User Manual

Summary

Introduction
SD browser
Basic controls
Reading manga
Screen browser
Menu
Enabling CBR/RAR support
Settings
Custom controls
Temp files
Uninstalling
Known limitations
FAQ
Disclaimer

Introduction

Droid Comic Viewer (also known as ACV) is a lightweight image, comic and manga viewer developed by Robot Comics for Android powered mobiles.

Version 1.3.1 can be installed from the Android Market and works with Android 1.5 and up in all the official Android mobiles, including HTC Magic, HTC G1, HTC Dream and HTC Hero. Previous versions of Droid Comic Viewer work with Android 1.1 and up and can be downloaded through AndAppStore.

SD Browser

When opening Droid Comic Viewer for the first time you will be shown the SD browser. The SD browser allows browsing the SD card to open:

• CBZ, ZIP, ACV, JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF files
• Image folders
• CBR and RAR files is CBR/RAR support is enabled (see Enabling CBR/RAR support).

The SD browser will show automatically the first time you run Droid Comic Viewer, and can also be accessed through Menu->Open or by configuring a custom control to open it (see Custom controls).

Tap on folders to browse their contents. Tap on a file to open it. To return to the parent folder tap on “Back to parent folder” or press the Back key.

The SD browser also offers an option to download comics. Tapping on the “Download comics” button will open the Android Market with a listing of Robot Comics releases (Internet connection required).

If no SD card is mounted, Droid Comic Viewer will prompt a warning. Only Menu->Settings will be functional.

Opening Image Folders

Image folders are folders than contain at least one or more supported images (JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF). Droid Comic Viewer can open image folders and show its images sequentially.

To open an image folder, long tap on it. If the folder has no supported images, the SD browser will simply browse the contents of the folder like a normal tap.

Basic Controls

Droid Comic Viewers offers many different ways to navigate, scroll and zoom. Below is a list of the most common actions and the default events that trigger them. You can customize most of these events through “Settings->Controls:Custom controls” (see Custom controls).

Next screen

If available, shows the next image in the sequence. Droid Comic Viewer will apply the zoom level of the current image to the next one.

By default, you can move to the next screen with the following events in left-to-right mode (flip directions for right-to-left mode):

• Fling left (only if the left border of the image is shown)
• Trackball right
• Bottom right corner tap
• Menu->Go to->Next

If there isn’t any following image in the current file, Droid Comic Viewer will attempt to open the next CBR, ACV or image file by alphabetical order in the containing folder of the current file. If CBR/RAR support is enabled, CBR files also are considered.

Previous screen

If available, shows the previous image in the sequence. Droid Comic Viewer will apply the zoom level of the current image to the previous one.

By default, you can move to the previous screen with the following events in left-to-right mode (flip directions for right-to-left mode):

• Fling right (only if the right border of the image is shown)
• Trackball left
• Bottom left corner tap
• Back key
• Menu->Go to->Previous

If there isn’t any previous image in the current file, Droid Comic Viewer will attempt to open the previous CBR, ACV or image file by alphabetical order in the containing folder of the current file. If CBR/RAR support is enabled, CBR files also are considered.

Scroll

• Drag the image

Zoom in

To avoid image distortion, Droid Comic Viewer only zooms up to 150%. There are three different ways to zoom in.

• Menu->Zoom in
• Trackball up
• Double tap (if max zoom level hasn’t been reached)

Zoom out

Droid Comic Viewer can zoom out an image until all of it fits inside the screen. There are three different ways to zoom out.

• Menu->Zoom out
• Trackball down
• Double tap (if max zoom level has been reached)

Reading Manga

Droid Comic Viewer can be used to read right-to-left comics (tipically manga) by simply changing the Reading direction setting to Right-to-left.

