ipad for reading (not just golden-age) comics

[John C]

It's probably over-engineering, but if it were me, I'd probably run a web server on the PC with the comics.  Then you can grab them on the tablet inside the network (or outside, if you mess around with router ports, but ick) right out of the browser.  It's a common enough problem that there's a bunch of options.

http://superuser.com/questions/231080/extremely-simple-web-server-for-windows

Mint, I've heard good things about.  My impression is that they sort of take Ubuntu and change whatever strikes them as weird, so it's more in line with the rest of the industry.  I admit that I haven't tried it, though.

And yeah, the USB thing is great.  After some bad Linux experiences in college (yes, you can configure every little thing, but why the heck would I want to waste my time doing that!?), I've used the LiveCDs whenever I had a Windows problem to keep up with how things developed.  When I started playing with Windows 8 (pre-releases) for a project at work...well, I like the direction they're trying to go, but I don't like how it's panning out, so I shoved Ubuntu on a cheap netbook to see if it could replace Windows.

Turned out that it's pretty where I need it to be (though to be fair, other than MS Office, most of the software I use is already the free stuff), so when the Windows 7 laptop WiFi crapped out, that was pretty much the end of Windows around the house.  More to the point, I'd definitely give a (non-Android) Linux tablet a chance, the way a lot of them have been moving.

[Yoc]

Hi John,
Thanks for the pointers.  I suppose it's possible to work around the stupid limitations that Apple is forcing on people but this is the sort of manipulation that drives me nuts.  I'll give the others a look and if I can't find anything better maybe I will reconsider the iPad.  But the price ($499.99+taxes for the base unit), lack of ports and this other b.s. has me leaning away from them.

[John C]

I agree.  Apple has never really been my style, so I've never bought any of their stuff.  At the moment, Windows also feels out of the question, at least for me--give'em a try at the local Windows store, though.  And Android...well, the software's not bad and the physical configuration is better, but the manufacturers seem either careless or short-sighted, so upgrades are usually difficult.

That's why I mentioned the possibility of Linux tablets.  If any of the projects shows up, I think it'll be the way to go for a lot of people, since you can just treat it like a computer, the hardware should be cheap, and there's already software to deal with pretty much any need.

[narfstar]

I would not even consider buying an ipad. I would go with any window or android first. It will be cheaper and the file structure is familiar and usable. It all depends on what you want if for of course but if you are not using for anything major go with a low price android with good graphics. Touch screen tablets are making a resurgence. They are skinnier and lighter now. You can flip the screen and have a fatter tablet but you also have a more functional device.

[Yoc]

I'm looking for something in the 10" range for reading comic scans, maybe a couple games like Sudoko and an eBook reader app.  With my eyes I wouldn't want to go the 7" option.

[paw broon]

Despite being the chair of our local luddite society  , I don't seem to have any problems downloading and reading comics on my Samsung 10 inch tablet. And I use a basic file manager to choose a comic then Perfect Viewer opens it.  As for downloading, I download files to my p.c. then choose what I want to read and load stuff onto the external sd card.  My file manager let's me choose from books on internal or external storage as comics bought from Comixology and Izneo only seem to go to the internal storage, and there seems no way to transfer or copy them to the sd card.  That's the only problem I seem to have and as there is a pile of free space on the tablet, it doesn't really concern me yet.  My pal, Vince, has a credit card sized thingy which holds 6 or 8 micro sd cards and that's a lot of storage, so he can carry comics, books and old radio shows about with him.  Lots of files on Friardale and other places are pdf's and the free pdf reader I found works fine, so I don't need to buy a conversion prog.
Or am I missing something here?

[Yoc]

Sounds like you've got it sorted Paw.
The programs mentioned were for working with Apple's amazingly annoying file restrictions with their iPads.

[Poztron]

I found that using Dropbox to place scan files in Comic Zeal on my iPad was much quicker and simpler than using iTunes. It just took a little digging to figure out how.

[Yoc]

Thanks Poz, but that means wasted bandwidth going up and down if you already had the scan on your PC.  Beside annoying it's illogical unless one planned to share it with others.

[johndesmarais]

Thanks Poz, but that means wasted bandwidth going up and down if you already had the scan on your PC.  Beside annoying it's illogical unless one planned to share it with others.

The easiest method I've found to move content in and out of most iPad apps is to use a program called iExplorer (http://www.macroplant.com/downloads.php and download iExplorer version 2 - yes, I know, 3 is available, but you want 2).

