iPhone Manga Converter from MangaWare
The iPhone Manga Converter from MangaWare is an interesting app that lets you prep comic files on your computer that you can upload to a web server and view anytime on your iPhone.
The process is very clever, but hard to explain…that’s why they’ve included a demo video on their website. Looks kinda freaky. I tried it out last night and after a short learning curve, I was able to read some old comics on my iPhone.
iPhone Manga Viewer application
The process works very nicely as long as you have your own web space available for uploads. Basically, the software allows you to turn the pages of your comic book scans into individual little web pages that are automatically optimized exactly for the iPhone. Once the conversion process is done, you need to upload the folders to your personal web server using FTP or your web host’s file manager. Once that’s done, you (or anybody else you share the url with) can type the url of your web space directory right into your iTunes web browser like this:
http://yourdomain.com/folder
The interface allows you to view a little index page where you can see all the pages of the story.
This is the index page as you see it on your iPhone.
From there you can start reading at any page, and use little icons in the screen corners to go forward or backward through the pages.
A more advanced option allows you to chop up the story into individual panels which will fill the screen space when tapped. This is a good idea, but I was not able to get the program to auto-detect where the panel shapes are…probably because the pages I have scanned in are in color and not as high-contrast as the pages used in the software example.
Take a look at the demo video and see what you think…
Tags: applications, apps, Comic Book Reader, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone reader
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Hey this is super cool.
@Sam: Hi Sam — Glad you like it…congrats on being the first to comment! –sherm
i’m downloading now. will try it out. Thanks for sharing.
Good afternoon,
Thank you for review my software, you are the first one and it’s a great review ever.
I’m software engineer and a fan of Manga; I read manga since I was a kid and even now still read them. I bought iPhone last year and I was wondering same as you “is it possible to read comics/manga on iPhone?” Here it’s comes my software that I spent last 6 months on it.
Just for your information the new version 1.0.0.5 is now released; fixing the function “Auto Detect” and “Panel Scan” that you have problems with. Please try test it and let me know if the problem still or send me the problems images I might need to analyze them. To update a new version click “Help” –> “Check for Updates”
From your review I just want to emphasize on “how to make them online”.
The main focus for this is “Personal Web Server” (PWS), most of computers using windows operating system has PWS name IIS installed but some version doesn’t such as “Windows XP home edition” in this case might need to use a free web server software called “Apache” it’s simple and easy, to see how to install and use them try search using YouTube or Google.
Note: The default path for IIS is “c:\inetpub\wwwroot” for Apache is “c:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs”
Here are two scenarios due to PWS availability.
1. If you don’t have PWS installed on your pc. One way to read the conversion result is to upload them to your web server over internet.
2. If you have PWS installed; for example if your PWS is IIS (from Microsoft) the default path name is “c:\inetpub\wwwroot” then just enter “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\[xxx]” into PWS path in settings screen. Where [xxx] is sub path name you want the conversion result saved. In this example I use “iPhone” so the full path name will be “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\iphone”. After the conversion are done , below what you can do
2.1 If you have WIFI installed then use iPhone read them right away over WIFI, to do this just enter a link into Safari address bar for example my computer ip address is “75.37.18.141” then just enter http://75.37.18.141/iphone/default.htm
2.2 Upload them to your internet web server. Just upload the whole data under directory “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\iphone” except file name with prefix “raw_” it’s an original file and no longer use any more unless you want to convert them or edit them again.
2.3 Use a free DNS service such as dyndns or no-ip. This kind of free service will allows you to pick your sub domain name and then redirect those name to you personal web server at home. I currently am using free service from no-ip to host my comics from home. This link http://mangaconverter.no-ip.org/iphone is from my pc. To lean how to setup using no-ip try YouTube or Google.
Best Regards and please apoligize for my rough english.
Manga.converter@gmail.com
[...] built-in facilities of the iPhone to read comics, which unsurprisingly doesn’t go that well. The second post is interesting, though - it links to an app called the iPhone Manga Converter, which will take [...]
Hi guys, if you’re looking for an app to read manga on iPhone, please check my app out, it is an OneManga optimized for your iPhone and iPod Touch. My web app is available at http://imanga.co.cc
Check out my manga web app http://www.apple.com/webapps/e.....manga.html
Over 900 manga, you can read them using iPhone,iPod or Android.
Another alternative iPhone / iPod Touch app to check out for reading manga is Manga Depot @ http://mangadepot.com/
Looks like they haven’t been around for too long but the user interface of the app is very simple to use.