Conversion of comics (CBR/CBZ)

FangornUK · 08-15-2008, 09:35 AM

kovidgoyal has kindly added ComicLRF to Calibre (original thread). It is now called 'comic2lrf' on the command line or simply the 'Comic' converter in the GUI. It works the same was as converting any other Book in the Calibre GUI but has different option settings.

It converts Comic Books & Manga (CBZ & CBR format) into an LRF file you can load onto the Sony Reader. See Wikipedia. The CBZ/CBR files are just RAR or ZIP archives of images of comics, so you could easily create your own "Comic Book" of photos.

This program converts the Comic file into a LRF for the Sony Reader. During the processing it resizes the image to fit the Reader's resolution, crops white space around the edges and converts them to 64 "color" grayscale to look their best on the Reader's grey screen whilst reducing the file size. Landscape images are automatically split into two pages. The images are also sharpened slightly to improve legibility of text and "normalised" to improve contrast. The processing is multi-threaded so it makes use of multi-core processors.

simond · 08-15-2008, 11:40 AM

I tried that recently and it was a lot more readable than expected, I think I'll still stick to using my Eee for comics for a while

yargoflick · 08-30-2008, 03:59 PM

I sent a patch to kovidgoyal that adds a -w, or --wide-aspect, option to comic2lrf.

It scales the image so that it looks clean and readable when viewed in landscape mode on the Sony Reader. It's quite nice.

Attached is a sample comic I made using the "-w" option. It's from a public domain comic found at Golden Age Comics.

Ace Books - Web of Mystery 01

Not so readable in normal mode, but hold that size button down for five seconds and a thing of beauty emerges. Ok, maybe that's going too far, but it is nicely readable.

Cheers,
Lee

FangornUK · 09-01-2008, 03:25 PM

yargoflick, I spent ages a while ago trying to get that to work but the older LRS conversion tools didn't like it. Nice one, it works great!

Thanks for the site too!

AshW · 09-05-2008, 08:12 AM

That's fantastic. I thought I was going to have to try my hand at writing something like this myself. You've saved me some work. Looking forward to trying it out when I get my Reader (today) hopefully.

My one concern with reading comics is the delay when turning the page as many comic pages take a lot less time to read than a page in a book. Have you found this to be an annoyance?

yargoflick · 09-07-2008, 02:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AshW

My one concern with reading comics is the delay when turning the page as many comic pages take a lot less time to read than a page in a book. Have you found this to be an annoyance?

I'm using the older prs500 and I don't even notice the page turns anymore. If you use the "-w" option and read in landscape mode the page is split in half with a wide enough carry-over margin that it still reads with a comfortable flow. I imagine the newer prs505 would be even more so.

Note: the "-w" options isn't availble in the offical Calibre release (0.4.83) yet, you'ld have to get the beta release or use the bzr development system:

development release thread with install instructions etc:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28467

bzr development system info:
http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/wiki/Development

Cheers,
Lee

FangornUK · 09-07-2008, 11:44 AM

Hold off on the current version of comic2lrf until the next version of Calibre is released soon, i.e. v0.4.84, if you're going to convert a lot of comics as there's a bug in the current version that produces bloated LRF files, i.e. 2-3 times too big. Also the next version will have fixed the performance bug so it uses all the CPUs available instead of just one for conversion. There's also the really great yargoflick's "-w" option for higher resolution, but page split, landscape mode. And there's a useful "despeckle" cleanup option added for older grainy comics.

TheHeartlessHero · 09-12-2008, 06:32 AM

Is there a way for it to determine if a cbz/cbr file is labeled incorrectly and possible correct it in the program then continue the conversion? I have some downloaded manga. They incorrectly put the extension as cbz when it was originally a rar file. The calibre gui just said it was not a valid zip file. So I had to manually go through about 300 chapters and labeled them correctly. Before I found that out though, I thought there was an issue with the program itself and unzipped then created a new zip file. Either way was not pretty.

I also found a nice program called "Better File Rename" which has to be the best program I have found to massively rename files however you'd like.

I am using the latest calibre and the gui.

Just a way the program could be made better. Maybe a prompt to warn you that it is incorrect before applying changes.

bluesnews · 09-26-2008, 05:02 AM

Is it possible to keep all the formatting options without actually converting it to lrf file but to another cbz or cbr file? For example have the program do the splitting, sizing, sharpening and so on but to keep it as a cbz or cbr file.

moggie · 11-23-2008, 07:32 PM

I haven't yet got a reader although I think I will end up getting a sony 505, I have been playing with calibre and as I use a mac I suspect it will be the only bit of software I will use unless I want to update the firmware

. Sony should donate hardware to the dev's

HarryPigg · 12-31-2008, 08:18 AM

This is a fantastic utility. It has just made my 505 even more useful. Well done guys.

Scuttles off to begin converting his graphic novels....

giddion · 02-14-2009, 07:28 PM

Ok I loaded a number of CBZ/CBR files into Calibre, the CBZ files loaded in perfect and I can view them with the built in viewer. But the CBR files don't appear to be reading correctly, I don't have a 'Cover' for them in meta and I can't view them with the viewer. Are CBR supposed to work as well as CBZ?

Krystian Galaj · 02-14-2009, 08:12 PM

Hmm... CBZ are just renamed ZIP files, and CBR are RARs... maybe there's something wrong with rar unarchiver on your system?

No idea really, just a thought...

kovidgoyal · 02-15-2009, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by giddion

Ok I loaded a number of CBZ/CBR files into Calibre, the CBZ files loaded in perfect and I can view them with the built in viewer. But the CBR files don't appear to be reading correctly, I don't have a 'Cover' for them in meta and I can't view them with the viewer. Are CBR supposed to work as well as CBZ?

