Hi all, just a quick post this time to let you know what’s coming up.
The preliminary version of ‘Assisted Panning’ is now in place and accessible under a new ‘Experimental’ section of the settings tab.
It’s similar to what you saw before in a-new-exciting-feature-coming-to-comic-zeal-soon but now it works in reverse when you press the back button, manga mode is handled properly and there have been some other refinements. For example, when you’re in page/zoom lock mode pressing next page doesn’t pan to the right, just down, that way you never see the borders.
That last one is fantastic, in portrait you lock the page to see the top without borders. In most cases this is more than enough to read the text easily but you’re missing perhaps 20% of the bottom. Then you press next page, it scrolls to show you the bottom 20%, press next page again and the page turns and shows you the top again.
When you get to a double-page spread CZ shows you the left, you press next page and it pans to show you the right.
It’s a great experience that I’m sure you’ll love.
The next (and last for this update!) big feature is built-in PDF support. PDFs are now treated just like CBZ/CBR files. You drag and drop them into iTunes, they’re synced and you read em’. No more need for Comic Zeal Sync.
This version brings the universal and iPhone version into line with each other. I’ve submitted them to Apple at the same time, I don’t know if they will be approved relatively close together or not.
Because of this the changes list below is split into two, changes for both versions and changes just for the iPhone version.
For both versions:
- Added an experimental ‘Assisted Panning’ option.
- Added PDF support, you can now use Comic Zeal to read your PDF comics and documents.
- When importing a comic from another application it is now automatically opened when the import is finished.
- Added a setting to stop the controls being shown when the screen is tapped, only tapping the semi-transparent arrow will bring them up. Option is called ‘Taps for menu’. Added a setting to stop zooming when the screen is tapped, only pinching gestures will perform zooms. Option is called ‘Taps to Zoom’.
- When entering a new series name the title is now automatically capitalised.
- Increased speed of thumbnail generation for faster imports.
For iPhone only (now called ‘Comic Zeal Comic Reader Mini’ in iTunes):
- Loading and resizing of the next page now happen in the background while you’re reading the current page.
- Will now detect when you’ve dropped more files into iTunes file sharing, you no longer have to re-start the app.
- If manga mode is enabled and you’re zoomed into the page, when the next page is displayed the top-right hand corner is shown instead of the left.
- Improved page sorting. Some people were naming double page spreads by joining the numbers eg: page 10,page1112,page13. This condition will now be picked up and corrected.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes comics would show on the ‘Downloads’ tab but not the ‘Collections’ tab.
- Fixed an issue when moving comics. Under some conditions they used to not move at all, or only into folders with similar names, or only into folders with totally different names (I know, I know) and sometimes the app would crash when starting a move. These should all be fixed now.
But on iPad you can view the whole page with no need to zoom at all, so I don’t see how this feature will help. On iPhone, yes great idea!
“When entering a new series name the title is now automatically capitalised”
Thankyou! This was such a headache, I am so happy to see it fixed.
Now… As I sit here on the train, reading a comic, I have come up with a feature request! To get the the next or previous page, you either swipe or tap left or right… However, as I am reading in landscape mode and constantly scrolling down the page, I was thinking it would feel natural to either tap at the bottom of the screen to move to next page, or an upwards swipe from the bottom of the page would also do the same trick.
Has this been considered?
Oops! My real delight should have been – “Added a setting to stop the controls being shown when the screen is tapped”‘
Auto- caps is good too, though!
•Added a setting to stop the controls being shown when the screen is tapped, only tapping the semi-transparent arrow will bring them up. Option is called ‘Taps for menu’ ——— Huzzah! Very pleased with this.
Sami, not always and it also automates moving right on landscape pages.
Anthony, have you had a look at the video I linked on the post?
I was about to buy this app, but I have no clue what version to get. I have an iPhone, but you have 2 versions, and you say that the Comic Zeal 4 version works on the iphone, but then there is also an iphone only version. Which one do I go for as a new purchase? It is kind of confusing.
If you don’t think you will ever need to run it on an iPad then get the iPhone only version.
Thank you very much for the suggestion, I should be buying the iPhone only version soon. Thanks for the great app (i used it on a friends phone, was great)
This version is live on the App Store. Was hoping the new naming structure would be with it but alas, it is not so. Still hopeful that it’ll make it into an App Store build soon.
The assisted panning has worked pretty amazingly in the short time I’ve used it.
Thanks again, Emilano!
The experimental update seems to have broken the centering of each new page in portrait mode on the iPad.
I used to have black padding to the left and right of the page.
I’d tap this to navigate.
Now the page is all the way to the right and sometimes off the screen.
Andy
Now I got it. Zoom to full width and the next/prev navigation scrolls.
Interesting. Could grow on me.
Shame turning it off leaves the positioning of new pages off center.
I have the same issue as Andy. The update has broken the centring on iPad portrait view – it’s now way to the right of the screen… Please fix : )
If you’re having problems with the centering please contribute here: https://comiczeal.tenderapp.com/discussions/problems/67-pages-are-now-off-center-with-new-update .
So, I love the new option to stop a tap opening the menu – it’s a true killer feature!
The assisted panning, however, is not proving to be as useful to me. I read my comics with the ipad in landscape mode, and the fact that on a portrait page it jumps one full screen length means that more often than not, I’m left with a line of text in a speech bubble cut-off. Perhaps it would be worth investigating a 1/3rd of the page pan, or, screen-minus-200pixels, or something. One full screen length seems too much.
