#comic-scans
The #comic-scans Thumbnail Viewer is a program that allows the user to create and view cover images of comic books stored in .cbr, .cbz, .zip or .rar file formats.
The aim of this project is to develop a centralised comic book viewing and management system that will allow you to store and record the information about your comic book library. It also provides the ability to inject each comic book file with an xml file containing details such as the publisher, series, title and details of the people who wrote or worked on the art for the issue.
| This project is currently in it's development phase and the program available is still only a Beta release. Hopefully you can see the potential benefits of a system such as this and we welcome your feedback to help us to improve it. As we develop it further, more features will be added and we'll try to report any changes and updates here. |
To download the beta program click here for the zip file containing ALL the components.
Installation couldn't be simpler. Simply download and extract the zip files contents to a folder of your choice, just make sure you keep all the files together. So if you want to install just an upgrade just drag the new exe file into the same location as the existing program and overwrite it.
The program comprises of the following files:
| csThumbnails.exe | Main Program to execute |
| unrar.dll | These dll's are required to zip and unzip and unrar the comic book files. |
| Xceed.Compression.dll | |
| Xceed.FileSystem.dll | |
| Xceed.Zip.dll | |
| ignore.txt | List of known tag names to ignore so that the cover is more likely to be selected as the thumbnail. |
| classifications.txt imprints.txt publishers.txt roles.txt seriestypes.txt |
Lists to populate the drop down boxes |
| settings.xml | This file will get created and updated as you exit the program. It contains your preferences and enables it to recall the last window position and selected folder. |
| Note: Requires Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0 to run. You can download it freely from here : Download .NET Framework v2.0 (22.4MB) |
Double click the csThumbnails.exe program to launch the program.
Select the folder where your comic books are stored by double clicking it in the explorer panel on the left of the display. You should then see a series of thumbnail images for each comic book that will initially show as the #comic-scans logo.
There are two ways of creating thumbnails for the displayed comic books.
The thumbnails are created and stored in a hidden cache file "covers.db" in the same folder as the comic books.
Thumbnails can be deleted in a similar fashion to creating them. Either by deleting all by right clicking the folder in explorer or right clicking the comic book thumbnail and selecting "Delete Thumbnail(s)".
Occasionally the thumbnail selected as the cover may not actually be the cover for the comic book. This happens if the file is created with a scanners tag that is alphabetically the first in the comic book file. You can change the thumbnail image shown by selecting from a list of files contained in the comic book by right clicking the comic book and choosing "This is NOT the Cover!".
You should then be presented with a list of approximately 10 images to select from to use as the thumbnail. To keep this list short you are presented with only the first 10 images and those that contain the word "cover" or "fc". Once selected the thumbnail should be changed to your preferred selection.
The program allow you some control over the files in your folders by giving you the ability to either Delete or Move the selected files. At this stage you can only do this using the keyboard shortcuts* for delete (DEL) or from the right click menu in the thumbnail panel.
You can also manipulate the comic books by using the Drag and Drop capability for copying and moving. To move simply Drag the selected file or files onto the folder in explorer that you wish to move them to. To Copy them hold down the CTRL key whilst dragging and droping - you should see a little plus icon appears at your mouse to indicate you are copying and not moving.
* Now supports File Renaming using the standard rename shortcut key F2 and selected File Deletions using the DEL key.
Two sizes of thumbnail views are available Large (100x150 pixels) and Small (50x75 pixels). These can be selected by right clicking in the Thumbnail panel and selecting from the "Thumb Size" menu.
Double click on the thumbnail of the comic book you wish to read, or use the "Launch in CDisplay" option on the context menu (right click a thumbnail in the thumbnails panel). The first time you do this you should be asked where the program should look for the cdisplay.exe program. Once you have successfully pointed it out it will be saved in your settings and not require you to select it again.
The comic book thumbnails program allows you to add or view metadata about each stored comic book if the comic book has it stored within it. It achieves this by writing a file called "comicbook.xml" into the comic book file.
The data stored includes:
Publisher and Publication Details |
||
| Publisher | Imprint | Series |
| Volume | Issue # | Year |
| Month | Series Type | Sub Title |
| Classification (Supports many per publication) | ||
| Class | ||
Story Details (Supports many stories per publication) |
||
| Arc Title | Arc Chapter | Story Title |
| Genre | Cover Page # | Starting Page # |
| End Page # | Comments | |
Contributors (Supports many per story) |
||
| Role | Name | |
To save the xml data into the comic book you need to click the button "Save XML to File". If you are currently adding this information to a .rar (.cbr) format file then by default you will be asked if you wish to convert the file into zip (.cbz) format. Answering yes will then extract all of the files from the rar file and add them all to a zip file. The original rar file will then be renamed with a .bak extension.
