In the past month or so, Digital Manga titles have become available through several more outlets. I'm super swamped with stuff right now, but I hope to take a closer look at the quality and interface of these options soon. Gah I am such a goober. I couldn't resist taking some screenshots.
First is the most recent announcement: www.DriveThruComics.com. I had never heard of this site before, but it provides what people have been requesting for ages: DOWNLOADABLE PDF FILES. I couldn't resist and just bought Entangled Circumstances. The file rolled in at 17 MB and is comparable to Nook quality (which is good). I was going to get Rainy Day Love since I could compare it directly to my own lettered files, but I didn't want to pay for something I already have XD
 |
| Small side text looks good zoomed in on an iPad! |
Also announced today was that Digital Manga titles are available on Graphicly, which has a Facebook App in addition to their online viewer. Maybe I'm just being cranky because the Graphicly website is annoying me, but their online viewer is pretty terrible if the preview pages are any indication. Quality looks fine, but the page turning is slow and clunky and it goes left to right. They have a banner saying they support damn near every format from iOS to Android to Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and beyond, but when I look at the page for a DMG title (e.g. A Truthful Picture), it says "Buying from Graphicly unlocks this book on both the Graphicly Facebook Application and the Graphicly Website." Do any Facebook users read manga on the Graphicly App? Is it better than this crappy online reader on their main website? Unless someone leaves a comment with a glowing review and happy recollections, I probably won't revisit Graphicly (also I am not a FB user, so that doesn't add any value for me personally).
Digital Manga is also on Comics Plus, which is availble on everything (iOS, Android, etc etc), though right now it looks like there are only books from the main DMP imprint (no June or DMG). I think this cross-platform super-availability is going to be more and more ubiquitous in the future, and the real question is going to be which Japanese publishers and mangaka are willing to sell a license to actually distribute on these platforms and in these file formats.
As for me personally, I'll be buying my DMP manga from DriveThruComics whenever possible. I like the idea of downloading the pdf and then choosing my own reading device. Also, I see Project H and 801 books, so one can assume there won't be a censorship problem. I hope this business model remains feasible (and the cynic in me can think of a hundred reasons it could fail), but you can be sure I will be enjoying it while I can!
Posts
4 comments:
How do you get PDFs to open on your iPad? I had one I could open on my laptop & nook, but I still haven't been able to open it on my iPad. (I did try opening it in my email, and that was a no go)
After I open the email with the PDF, I just touch the icon for the file, and it opens in the Mail program using what I assume is the iOS native PDF reader. If that isn't working for you, hold your finger on the file icon until a menu pops up with some options for "Open in". I think Open in "iBooks" will be available for everyone. If you click on the generic Open In... then some options will pop up depending on which apps you have on your iPad. I have the Kindle app and an app called iComic. I prefer iComic because it has a setting to easily read from right to left. Then, the PDF should open in the app of your choice!
If that doesn't work, you'll have to send me some pics of what your screen looks like.
That worked! Thank you!
Oh, and just a point of clarification - there are two apps named "iComic." I like the one by Y. Yamamoto. It supports R-L reading in single or double page mode. There might be better readers out there, but I haven't felt the need to look since I got iComic.
Post a Comment