The definite review: reading manga, comics, comic books on the Sony Reader

athlonkmf · 06-24-2007, 10:15 AM

OK. After a few hours and a lot of picture-taking, I've written what I think would be the ultimate review on the capabilities of displaying sequential art by the sony reader:

As written in the article, I was in doubt when trying to convince myself to buy the sony reader. The reviews I've found online just wasn't enough. That's why, now that I've got the reader for almost a month, I wanted to write a comprehensive review to help others. Here it is:

http://hightech.afmag.net/reading-ma...ve-review.html

Note: this review is to show what the reader is TRUELY capable of. I think with my conversion method, i've squeezed the best out of the reader.

I'd appreciate comments and bashing

athlonkmf · 06-24-2007, 10:24 AM

OK. now i'll go back to what I really want to do. Enjoying manga on the reader. No more reviews for now

Might write a conversion guide later though

mlkmnz · 06-25-2007, 11:00 AM

You write a lengthy blog about comic viewing on the PRS500, mentioning your "superior" conversion technique, and not inform anyone of the conversion technique? And using the right techniques, you should be able to make fine examples of American comics to read on the PRS500 (although needs a bit of Photoshop knowledge)....

athlonkmf · 06-25-2007, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlkmnz

You write a lengthy blog about comic viewing on the PRS500, mentioning your "superior" conversion technique, and not inform anyone of the conversion technique? And using the right techniques, you should be able to make fine examples of American comics to read on the PRS500 (although needs a bit of Photoshop knowledge)....

as said in the blog, I'll write a tutorial on the conversion.

But basicly, it is making use of my program https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11261 to massconvert collections to PDF-files with full TOC, then rasterfarian https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10402 to shrink and rasterize it, and finally using msh_lrsparser to create the LRF.

My program uses a bunch of filters and resizing options to resize the images optimally for showing on the reader. And of course a nice TOC to get a chapterized PDF.

I don't know about others, but I won't be editing every image manually to optimize it for the reader...

andykram · 06-25-2007, 12:00 PM

Would you mind loading up a few different programming manuals (PDF) and taking pictures please? It would really help me make a decision.

athlonkmf · 06-25-2007, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andykram

Would you mind loading up a few different programming manuals (PDF) and taking pictures please? It would really help me make a decision.

A bit offtopic, but well.. here it is: http://hightech.afmag.net/the-sony-r...fs-part-2.html

PDFbookss are quite readable as it seems, even without processing, but if you want that extra contrast....

mlkmnz · 06-25-2007, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

I don't know about others, but I won't be editing every image manually to optimize it for the reader...

No, that'd take too long, and neither do I. Photoshop allows for batch conversion, so you can batch convert comic scans with various contrast and sharpenng tools which yeild far better results. Plus you can autocrop the white margins around the border to make the image slightly bigger, improving text readability.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 06-25-2007, 11:56 PM

athlonkmf,
Nice review! As I have a lot of manga, comics and graphic novels, this kind of information is important to me to decide on a reader. And based on your photos, I may likely end up waiting on a color reader to convert my library for!

athlonkmf · 06-26-2007, 02:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlkmnz

No, that'd take too long, and neither do I. Photoshop allows for batch conversion, so you can batch convert comic scans with various contrast and sharpenng tools which yeild far better results. Plus you can autocrop the white margins around the border to make the image slightly bigger, improving text readability.

that's what my program doing already... sharpening filters, contrasting, not only photoshop can do that.

athlonkmf · 06-26-2007, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

athlonkmf,
Nice review! As I have a lot of manga, comics and graphic novels, this kind of information is important to me to decide on a reader. And based on your photos, I may likely end up waiting on a color reader to convert my library for!

you'd miss out 2 years of pleasure then

I doubt that there will be a (affordable) color-reader within 2 years... and the first gen colorreader would probably only allow a limited amount of colors. I'd say, it windows 3.1 all over again.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 06-26-2007, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

you'd miss out 2 years of pleasure then

I doubt that there will be a (affordable) color-reader within 2 years... and the first gen colorreader would probably only allow a limited amount of colors. I'd say, it windows 3.1 all over again.

Well, fortunately I'm in no great rush... I can keep reading novels on my PDA, and just take select GNs with me on vacation. I may start scanning, though!

andykram · 06-26-2007, 03:14 PM

athlonkmf, thank you so very much that was greatly appreciated. I believe you have just sold a Sony Reader

nekokami · 06-26-2007, 04:24 PM

@athlonkmf: A visitor to your blog commented on the amount of time it took him to change pages using a jpg format. With your method, how long to page changes take? (Just curiosity on my part, as I have an iLiad, so it wouldn't be the same for me anyway.)

athlonkmf · 06-26-2007, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

@athlonkmf: A visitor to your blog commented on the amount of time it took him to change pages using a jpg format. With your method, how long to page changes take? (Just curiosity on my part, as I have an iLiad, so it wouldn't be the same for me anyway.)

