How do you read your manga?
 

I realize there's an existing old thread about this (from back in 2004), but it's closed and I've just come from a long painful year of studies and am starting to go back to read abit of manga. I'm fairly out of the loop so I'm not sure what good, free programs there are out there now that well accomodate the reading of manga.

What do you guys use, and what would you recommend? It'll be nice if you guys could mention programs that read directly into .zip or .rar files (like PicWalker), since I compress most of my collection that way so it doesn't need to hash. And thanks ahead of time ; )

...I buy manga from stores and read them in book form...;_;

:) what Eva said... but for those unlicensed scanlations I have .... generally I use Irfanview .... but that does you no good for compressed zip/rar files.

I'd actually be interested in finding some bit of freeware that can slideshow through compressed image folders as well (for laptop use).

I use CDisplay, but it does suffer from the drawback that you need to rename .rar and .zip files to .cbz and .cbr (I use a quick batch file for this, rather than doing it manually).

Haha, please don't think I'm a mere leech ; ) I now possess a personal collection of over 200 books (almost all in Chinese; plus the English version of Nausicaa).. Throughout my life I must have accumulated more than that; my brothers and I could probably pool together at least 500 books..

As a foreign student though, one is careful to avoid accumulating too many possessions because we move around often. Hence, digital manga is both favored for its speed and its portability.

I'd actually be interested in knowing where you got the digital versions (scan them all yourself?) as I'd really like to be able to take, say, all umpteen volumes of a series or two with me while I travel and not have to lug a steamer chest of mostly unreplaceable books.

Oh no, I read scanlations. I don't ever scan my own books... You can find scanlations all over IRC and such : )

figured as much.... ah well, guess its off to the hunt for "stuff I already own, sheesh".

The only scanlation I'm interested in downloading is Elfen Lied. I browse http://www.mangaupdates.com/ and http://www.blubbblubb.net/manga/ daily to see if a new chapter has been released.

I should point out that I also PURCHASE most of my manga, but I thought that was obviously not the point of the topic so I didn't feel the need to point it out before. Now I feel worthless and am assuaging my guilt.

IrfanView Gets my Vote.
Enter to enter full screen.
Arrows to move about.

Its my favorite image viewer.
It also come with same nice indication where you are in the manga in Full Screen, via the green lettering at the top.


http://www.irfanview.com/

You don't *really* have to rename zip and rar archives for CDisplay; if you select the file in Windows Explorer and go through the business of the "open with"|"choose program..." menus *once* CDisplay will be in the "open with" right-click menu.

That's true, but it's easier (for me at least) to just rename them.

You know, just like xephon I read manga with my hands, turning the pages with my fingers, basically, but...
:heh:

then I sort of move a lot too, but my parents and their house know how to come in handy.
:D

Don't know if this is interesting, but the local county library here has hundreds of volumes of various things. I usually have 4 or 5 checked out, but it is starting to get dry I think (running out of new stuff). Anyway its mostly shoujo.

Kinda crazy though, they'll deliver it right to my house if I request it online. It's a good setup.

Usually I'll read stuff that isn't published in ENG yet, so scans in the Irfanview are nice.

ACDSee ownz Irfan in every possible way. Better interface, treating zips as directories and all. I wont even mention some unsightly junk like CDisplay or Manga Viewer.
But ACDSee is not free...so there you go. Would you rather have comfort or your money ? That is the question.

You can actually find sites with links to the stuff... most of them are kept up to date... some sites provide torrent links... so you can find stuff like Manga X ch A to Z (even if it's not complete... you could still find stuff like this were Z would be close to the latest chapter)

____________

As for the question of the thread...

I'm too lazy to install a special program to view them :p... so I use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (WPFV) :) ...

Actually I usually prefer to keep my computer clean of useless stuff ;) ... that's why I only install something if I feel I need it and I install it when I need it :p ...

The second reason I use it is because it's instant gratification :D ... it's only designed to display images (no editing)... so it's fast :cool: ...

Basically this is what I do... Extract... Double Click the first image (I have it set so it will open all the images on my computer... if I want to edit things I just hit Open With > IR or PS)... Maximize... and just use the Arrow keys to scroll throw it...

So I still see the windows bar on top :rolleyes: ... but that's useful because it displays the name of the file... from which I observe the curent page :D ...

* * *

I don't like to use IrfanView or ACDSee because they are editors :( ... it's not like I'll use most of the options available... and because they load all of the editing options they load really slow... and they close slow too... well compared to WPFV... and I would have to install them :rolleyes:... so then I would have another editor besides PhotoShop... such a bother :( ...

I use ComicsViewer (site is in Chinese, but there's an English version of the program itself). It opens zip and rar files, is fast and has a bunch of features for comic reading. I especially like the way the magnifier is implemented, much more convenient than zooming in the entire page.

Strange but I don't like reading manga from computer screen, while I don't have any problems watching anime from it, fansubbed or DVD.
So book form for me.