it gets used daily. Its a great reading experience. Some caveats
1) The page turn control areas are way too small. I have to shut the main controls off several times when reading. Several times a comic. How about moving the control to activate the main nav to the centre of the page and making the page turn controls larger?
2) As mentioned, my backup and import times are astronomically huge. I have 10GB of books on my iPad and while it takes very little time to import a file, after each file set is copied there is a significant delay. iTunes beach balls and I sit there for five or six minutes. This happens regardless of the number or size of the books I have imported.
Backup times are not as bad as other people have reported but it is taking about two hours to backup my iPad now. I guess that I could just not pack around that many files and restrict myself to a smaller set of books but… well I just want them all
Zac, the newest iTunes fixes the issue with the slow sync times as far as I know.
with all the trouble on the Ipad and the wifi resection issues, is there any other way for us the users to transfer files directly without using wifi.
thanks for your help and congratulation on a awesome app
eddit, yes of course, use iTunes file sharing as per the iTunes app description for Comic Zeal
I am having an issue with a single file. It crashed and now the program crashes every time I load.
Is there any chance of a toggle that prevents loading the last file, kind of like GoodReader has in the Settings menu?
william, it’s in the update currently with Apple. It’s automatic though.
About the backup again (sorry). I just resigned myself to keeping only a couple of comics on the ipad now. I can’t afford have my ipad inactive for over 18 hours (thats how long it took to back up) every time I sync it (iTunes 9.2/SnoLeo 10.6.4). So I eventually just decided to delete most of the comic files off the ipad. So that puts me back at your “worst case scenario” except I had to do it myself! I honestly think this should be rethought.
I also agree with Zac regarding the (black) controls on and off. The tap to turn page often brings this up and has to be tap dismissed and then tap again to turn page. As Zac suggested a specific area of the page away from the left/right side.
This definitely is the best comic reading app, but I would have liked to keep a larger library on the pad so that I have a bit of choice on what to read.
Its good that you have this feedback method tho, emiliano
typrat, I think you can have more than a couple of comics don’t you?
I agree with typrat, and it’s something you should definitely consider looking into. To say the ‘solution’ to this problem with backing up is by not putting a lot of comics into the app is ludicrous. If you’ve got the space, why wouldn’t you want all your comics at your fingertips, without worrying about them doubling up on the space your ipad backup will take?
The point that typrat made about iTunes not backing up music and movie files is extremely valid. Can you imagine if iTunes backed up all of that content as well? There would be outrage.
I think you should at least give us the option of turning it off. For everyone that has paid $10 for your app, I feel it’s the least you can do.
Manny, I’ll take your advice on what is the ‘least I can do’ onboard and give it the consideration it is due.
Hi, when I use sync to get cbr. or cbz. files on my 3gs, it works fine. when i try to do this with .pdf files, however, even when i have ghost script, or whatever, when it is being synced to my phone, it times out and says the file is too small to reproduce.. what could create this issue?
I bought this app during the first version when it was like 2.00 haha it’s great and i love it
ZachDearth, there is an issue on iOS4, it just won’t do certain colour conversions that used to work perfectly well before. I’ve tried to fix it and looked for work-arounds and haven’t found anything. As a result I’ve spent some time working on getting CZ to handle PDF files natively and this will be in the next update.
I still have a problem with the manga mode displaying the top right position when going to next page. It seems to only do it while it is zoomed in a lot, and not when it is fit to page.
For example: Some mangas I read are both pages scanned together in 1 picture. Reading in landscape mode makes the text too small so I like to read it in portrait and have it fit to page (so I only have to slide right to left). However, even after the 7/12 update when I go to next page, it still shows the left side of the page first, instead of the top right position as stated. Only way it’ll go to top right position when I flip the page is when the page zoomed in more than “fit to page” size. Do you think you guys will be able to add to that in the next update? Otherwise great great app.
kuopoc,, if this is happening in the universal version please file a bug at http://comiczeal.tenderapp.com, otherwise the fix will be in the next update.
I like the comicZeal alot, but the backup is killing me. I have a 64gb ipad and have around 15gb of comics on it. I can’t use the ipad for at least an hour because of the backups. To bad the program is almost perfect, but because of the backuo I’m going to switch to another app. Maby I will switch back when this is fixed in ComicZeal.
Willem, have a look here: https://comiczeal.tenderapp.com/faqs/other/why-are-my-itunes-backups-getting-slower, it’s interesting that 15gb only take an hour to backup for you. For me it’s at least a couple.
Hey just wondering how and or where are the page numbers? If they are on the top after file name can it be changed to be some where that can always been seen. I guess my titles are too long cause i never see my page numbers. Please help this is so annoying.
Thanks,
Chad
Hi Chad, it’s a bug, I’ll get it fixed for you in the next update. I didn’t tell the text field which part of the label to truncate.