Comic Books Epub
Michael
@EmbyEbookReaderAs @GrimReapernoted an Ebook reader is underway. I have already written and tested the code in JavaScript and need to transfer it to the @Cheesegeezerplugin that he created for Javascript programmers. Now you know that many people are working on this, but we all have other duties. If you are a programmer, I would be more than happy to send you the javascript code. I use it to read Ebooks in Emby via my Emby Tool. You can do the same. The tool is attached below. Just unzip it and click on tool2.html. Signon to your server, then navigate to your ebooks and click on an e-book to read.
No, I just implemented epub. The CBR format is trivial and easy to do. I didn't implement it because it uses RAR compression rather than zip. I had good JS code for zip but not for rar. I know that open source code is available, but I ran out of time. You might give it a go yourself. It's easy to do. At the moment @Cheesegeezerand myself are busy trying to finish the bulky plugin for bulk editing emby metadata. Look for it in the plugin library soon.
Ok I will take a look at this. I was not aware that Emby was an open source project where individual contributors could create new source code for their own readers, this is a total shocking surprise . Thank you!
so, I tried it out. and I see what you have done here... it's interesting and clever. But I'm not sure if this will meet my requirements for an all-in-one solution. Namely, to have CBR / CBZ handled by the same native client application & user interface as everything else. Are there any plans to merge this ebook reader back into the main core codebase within Emby client?
The core problem in my opinion is that there is no platform that handles ebook metadata properly for all common formats. Metadata is essential so you can browse by author, by series, etc. rather than just navigating a file structure. I've periodically raised this for emby over the years and got very little interest - although I do understand it's probably a lower priority for 90% of the user base than anything involving videos.
Kavita handles metadata quite well for epub and cbz (and I think cbr too but haven't tested it). So you can update your ebook files in Calibre, save to a Kavita-specific directory structure (the devs say this isn't necessary, but in my experience it is). Then it's a great interface for browsing, downloading, and reading remotely. If you only have epub and cbr/cbz I'd highly recommend it, particularly if you have more comics, since the data model is designed first and foremost for comics and extended to other ebooks.
BUT Kavita will not import PDF metadata (and the devs have said this is not something they plan to do). So unless you fancy going through each file one by one and re-entering metadata, it's pretty useless for PDFs. And even if you go and edit each one, the metadata is not saved in the file, only in the kavita database so it's unreadable by anything else and might be lost.
The other options I've looked at are ubooquiti (sp?) which is no longer supported and had limited functionality, another tool in beta that I forget the name that has *very* limited functionality, and the spin-off of emby that I'm not sure if we're meant to mention here that is pretty much the same as emby for ebooks.
I use Calibre-Web locally with calibre db, but it seems that that can be network share as well, therefore not being limited to local machine for running Calibre-Web server (or having a Calibre db on the same machine). Or you can have both on the same server machine and access from different client machines (setup I use).
Yea. I guess my preference would be to just get at least BASIC comic book, ebook, and PDF reader functionality up and running: browsing and opening the files within Emby Client, showing Cover thumbnails, allowing page flipping, etc. Maybe pinch to zoom in on IPad client. Thereby allowing the user to actually READ the document / file. Nothing fancy. And then with subsequent releases, gradually introduce the more advanced features with Metadata and Search and Filtering, connecting to online databases to identify and match your media library.
Imagine for a moment, watching your Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie collection, or DC if you prefer Superman / Batman, and on the same page as the film, below the Actors and Actresses pictures, are links to the original comic book series from which the film is based, you click on the preview image and it just instantly opens right up within Emby. So Superman movie from 1980 or whenever would have a picture of Action Comics from 1939 Or whenever. That my friends would be something fun, exciting, enjoyable, and remarkable!
but I feel that the only way to get there would be if Emby developer team prioritizes making this ebook reader feature a higher priority than other things on their To-Do list.
Anyways I Appreciate the continued interest and discussion on this topic. I know they are probably busy with security issues and what not, but continue to believe this subject deserves as much attention and exposure as possible , because it really opens so many exciting possibilities as I mentioned above.
Last year I started experimenting with making ePubs in Pages. I had previously dabbled in hand coding epubs in 2015 using open source software like Calibre and Sigil. Sometime in 2018 Apple announced that their software Apple Pages can now export not only into a fixed layout epub. Perfect for comics and other forms of picture based books.
I'm really excited about the possibilities around this. It means that anyone with access to Apple Pages can now produce their own comic ebooks. Not just PDFs but Fixed Layout epubs. And epubs can be uploaded and sold to online bookstores!
Before I landed on the method below, I inadvertently went about it completely the wrong way. I was placing a shape down first and then placing the image inside that shape. I thought this made sense as it's similar to what you do in something like InDesign. Turns out this hugely increased the file size. Lucky my method of setting up page template guides solves this issue
Note: I have recently realised that even though my method of placing an image in a shape was bad, placing the image as the background to the page works as well and takes less time than dragging each image to the edge of the page.
I've recently been dabbling in fixed layout our epub creation, to produce comic books. The comic books I make have extremely simple layouts, I.E, each comic page (including the cover) is a single image.
Throughout my own work and research over the past few years I have heard a growing number of creators and people from the community showing an interest in accessible comics. The market exists, the readers exist. Why not work to create access to all these incredible stories? The exciting part of all this is that there are already so many examples of people working hard to create accessible comics a reality. The following is a brief overview of what is happening in the publishing landscape for accessible comics.
Comic books are already multi-modal, so it makes sense to consider multi-modal solutions. This combines more than one accessibility solution into the comic for the purpose of creating a dynamic experience. Some options include: tactile graphics accompanied by digital versions with image description; digital content accompanied by files to print 3D-printed objects, and more! Robust experiences can be designed, built, and shared, and the world of comic books can become more inclusive.
The most engaging and exciting projects in accessible comics include people with lived experiences. One such exciting endeavour is the Accessible Comics for the Blind Project. This project is an ongoing collaboration at San Francisco State University between Comics Studies, the Program for Visual Impairment, and the Longmore Institute (now called The Accessible Comics Collective) to explore ways of making comics accessible for blind and low vision readers. When working with accessibility, you must include people with lived experience as it is the only way to ensure success. When it comes to accessible comics, the future is now!
Light, Efficient CBR Reader. It is the most popular comic book reader. It is able to read all comic book formats(.cbr file, .cbz, .pdf, etc..) and Manga. Everything is designed to give you the best reading experience, it load comic booksimmediately, reading is fluid and comfortable.
While working on PDF support for Libreture, I took the opportunity to look more closely at the digital comics field. A few things popped out to me time and again about how digital comics are currently provided to readers.
CBZ/CBR
ComicBookZip/ComicBookRar - Zipped files that contain the individual pages as JPEG files. That's it. The final letter in the abbreviation (Z/R) refers to the compression format: Zip or Rar. These files usually contain no metadata, only the images.
PDF
Portable Document Format seems the perfect format for comics. Each file is a linear, page-by-page, describing visual and text elements. Again, no metadata to describe the file's contents.
ePub
This common e-book format works just as well for comics. Each page contains the same JPEG that would be included in the CBZ/R file, but with the added benefit of metadata to describe the title, author and other information.
The CBZ/R and ePub files seem to share their source material, the JPEG images. The same comic or graphics-rich book in either of these formats will usually be the same or similar file size, since they're both simply zip files containing the images.
Text-based e-books, in the common ePub or Mobi formats, tend to be around 2MB in size. If they're much larger than that, it's usually down to the book being absolutely gigantic or because it contains lots of inset images or a large cover image. Text is text and doesn't take up much space.
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