It's like a normal LRF-book. 1 to 1.5 seconds
But I'm not a good timer, so I made a small clip http://kmfstudio.com/photo/displayim...lbum=62&pos=14

disregard the first page change, it's the 2-3 that shows the exact speed

And a normal jpg-change is indeed quite slow. The screen refreshes first, then it has to rescale the image... Not really 4-5 seconds, but at least 2-3 seconds

Azayzel · 06-29-2007, 01:46 PM

Your review, comparing and contrasting PDF's on the Reader vs. actual manga, was pretty good; though I do think you should give credit where it is due. Alex_d created PDFRasterfarian quite a while back, and while you mention using "a rasterfarian," I think that is the name he came up with and should be given credit for it. If you meant to say you used a PDF rasterizer, then pardon my comment; but I believe in giving credit where it is due.

Not sure where the user that posted a comment received a 4-5 second page-flip time, unless he/she was reporting a raw JPG flip/draw. I've used PDFRasterfarian since Alex first put it out there and have never seen this kind of flip-time, it's usually on the order of less than a .5 second.

06-24-2007, 10:15 AM	#1
athlonkmf Guru Posts: 714 Karma: 1014039 Join Date: May 2007 Device: Sony PRS-500, Sony PRS-505, Kindle 3, Sony PRS350, iPad 64GB	The definite review: reading manga, comics, comic books on the Sony Reader OK. After a few hours and a lot of picture-taking, I've written what I think would be the ultimate review on the capabilities of displaying sequential art by the sony reader: As written in the article, I was in doubt when trying to convince myself to buy the sony reader. The reviews I've found online just wasn't enough. That's why, now that I've got the reader for almost a month, I wanted to write a comprehensive review to help others. Here it is: http://hightech.afmag.net/reading-ma...ve-review.html Note: this review is to show what the reader is TRUELY capable of. I think with my conversion method, i've squeezed the best out of the reader. I'd appreciate comments and bashing Last edited by athlonkmf; 06-24-2007 at 10:27 AM.

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06-24-2007, 10:24 AM	#2
athlonkmf Guru Posts: 714 Karma: 1014039 Join Date: May 2007 Device: Sony PRS-500, Sony PRS-505, Kindle 3, Sony PRS350, iPad 64GB	OK. now i'll go back to what I really want to do. Enjoying manga on the reader. No more reviews for now Might write a conversion guide later though

06-25-2007, 11:00 AM	#3
mlkmnz Enthusiast Posts: 33 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2006 Device: Ebookwise 1150, Sony Reader	You write a lengthy blog about comic viewing on the PRS500, mentioning your "superior" conversion technique, and not inform anyone of the conversion technique? And using the right techniques, you should be able to make fine examples of American comics to read on the PRS500 (although needs a bit of Photoshop knowledge)....

06-25-2007, 12:00 PM	#5
andykram Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: none :(	Would you mind loading up a few different programming manuals (PDF) and taking pictures please? It would really help me make a decision.

06-25-2007, 11:56 PM	#8
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	athlonkmf, Nice review! As I have a lot of manga, comics and graphic novels, this kind of information is important to me to decide on a reader. And based on your photos, I may likely end up waiting on a color reader to convert my library for!

06-26-2007, 03:14 PM	#12
andykram Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: none :(	athlonkmf, thank you so very much that was greatly appreciated. I believe you have just sold a Sony Reader

06-26-2007, 04:24 PM	#13
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	@athlonkmf: A visitor to your blog commented on the amount of time it took him to change pages using a jpg format. With your method, how long to page changes take? (Just curiosity on my part, as I have an iLiad, so it wouldn't be the same for me anyway.)

06-29-2007, 01:46 PM	#15
Azayzel Cache Ninja! Posts: 643 Karma: 1002300 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: PRS-500, HTC Shift, iPod Touch, iPaq 4150, TC1100, Panasonic WordsGear	Your review, comparing and contrasting PDF's on the Reader vs. actual manga, was pretty good; though I do think you should give credit where it is due. Alex_d created PDFRasterfarian quite a while back, and while you mention using "a rasterfarian," I think that is the name he came up with and should be given credit for it. If you meant to say you used a PDF rasterizer, then pardon my comment; but I believe in giving credit where it is due. Not sure where the user that posted a comment received a 4-5 second page-flip time, unless he/she was reporting a raw JPG flip/draw. I've used PDFRasterfarian since Alex first put it out there and have never seen this kind of flip-time, it's usually on the order of less than a .5 second.

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