Allows you to access the Documents directory of almost any app and drag and files to and fro.

[Poztron]

Thanks Poz, but that means wasted bandwidth going up and down if you already had the scan on your PC.  Beside annoying it's illogical unless one planned to share it with others.

Yoc, I don't know about wasted bandwidth one way or the other if something is being transferred within my own home LAN, which scans would be between my Mac and my iPad, whether it was done via Dropbox or iTunes. (I guess they both involve the so-called Cloud - or at least Dropbox does, but my ISP's Internet connection is not metered, so transferring files via WiFi seems to me no more wasted bandwidth than, say, a USB cable transfer would be.)

But the logic at work is that I archive all my downloaded scans from DCM on an external 2 TB HD connected to my Mac and transfer comics I want to read casually to my iPad, as I can then read them seated in an easy chair, instead of staring at the screen of my Mac. Or, I can load up my iPad and with comics for when I go on a trip. I think of comic scans on my iPad as temporary reading material.

[Poztron]

The easiest method I've found to move content in and out of most iPad apps is to use a program called iExplorer (http://www.macroplant.com/downloads.php and download iExplorer version 2 - yes, I know, 3 is available, but you want 2).

Allows you to access the Documents directory of almost any app and drag and files to and fro.

Thanks for the pointer. I will check that out.

[CharlieRock]

I'd require a screen at least as big as a comic book page.
While zoom is nice and I don't mind reading panel-to-panel most of the time, although for younger GAC fans I am reliant on whatever digital method comes around as collecting the paper copies is costly. And sometimes I do zoom up so my screen only holds one panel at a time (and with a 20" desktop monitor this is quite the experience I would recommend everyone try at least once).
However, most GAC books I have read so far come with a pulp-action text story that I have come to enjoy a lot. And the thought of reading one of those (sometimes faded) pages on a small screen does not fill me with thrills.

I would love the portability that reading on a tablet device would bring. And I do own a laptop if ever the need arises for just such an occasion. But here I think the proprietary hardware becomes my issue. My laptop can double as a slide-presenter by plugging into most televisions (for when I show the holiday photos to my relatives in their home, on a 40" screen), and handles a variety of programs I am not able to find in a tablet (yet).

Now, my best friend is a completely different story and found the video on the first page helpful.
Thank you. 

[Poztron]

I'd require a screen at least as big as a comic book page.
While zoom is nice and I don't mind reading panel-to-panel most of the time, although for younger GAC fans I am reliant on whatever digital method comes around as collecting the paper copies is costly. And sometimes I do zoom up so my screen only holds one panel at a time (and with a 20" desktop monitor this is quite the experience I would recommend everyone try at least once).
However, most GAC books I have read so far come with a pulp-action text story that I have come to enjoy a lot. And the thought of reading one of those (sometimes faded) pages on a small screen does not fill me with thrills.

I would love the portability that reading on a tablet device would bring. And I do own a laptop if ever the need arises for just such an occasion. But here I think the proprietary hardware becomes my issue. My laptop can double as a slide-presenter by plugging into most televisions (for when I show the holiday photos to my relatives in their home, on a 40" screen), and handles a variety of programs I am not able to find in a tablet (yet).

Now, my best friend is a completely different story and found the video on the first page helpful.
Thank you. 

The screen image size on my iPad is 5 3/4" x 7 3/4" and while a typical comic - at least of the early 50's - was 7x10 with an print image size of roughly 6x9, I don't really notice the image shrinkage on the iPad, due to the high resolution display. Depending on how much margin the scanner includes on each page (and I'll admit that I am not a big fan of cropping right to the panel lines), the page image on an iPad is not significantly all that different from an actual comic. [YMMV]

The problem with a tablet with a 7x10 screen is obviously that it would kick the table size up to something akin to 8" x 11" which would be fairly unwieldy for a tablet. (Of course, coming screen technology changes might be able to eliminate much of the "wasted" margins on present tablets in the same way that those margins have been shrinking on smartphones.  My recommendation would be to find a friend with an iPad or Samsung Galaxy and put it through its paces. You might be surprised at how readable a comic would be.

Of course, ten years from now, we might be reading scans as real-size holograms projected in the air in front of us. So, such jockeying over image sizes on physical devices might just be a passing phase.

[CharlieRock]

5 3/4" x 7 3/4"?
That certainly seems readable for a comic as that is very close to the size of the Japanese mangas.
I think modern comics measure to 6 3/4 x 10 1/4.