In this mode:

• Images will be positioned in relation to the top-right corner
• The screen browser will show the screens from right to left

The default controls for right-to-left mode are:

• Next screen
o Fling right (only if the right border of the image is shown)
o Trackball left
o Bottom left corner tap
• Previous screen
o Fling left (only if the left border of the image is shown)
o Trackball right
o Bottom right corner tap

Droid Comic Viewer will ask for confirmation to automatically flip the navigation controls when entering right-to-left mode. The rest of the default controls will remain unchanged.

Screen browser

The Screen browser is a dialog with a scrollable gallery of all available screens of the comic. It can be opened with a long tap or through Menu->Browse. It can also be set to a different input event through Custom controls.

The gallery will be centered on the current screen. Fling left or right to move forward and backwards respectively (in right-to-left mode controls are reversed). You can also use the trackball, or input the screen number in the text field below the gallery.

Tap on any screen to leave the screen browser and navigate to this screen. Alternatively, tap on Go to view the screen of the position of the text field. If the number is larger than the position of the last screen, the last screen will be shown.

The screen browser will show thumbnails if they are included within the comic book archive (tipically in files with ACV extension). If not, it will simply show a white rectangle with the screen number.

• First: navigates to the first image.
• Previous: navigates to the previous image, if available. If not, attempts to open the previous file in the containing folder.
• Next: navigates to the next image, if available. If not, attempts to open the next file in the containing folder.
• Last: navigates to the last image.

Zoom

Only available if a file is loaded. Opens a submenu with four different zoom options:

• Zoom in: Zooms in the image by a factor of 0.5 up to 150%.
• Zoom out: Zooms out the image by a factor of 0.5 until all of it fits inside the screen.
• Fit width: scales the image to fit the width of the screen.
• Fit height: scales the image to fit the height of the screen.

Rotate

Only available if a file is loaded. Changes the screen orientation and automatically rescales the current image according to the “Visual:Scale mode” setting.

Browse

Only available if a file is loaded. Opens the Screen browser.

Open

Opens the SD browser.

Settings

Opens the Settings activity.

Enabling CBR Support

CBR/RAR support is in beta stage of development, and thus is disabled by default. To enable it, open Settings and turn on Controls:CBR/RAR support. The SD browser will now show CBR and RAR files.

Bear in mind that our RAR decompression algorithm is still in beta, has many known bugs, and some CBR/RAR may cause Droid Comic Viewer to crash. We recommend converting your CBR/RAR files to CBZ/ZIP, or simply extract them in the SD card and open them as image folders.

Settings

Droid Comic Viewer offers various settings that can be accessed through Menu->Settings. Below is a comprehensive list.

Visual:Scale mode

Allows you to choose how images will be scaled on the screen. Currently, Droid Comic Viewer offers four different scale modes:

• None: Images will not be scaled. Default value.
• Fit width: scales the image by giving its width the width of the screen. Particularly useful to read portrait comics in landscape mode.
• Fit height: scales the image by giving its height the height of the screen.
• Fit screen: scales the image so it fits inside the screen.

If you change this setting while viewing a comic, Droid Comic Viewer will rescale the current image according to your selection.

Visual:Transition mode

Allows you to choose the animation for screen transitions. Currently, Droid Comic Viewer offers three different transition modes:

• Translate: Pushes the current image to the left to make way from the next image coming from the right. Default value.
• Fade: Fades out the current image and fades in the next image.
• None: no screen transition.

Visual:Show screen number

If enabled, briefly shows the number of the current screen in the bottom right corner or the name of the file after opening it. Enabled by default.

Controls:Custom controls

Opens a new preference screen to customize the action of events such as single tap or scroll left. See Custom controls for more information.

Controls:Reading direction

Allows you to choose if images will be shown from left-to-right or right-to-left. See Reading manga for more information. Left-to-right is the default value.

After returning from Settings after changing reading direction, if some or all of the default controls for navigation are used, Droid Comic Viewer will ask for confirmation to flip them.

Controls:Auto-rotate

If turned on, Droid Comic Viewer will rotate the screen when the phone orientation changes. Off by default.