However, if you wish to continue to save the file as a rar format you MUST select the "Use RAR" option from the right click menu. You will be asked to confirm this and if necessary be asked to point to the location of rar.exe on your system. This is typically in "c:\Program Files\WinRAR".
If you do not have rar.exe on your system you must convert rar format files to zip.
Sample XML Formatting:
<comicbook version="1.1" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<publisher>DC</publisher>
<imprint />
<rating />
<language />
<volume>1</volume>
<issue>804</issue>
<series>Detective Comics</series>
<month>May</month>
<year>2005</year>
<series_type>Series</series_type>
<subtitle />
<story>
<title>All You Need is Love Love Love Love Love Love</title>
<genre>Superhero</genre>
<arc>City of Crime</arc>
<arc_chapter>4</arc_chapter>
<creative_staff role="Writer">David Lapham</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Penciller">Ramon Bachs</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Inker">Nathan Massengill</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Letterer">Jared K. Fletcher</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Colourist">Jason Wright</creative_staff>
</story>
<story>
<title>The Barker</title>
<genre>Crime</genre>
<arc />
<arc_chapter>4</arc_chapter>
<creative_staff role="Writer">Mike Carey</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Artist">John Lucas</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Letterer">Jared K. Fletcher</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Colourist">Guy Major</creative_staff>
<creative_staff role="Editor">Michael Wright</creative_staff>
</story>
</comicbook>
Now I can't think of a reason you'd want to uninstall this wonderful program, but should wish to do so you can just delete the files listed above from the location you unzipped them to.
We're looking for your feedback on this. Remember this is only a Beta project at the minute. If you have something you'd like to see included in the development why not suggest it to us? We've opened a thread in the forums to allow you guys to drop us a line and keep in touch - but feel free to grab hold of warlord0 in the channel and drop in a suggestion.
Criticism we can take. If there's something you don't like or would like to see changed then explain your point and help us to understand your reasoning. Simply stating that the program is rubbish and that you don't like it make no difference to the development at all. Make a suggestion offer some insight and have your ideas considered for implementation - you can make this program the way it is!
| Beta 1f 28 Aug 06 |
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| Beta 1e 02 July 06 |
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| Beta 1d 25 June 06 |
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| Beta 1c 18 June 06 |
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| Beta 1b 2 June 06 |
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| Beta 1a 1 June 06 |
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| Beta 1 31 May 06 |
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Items in this list are worked on on the basis of effort versus reward. For instance if something takes 5 minutes to code and it's rewards are immediate it will get done before other items in the list that may take hours of coding for little reward.
Items that are crossed out have been coded into the current development that has NOT been released as yet, but will be appear in the next release. Keep an eye on the Change Log to see what has been added to the actual release
Why RAR Sucks - There is nothing at all wrong with the RAR format and for what we generally use it for there is no fundamental difference between a RAR file and a ZIP file. They both compress multiple files into a single convenient container. RAR may have some edge in the final size of the compressed output but my opinion is based not on the end result but on the getting there.
Take a look at ZIP. The ZIP algorithm and code for creating ZIP files is in the public domain and is used in many applications that are capable of creating ZIP files. Even Windows can create and read ZIP files these days.
Now look at RAR. The RAR algorithm for creating RAR file is proprietary and part of a closed licence agreement. There are no other applications able to createor even write to RAR files other than WinRAR and those purchased from RARLabs. This is done deliberately by the developer of the RAR algorithm. More details of this can be found on Wikipedia.
So when developing a piece of software that supports compressed file types I can provide the capability of writing to a ZIP file without requiring you the user to purchase a copy of WinZip. I can't however, provide anything freely in my software to write to or create RAR files. I can make use of a copy of WinRar that you have purchased, albeit in in a limited fashion by making command line calls, but this is hardly a professional method of interacting with compressed files in a separate development. This method also allows no background processing and requires that I extract contained files to a temporary folder rather than reading them directly into memory.
Even if I wanted to write my own part of this program write to RAR files, I can not, I am bound by the RARLabs licence and it is illegal for me to do so.
In short you must purchase WinRar to make use of the features to write to a RAR file.
So I stand by my opinion - RAR Sucks!
Developed by warlord0 with feedback and coaching by tylo. XML Based on work started by btx.