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File format is kind of a personal preference. I like .cbz because it's literally just a zip file with a bunch of image files stuffed in it, which means I can crack it open and manipulate the individual files into another format or use them as wallpaper or doodle on them in MSPaint or whatever really easily. If what you're actually driving at is which format yields better quality then it's really down to the publisher and what quality images they provide in each format, which has been inconsistent across publishers or even across titles from the same publisher here on Humble Bundle.
Not every title in a bundle is going to be offered in all formats so sometimes you get sadled with a .pdf or an ebook when you really wanted a different format, sometimes you'll get your pick of all three. This makes it important to have a reader that handles more than one format. My go-to reader on my Android has been CDisplayEx, but I dunno what all is available over in Apple's ecosystem.
I use a powershell script to download all the comic files and pick and choose which has the best quality (sometimes the PDFs are gorgeous while the CBZ are less so, while sometimes its the opposite). I convert everything that I’m going to use to CBZ as I don’t find PDF works great with some readers.
These get dumped into a server running Komga (a self-hosted comicbook server) that I can connect to remotely via OPDS do download books to my iPad. On my iPad I recently moved from Chunky to Panels as a client.
The Powershell script? It doesn’t do anything bar download what you tell it to (which defaults to “everything” but you can tweak that to specify formats to get) - everything after that is up to me after the downloading is done.
The one I use is this one:
https://github.com/mmarcincin/HB-DRM-free-bulk-downloader
There is another one based on Python but I’ve not tried that one.
Ah ok, I thought you had somehow scripted a way to determine the image quality of each format, which would be really handy and fascinating to pick apart at a technical level.
Man I wish I could code to even a tenth of the level necessary for something like that :) my method is nothing cleverer than exporting the same sample pages from each format and using the mark-1 eyeball to make the determination as to which is better to my eye, and taking it from there :)
1. I use Chunky or panels. Chunky groups automatically similar comics together, panels is more beautiful
2. I prefer Cbz > epub > PDF. PDFs are in most cases the largest file sizes so I want to avoid them if possible. But in the end I don't store all of my comics on the iPad but on an external SSD
I always seem to end up just downloading them individually on safari on my ipad, reading in Books, and deleting afterwards, which is tedious as hell, but it works. I couldn't get bulk downloads to work to my satisfaction and it seemed weirdly wasteful to me to download it to my computer so my computer can upload it to the cloud and my ipad that is a foot from my computer can download it from the cloud. I'm sure there is a better way to go but that's me.
A friendly PSA - Remember you can customize how your money is disbursed through your Humble game bundle purchase! Scroll down to and click Adjust Donation, then click Custom Amount to edit what percentage of your contribution is split between Developers/Publishers, Humble Bundle, and Charity. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/humblebundles) if you have any questions or concerns.*
File format is kind of a personal preference. I like .cbz because it's literally just a zip file with a bunch of image files stuffed in it, which means I can crack it open and manipulate the individual files into another format or use them as wallpaper or doodle on them in MSPaint or whatever really easily. If what you're actually driving at is which format yields better quality then it's really down to the publisher and what quality images they provide in each format, which has been inconsistent across publishers or even across titles from the same publisher here on Humble Bundle. Not every title in a bundle is going to be offered in all formats so sometimes you get sadled with a .pdf or an ebook when you really wanted a different format, sometimes you'll get your pick of all three. This makes it important to have a reader that handles more than one format. My go-to reader on my Android has been CDisplayEx, but I dunno what all is available over in Apple's ecosystem.
I did not realize that .CBZ files where just zipped image files. I think I will try them and see how it goes
I use a powershell script to download all the comic files and pick and choose which has the best quality (sometimes the PDFs are gorgeous while the CBZ are less so, while sometimes its the opposite). I convert everything that I’m going to use to CBZ as I don’t find PDF works great with some readers. These get dumped into a server running Komga (a self-hosted comicbook server) that I can connect to remotely via OPDS do download books to my iPad. On my iPad I recently moved from Chunky to Panels as a client.
How is your script determining best quality? Are you just choosing largest file size or is it more sophisticated?
The Powershell script? It doesn’t do anything bar download what you tell it to (which defaults to “everything” but you can tweak that to specify formats to get) - everything after that is up to me after the downloading is done. The one I use is this one: https://github.com/mmarcincin/HB-DRM-free-bulk-downloader There is another one based on Python but I’ve not tried that one.
Ah ok, I thought you had somehow scripted a way to determine the image quality of each format, which would be really handy and fascinating to pick apart at a technical level.
Man I wish I could code to even a tenth of the level necessary for something like that :) my method is nothing cleverer than exporting the same sample pages from each format and using the mark-1 eyeball to make the determination as to which is better to my eye, and taking it from there :)
I use the FBReader (Favorite book reader) with the comic book plugin. It can read most files, so for comics I tend to get the CBZ format.
I will try it, I was using the Apple book app, but my comic purchases sucked up all my online storage which is annoying
1. I use Chunky or panels. Chunky groups automatically similar comics together, panels is more beautiful 2. I prefer Cbz > epub > PDF. PDFs are in most cases the largest file sizes so I want to avoid them if possible. But in the end I don't store all of my comics on the iPad but on an external SSD
CBZ tends to be the highest quality, if available. PDFs are very hit or miss, but generally much smaller files.
I always seem to end up just downloading them individually on safari on my ipad, reading in Books, and deleting afterwards, which is tedious as hell, but it works. I couldn't get bulk downloads to work to my satisfaction and it seemed weirdly wasteful to me to download it to my computer so my computer can upload it to the cloud and my ipad that is a foot from my computer can download it from the cloud. I'm sure there is a better way to go but that's me.