SD browser:Load last comic

If turned on, Droid Comic Viewer attempts to load the last viewed comic on startup. On by default.

SD browser:CBR/RAR support

If enabled, Droid Comic Viewer will allow the SD browser to open CBR and RAR files. Disabled by default.

About:Android Market listing

Opens the Droid Comic Viewer listing on the Android Market (Internet connection required).

About:Contact

Tap to send an email to Robot Comics.

About:Website

Opens Robot Comics website on the Android Browser.

About:ACV version

Displays the current version of Droid Comic Viewer.

About:Credits

Displays Droid Comic Viewer development credits.

Custom Controls

Custom controls allow you to set the action of most of the supported input events.

Customizable events

Droid Comic Viewer currently allows customizing the following events:

• Single tap
• Double tap
• Long press
• Trackball up
• Trackball down
• Trackball left
• Trackball right
• Trackball center
• Fling up
• Fling down
• Fling left
• Fling right
• Bottom left corner tap
• Bottom right corner tap
• Top left corner tap
• Top right corner tap
• Back

Available actions

Droid Comic Viewer currently offers the following actions for all customizable events:

• Next
• Previous
• Zoom in
• Zoom out
• Rotate
• Scroll up: moves the image 50px up.
• Scroll down: moves the image 50px down.
• Scroll left: moves the image 50px left.
• Scroll right: moves the image 50px right.
• First: shows the first image of the sequence.
• Last: shows the last image of the sequence.
• Fit width
• Fit height
• Fit screen
• Open screen browser
• Open SD browser
• Open settings
• None: select this option if you don’t want the event to cause any action.

Restore defaults

Clicking on this preference restores the defaults values for all events. The default values are:

• Single tap: Next
• Double tap: Zoom in
• Long press: Open screen browser
• Trackball up: Zoom in
• Trackball down: Zoom out
• Trackball left: Previous (Next if Reading direction is set to right-to-left)
• Trackball right: Next (Previous if Reading direction is set to right-to-left)
• Fling up: None
• Fling down: None
• Fling left: Next (Previous if Reading direction is set to right-to-left)
• Fling right: Previous (Next if Reading direction is set to right-to-left)
• Bottom left corner tap: Previous (Next if Reading direction is set to right-to-left)
• Bottom right corner tap: Next (Previous if Reading direction is set to right-to-left)
• Top left corner tap: None
• Top right corner tap: None
• Back: Previous

Temp files

Droid Comic Viewer stores temporal images in your SD card to reduce loading times. These files are saved in /sdcard/acv/.temp.

This temp folder is created and managed by Droid Comic Viewer. Images are deleted by Droid Comic Viewer as soon as it does not need them anymore. Please avoid putting any files in this directory as they most likely will be deleted.

Uninstalling

Droid Comic Viewer can be uninstalled like any other Android app.

It is possible that some temp files remain after uninstalling Droid Comic Viewer. If this is the case, simply delete the /sdcard/acv folder on the SD card.

Known limitations

Droid Comic Viewer works best when opening image folders or cbz/zip files. When viewing compressed files like cbz/zip/cbr/rar, the lower the compression, the faster the image will load. Images extracted from cbr/rar files with high compression may be shown corrupted, or cause an error.

Large image files my cause out-of-memory errors. The size limit of image files may depend on your phone model and internal memory usage. In any case, the app should warn you about any error and let you open another comic. If this happens, we would greatly appreciate it if you could let us know which comic we were unable to open by sending us an email to support@robotcomics.net.

FAQ

See FAQ.

Disclaimer

The contents of this manual are released under a Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Misery Depot by Hermes Pique and Juan Romera. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
http://www.miserydepot.com/

Ubunchu by Hiroshi Seo. Licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now by Cory Doctorow and various authors. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license. http://www.archive.org/details/CoryDoctorowsFuturisticTalesOfTheHereAndNow

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