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bcholmes:

--- Quote from: John C on January 04, 2012, 04:39:59 PM ---The chicken-and-egg part, though, is without really good software (especially for the scanner, who would now have more work), nobody'll do the work, which basically means that it's the worst case scenario:  Functionally the same as CBR files, but incompatible.  That critical mass is difficult, especially with such a strongly-established format.

--- End quote ---

I totally grok that dilemma.  I think that the ideal would be to create additional information about the comics in a way that's compatible with the existing format.  I have two ideas about this, just off the top of my head.  

One goes back to my own introduction on this board.  The zip file format (used by cbz, but not cbr) has a mechanism for including limited amounts of metadata with an archive.  This site over here suggested some ways of populating interesting metadata in the zip notation.  If your reader ignores that metadata, fine.  Otherwise, hey! Cool extra stuff!  Obviously, that has the problem that it doesn't support cbz.  Well, that and the "who does the work" problem.

The other idea relates to using Exif data on the images themselves.  Increasingly, more and more tools are putting Exif data on your images -- my iPhone puts GPS and date information on my photos, for example.  I'm not sure what kind of size limitations there are for Exif data, but assuming that one can put a reasonable size of data on the image, it'd be a great way to store comic metadata.  Exif is supported on JPGs (and TIFFs), which is probably what the vast majority of the comics on this site have been scanned as.  Again: if your current reader doesn't understand the Exif data, no big deal.  The image is still viewable.  But, hey, there's still the "who does the work" problem.

I'm sure that there are other solutions.

BC

bcholmes:

--- Quote from: bcholmes on January 04, 2012, 06:11:22 PM ---The other idea relates to using Exif data on the images themselves.

--- End quote ---

After looking at the Google for a bit, I think XMP is a better solution than Exif.

BCing you

Whale:
@bcholmes:
I know about "comicbookinfo" and there's even "comicbook.xml" used sometimes, but meta-data there is quite brief at most, documentation almost non-existing, support by readers limited. Also comicbookinfo is only usable for CBZ files not for CBR/CBT/CB7 etc. CBR is proprietary ...
Expanding those comicbookinfo or comicbook.xml specifications would require more energy and doing many compromises (being careful about not breaking functionality in readers that may support it) than creating a new format.
On the other hand acbf file can be relatively easily created by conversion from existing formats. I plan to write such a convertor that will also support existing meta-data if present. Also backwards conversion from ACBF to CBZ (creating comicbookinfo in the process .. though some meta-data may be lost) is possible if someone writes such a convertor.
I plan to include in the format as much meta-data as possible, therefore asking people for suggestions if I missed something so far. Specifications are still improving. Final version 1.0 is planned for 1st March 2012, beta version on 1st February 2012, if everything goes well. Meanwhile, working on ACBF Viewer as well that will support all those possibilities ACBF provides.
Cheers
Robert

Whale:
If anyone interested, I just released version 1.0 beta of ACBF specifications along with complete XML schema as well as linux installer and Windows executable for ACBF Viewer version 0.4. Five sample comic books are also available to download. Everything can be found on project page in the green download section on the right side.

Some major improvements:
- ACBF Viewer is capable of loading CBZ files as well as ZIP files containing images
- comics can be read on "fit width" zoom level
- *.acbf file can be embedded into CBZ archive for improved compatibility with pure CBZ viewers (this is supported by the viewer as well)
- and many other minor fixes and improvements

Final version of specifications is planned for the beginning of next month. Any suggestions and spotted bugs are welcome. If you don't want to install the Viewer you may want to take a look at some screenshots perhaps :-)

vaillant:
Hi Whale,
while I can see the point of having artists' data et al. in a file, or tags, this all comes down to how we conceive onscreen reading.

Personally, I consider eBooks and generally onscreen reading as a mere tool, because if a book (or a comic book) is worthy it needs to be printed and to be read. Onscreen reading is not reading, for many reasons.

Comics in digital format are great to discover, and for consultation, but as I stumble upon something significant, I immediately see if I can purchase it. In fact, since I use a Mac (and since 1988) I have never kept a CBR or CBZ archive, and I always decompress the archives and keep the JPG files in a folder. As for the artists' credit, I find more convenient to research them, as the need arises, and transcribe them in a separate text file.
I enjoy having high-resolution scans when the comic is too expensive, or when I just wish to have a look at them for comparision, but I see books and eBooks as two specific different things, with specific different aims. There is not the kind of difference there was, say, between a manuscript or a hand-produced book and an inkunabula. An eBook, or an etext, is something which is helpful for study, but it has no physical form, so it can’t be compared to a physical product.

Said all this, I think it would be a worthy effort what you are doing, since CBR and CBZ actually aren’t proper formats at all. From what I get, are just variant formats of a compressed ZIP file. :)

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