Love the update. The menu only appearing when you need it is such a simply thing, but removed the one thing that bugged me about CZ.
The panning is excellent, but as Anthony points out, you can get some instances where it cuts speech in half, but seems an excellent addition! Brilliant.
What i want to see is something ive been thinking about for ages is 2 fold:
1. A way to store reading lists in the program, i currently have things like Dark Reign, Secret Invasion and Ultimate Comic reading order in Notes on my iPad not good to be dropping in and out.
2. A way for these lists to do some kind of fuzzy matching and let you load the comics from the list. Ie for something like the Dark reign list i want to be able to tap Red Hulk #4 and it loads that.
Anything like this in the plan. Been using comic zeal since it first came out on iphone and own both zeal mini and v4
Great work so far.
Now if you could get soething in that lets you read a panel at a time ala comixolgoy i would be over the moon.
Ben, #1 & #2 are functionality that I know you all want and all I can say is that I’ve been looking into it. As for the panels thing, I don’t know it’s possible without the panel information being input into the comic file by a human being!
I just wanted to post a quick note on horizontal panning. I’ve been reading most of my comics in horizontal mode because I like the image to be a little larger. I noticed that panning doesn’t really work well this way, though. I agree with one of the people above that it should have a setting, or something, so that it would move down in thirds. It seems like a number of comics I read split the page vertically in thirds.
Also, one other thing I noticed is that if I am really close to the bottom of the page, but not at the very bottom, the panning will bring me to the next page instead of moving to the bottom. It doesn’t seem to happen every time, or with every comic, but I know that there’s more left to the page so I click “next” and then it jump to the following page.
Thanks for the great support, emiliano!
Hi! I just want to share this annoying bug that I think I am the only one experiencing.
I use ComicZeal Sync to transfer comics to my iPhone, I upload Naruto Shippuden Mangas, now my problem is that i.e. in one manga episode, page 16, 17, 18 is displayed in black screen only. No images. Just black screen. Now i tried re-syncing but those pages are still black.
The big problem is no matter what I do, only those pages are displayed with just a black screen. When I check the original file (PNG) everything is fine. This is really frustrating.
I googled this problem but no results. I think I’m the only one having this problem. Is there a fix for this? I think the problem is with the ComicZeal Sync software.
Please help! Thank you.
Edward, can you please try importing the affected manga directly into CZ without using CZ Sync? Also, please make sure you have the most recent version of CZ. The iOS4 update has made it so that some color conversions no longer work. If you still have the problem please raise an problem issue at http://comiczeal.tenderapp.com
Ben, this is what I do:
For series runs I recommend adding initials and numbering so that it works properly. For instance if you were to collate the Civil War run in its entiraty, and want to read all the sections in one run regardless of specifc superhero title then name it something like the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_War_(comics)
001-CW-Civil War #1
002-CW-Amazing Spider-Man #532
003-CW-Wolverine #42
004-CW-She-Hulk (2nd series) #8
005-CW-Civil War: Front Line #1
006-CW-Civil War #2
007-CW-Thunderbolts #103
etc
That way they should automatically get dumped in a folder called CW (which you can rename to Civil War) – otherwise your Spiderman will be moved to a Spiderman folder, She-Hulk to a She-Hulk folder etc…
Loving the updates and hoping to see more coming. I have a few things personally still though I’d love to see.
1. I enjoy the recent update that lets you navigate from the end of one book back to the library to open the next. What I really want to see though is an option that allows for deleting of the book I just read before moving onto the another. I, like many people I suspect, don’t leave comics always on my iPad. I sync what I want to read, read it, and delete it as I go. You would remove a huge pain point to allow deletion after finishing reading right on the fly.
2. Still hoping to see a deeper sorting algorithm put in. I still have the issue of book names like “Issue #1 [Tag].cbr” and “Issue #2 [Tag].cbr” not being grouped together because of the next that comes after the number. I don’t want to have to manually sort or rename my books to sync them.
3. If something to address my #2 point is not available soon, could you make the whole sorting idea be configurable? Just give me the option to turn if off and show me all the books in one listing.
4. I’d still very much like to see a shelf view (like iBooks) that encompasses the whole main view instead of the collection being a small popup window. Just give me the choice to take the whole “Collection” view and make it be the main page.
5. Can we have an option to hide the “Featured” and “Downloaded” choices on the menu bar. I never use these. The option to hide “Recent” would be nice as part of that too.
6. I’d also still love the ability to connect to Windows shares to open books, but thankfully, I’ve found a workaround. There’s a great app called FileBrowser. Using FB, I can navigate my shares and launch books in ComicZeal from FB. They open quickly and it works great. The only downside is they get copied into my CZ collection on the iPad. Again, this is where my request for the delete choice after finishing a book would be huge. The only thing I don’t get with the FB/CZ connection is that FB only displays files as lists, so I can’t get an image-based cover flow view of my books.
Thanks Jaremy, sorry for the delay in replying. #1, why not just go into the ‘recents’ tab and delete them from there every once in a while? I really don’t want to put in anything that autodeletes. It’s just bound to go wrong in some way. #2 ok, you work out how to do it reliably and I’ll be happy to put it in! make sure you cater for people who like to name their comics ‘blah issue 3 of 12′. #3. Hmm, maybe I’ve misunderstood what you meant in point 2, I thought the problem already was that it wasn’t grouping things together, is it that it’s getting the grouping wrong? #4. Me too and it’s something I’m working on #5 Some people use them, once you start having options to hide interface features you don’t use it’s a very slippery slope.