Book Mode (for viewing comic/magazine scans)

[Lee James]

Many people are now using comic reader programs to read scanned comic books. The trouble is, none of those programs are any good. (I've tried them and they suck!)

XnView is so much better and faster at displaying these images, so I use XnView.

Pierre, if you could just add a "Book Mode" to XnView, I think you could attract lots of new users - XnView could become the most popular comic reader program! It would be very simple to do…

How it works

• Press 'b' to turn on Book Mode (the message "Book Mode" appears). Press 'b' again to turn it off (the message "Book Mode off" appears.)
• In Book Mode, all images are displayed in pairs of 2 - side by side.
• Image 1 is always shown alone (it's the front cover).
• Pairs of images begin from image 2 onwards.
• Pairs are scaled so their heights always match (widths don't need to match).
• If the width of the left page is more than 1.5 times the width of the right page, the left page is likely a double-page scan and should be shown alone.
• XnView is able to open Comic Book archives (.cbr and .cbz) - these are just rar/zip archives.
• In Book Mode, thumbnails could also be grouped as pairs (this feature is not essential).
• I think this would be an attractive way to view ANY collection of portrait images, even if they're not comics.

How it looks
To make it look like a book, simply add a black gradient to the left page, as shown here:

[Arg]

It would be nice, an option to choose if the first page would be displayed alone or not would be nicer i think.

[Johnny Rico]

I second this feature, it would make XnView MP the ULTIMATE viewer for EVERYTHING

[budz45]

I really like this idea. +1

It would be great if this Book mode was accessible directly from both the Viewer (single tab) and Fullscreen.

Imagine other use case scenarios for this such as a presentation on very large TV.

Imagine an option to enable a 'page turn' sound effect right within XnView when flipping onto the next page?

I believe this same Book mode has been requested a few times over the years but unsure without a forum search.

Similar in some small ways to the existing "Contact sheet" but just with larger thumbnails, no display of filename text, that are more dynamic in interaction and UX animation.

We also have the in-built Spotlight feature within XnView MP and some of this code for Spotlight could be re-used again for such a Book Mode. Just ideas.

So what I've done in the below screenshot mock up is try to envision such a Book Mode as within a View tab. Large thumbnail images with drop shadow opacity. Perhaps with a blur feature to be able to softly blur each book page (each thumbnail) after finished viewing it (or even blur the ahead thumbnails as to not to ruin the surprise of the rest of the comic book pages).

I think it could be useful for other uses, other than Comic books because I personally never use the Browser in XnView, only the Viewer.

For Comic book file types (.cbr and .cbz), PDF (multiple selected files), PNG (multiple selected files), JPG (multiple selected files) etc and more...

2024-02-12_023954.png

2024-02-12_024149.png

Copy of (00) 2024-02-12_024149.png

imagined book mode - reading glasses spectacles -icon.png

=========================

A Free open-source collage maker:
https://github.com/adrienverge/PhotoCollage

=======================

For a few years, I have used a powerful Windows app named TurboCollage Pro which can generate multiple images into a hi-res collage image, so I guess all a Book Mode would be doing is creating this same effect in real-time viewing.

turbocollage 2024-02-12_030623.png

[user0]

+1
OP described everything is needed.
the only not mentioned option is "reading direction" (left-to-right/right-to-left), but this can be achieved via sorting

You can check how it works online, eg at

• mangadex.org
  mangadex.png

• mangareader.to
  select double page in the left bottom corner

[budz45]

You can check how it works online, eg at mangareader.to (select double page in the left bottom corner)
https://mangareader.to/read/blame-maste ... /chapter-1

Sadly this link you posted is riddled with pop ups and page redirects, please remove it and provide a suitable example.

[budz45]

+1
OP described everything is needed.
the only not mentioned option is "reading direction" (left-to-right/right-to-left), but this can be achieved via sorting

Yes true on the OP. What I meant in my first reply is that this book mode could be expanded to more than just Two large thumbnails side-by-side (book pages).

It could be expanded to multiple dynamic thumbnails all shown at once like the Mosaic feature of "Join images" or the contact sheet.

[user0]

+1
OP described everything is needed.
the only not mentioned option is "reading direction" (left-to-right/right-to-left), but this can be achieved via sorting

Yes true on the OP. What I meant in my first reply is that this book mode could be expanded to more than just Two large thumbnails side-by-side (book pages).

It could be expanded to multiple dynamic thumbnails all shown at once like the Mosaic feature of "Join images" or the contact sheet.

yep, continious horizontal/vertical scroll can be handy (see long/wide strip setting at mangadex.org)

Sadly this link you posted is riddled with pop ups and page redirects, please remove it and provide a suitable example.

with adblock(ublock origin) I didn't even notice it, wonder why one might not use it.
lol, even the FBI says you should use an ad blocker.

[SilvLight]

I am also interested in this feature, I really wish this suggestion gets noticed.