If you're on linux you have to havea properly compiled libunrar.so on your system, or use the calibre binary installer.

giddion · 02-15-2009, 10:46 AM

On windows and I have winrar installed, is there some other library for rar on windows needed?

08-15-2008, 09:35 AM	#1
FangornUK Addict Posts: 205 Karma: 317 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: England Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad, Kindle 3	Conversion of comics (CBR/CBZ) kovidgoyal has kindly added ComicLRF to Calibre (original thread). It is now called 'comic2lrf' on the command line or simply the 'Comic' converter in the GUI. It works the same was as converting any other Book in the Calibre GUI but has different option settings. It converts Comic Books & Manga (CBZ & CBR format) into an LRF file you can load onto the Sony Reader. See Wikipedia. The CBZ/CBR files are just RAR or ZIP archives of images of comics, so you could easily create your own "Comic Book" of photos. This program converts the Comic file into a LRF for the Sony Reader. During the processing it resizes the image to fit the Reader's resolution, crops white space around the edges and converts them to 64 "color" grayscale to look their best on the Reader's grey screen whilst reducing the file size. Landscape images are automatically split into two pages. The images are also sharpened slightly to improve legibility of text and "normalised" to improve contrast. The processing is multi-threaded so it makes use of multi-core processors.

11-23-2008, 07:32 PM	#10
moggie Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 74 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Cambridge,UK Device: sony 505	sony 505 I haven't yet got a reader although I think I will end up getting a sony 505, I have been playing with calibre and as I use a mac I suspect it will be the only bit of software I will use unless I want to update the firmware. Sony should donate hardware to the dev's Last edited by moggie; 11-23-2008 at 07:36 PM. Reason: Newbie mistake I think

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08-15-2008, 11:40 AM	#2
simond Fanatic Posts: 532 Karma: 1062755 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London, UK Device: Kobo Aura One, iPad, iPhone	I tried that recently and it was a lot more readable than expected, I think I'll still stick to using my Eee for comics for a while

09-01-2008, 03:25 PM	#4
FangornUK Addict Posts: 205 Karma: 317 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: England Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad, Kindle 3	yargoflick, I spent ages a while ago trying to get that to work but the older LRS conversion tools didn't like it. Nice one, it works great! Thanks for the site too!

09-05-2008, 08:12 AM	#5
AshW Connoisseur Posts: 55 Karma: 148 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Narnia Device: Sony Reader	That's fantastic. I thought I was going to have to try my hand at writing something like this myself. You've saved me some work. Looking forward to trying it out when I get my Reader (today) hopefully. My one concern with reading comics is the delay when turning the page as many comic pages take a lot less time to read than a page in a book. Have you found this to be an annoyance?

09-07-2008, 11:44 AM	#7
FangornUK Addict Posts: 205 Karma: 317 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: England Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad, Kindle 3	Hold off on the current version of comic2lrf until the next version of Calibre is released soon, i.e. v0.4.84, if you're going to convert a lot of comics as there's a bug in the current version that produces bloated LRF files, i.e. 2-3 times too big. Also the next version will have fixed the performance bug so it uses all the CPUs available instead of just one for conversion. There's also the really great yargoflick's "-w" option for higher resolution, but page split, landscape mode. And there's a useful "despeckle" cleanup option added for older grainy comics.

09-12-2008, 06:32 AM	#8
TheHeartlessHero Custom Icon Creator Posts: 19 Karma: 288 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-505	Is there a way for it to determine if a cbz/cbr file is labeled incorrectly and possible correct it in the program then continue the conversion? I have some downloaded manga. They incorrectly put the extension as cbz when it was originally a rar file. The calibre gui just said it was not a valid zip file. So I had to manually go through about 300 chapters and labeled them correctly. Before I found that out though, I thought there was an issue with the program itself and unzipped then created a new zip file. Either way was not pretty. I also found a nice program called "Better File Rename" which has to be the best program I have found to massively rename files however you'd like. I am using the latest calibre and the gui. Just a way the program could be made better. Maybe a prompt to warn you that it is incorrect before applying changes.

09-26-2008, 05:02 AM	#9
bluesnews Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: sony 505	Is it possible to keep all the formatting options without actually converting it to lrf file but to another cbz or cbr file? For example have the program do the splitting, sizing, sharpening and so on but to keep it as a cbz or cbr file.

12-31-2008, 08:18 AM	#11
HarryPigg Alleged Writer Posts: 20 Karma: 498294 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Ireland Device: Sony PRS-505	This is a fantastic utility. It has just made my 505 even more useful. Well done guys. Scuttles off to begin converting his graphic novels....

02-14-2009, 07:28 PM	#12
giddion Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 186 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: CT, USA Device: samsung i910 now - cybook later	Ok I loaded a number of CBZ/CBR files into Calibre, the CBZ files loaded in perfect and I can view them with the built in viewer. But the CBR files don't appear to be reading correctly, I don't have a 'Cover' for them in meta and I can't view them with the viewer. Are CBR supposed to work as well as CBZ?

02-14-2009, 08:12 PM	#13
Krystian Galaj Guru Posts: 820 Karma: 11012 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Warsaw, Poland Device: Bookeen Cybook	Hmm... CBZ are just renamed ZIP files, and CBR are RARs... maybe there's something wrong with rar unarchiver on your system? No idea really, just a thought...

02-15-2009, 10:46 AM	#15
giddion Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 186 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: CT, USA Device: samsung i910 now - cybook later	On windows and I have winrar installed, is there some other library for rar on windows needed?

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