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Droid Comic Viewer User Manual
Version 1.3.1
1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
2. Download .................................................................................................... 2
3. SD browser ................................................................................................. 2
4. Basic controls.............................................................................................. 3
5. Reading manga........................................................................................... 5
6. Screen browser ........................................................................................... 6
7. Menu ........................................................................................................... 7
8. Enabling CBR/RAR support ........................................................................ 8
9. Settings ....................................................................................................... 9
10. Custom controls..................................................................................... 11
11. Temp files .............................................................................................. 13
12. Uninstalling ............................................................................................ 13
13. Known limitations................................................................................... 13
14. Support .................................................................................................. 13
15. Feature requests ................................................................................... 14
16. Android OS compatibility ....................................................................... 14
17. FAQ ....................................................................................................... 15
18. Disclaimer.............................................................................................. 15
1. Introduction
Droid Comic Viewer (also known as ACV) is a lightweight image, comic and
manga viewer developed by Robot Comics for Android powered mobiles,
such as the HTC Magic, HTC G1 and HTC Dream. ACV main features in
version 1.3.1 are:
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 1 of 16
• Opens CBZ/ZIP, CBR/RAR (beta), ACV, JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF
files, as well as image folders
• Read comics from your SD card
• Left-to-right or right-to-left reading direction
• Use the touch screen, the trackball and various keys to zoom, scroll and
navigate
• 17 custom controls with 17 possible actions
• Various screen transition and image scaling modes
• Continue reading your comic from where you left it
• Multi-language: English, Spanish and German
2. Download
The preferred method of download of ACV is through the Android Market. If you
are browsing this document from an Android powered mobile, click on the
following link to download ACV from the Android Market.
market://search?q=pname:net.androidcomics.acv
Alternatively, search “Droid Comic Viewer” on the Market.
3. SD browser
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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 ACV, and can
also be accessed through Menu->Open or by configuring a custom control to
open it (see Custom controls).
By default, the SD browser shows the contents of the root of the SD card. You
can change the default comics folder by entering a new one through “Menu-
>Settings-> SD browser:Comics path”.
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”.
The SD browser also offers an option to download comics. Flicking 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, ACV will prompt a warning. Only Menu->Settings will
be functional.
3.1. 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.
4. 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).
4.1. 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
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 3 of 16
• 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.
4.2. 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.
4.3. Scroll
• Drag the image
4.4. 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)
4.5. 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)
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5. 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.
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 5 of 16
6. 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. If not, it will simply show a white rectangle with the screen
number.
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 6 of 16
7. Menu
Press Menu to access the following options.
7.1. Go to
Only available if a file is loaded. Opens a submenu with four navigation options:
• 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.
7.2. 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.
7.3. 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.
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 7 of 16
7.4. Browse
Only available if a file is loaded. Opens the Screen browser (see Screen
browser).
7.5. Open
Opens the SD browser (see SD browser).
7.6. Settings
Opens the Settings activity (see Settings).
8. Enabling CBR/RAR 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 (see Opening image folders).
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 8 of 16
9. Settings
Droid Comic Viewer offers various settings that can be accessed through Menu-
>Settings. Below is a comprehensive list.
9.1. 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.
9.2. Visual:Transition mode
Allows you to choose the animation for screen transitions. Currently, Droid
Comic Viewer offers three different transition modes:
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 9 of 16
• 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.
9.3. 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.
9.4. 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.
9.5. 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.
9.6. Controls:Auto-rotate
If turned on, Droid Comic Viewer will rotate the screen when the phone
orientation changes. Off by default.
9.7. SD browser:Load last comic
If turned on, Droid Comic Viewer attempts to load the last viewed comic on
startup. On by default.
9.8. SD browser:Comics path
Folder whose contents will be shown on the SD browser. If an invalid folder is
entered, Droid Comic Viewer will restore the comics path to its default value: the
root of the SD card.
9.9. SD browser:CBR/RAR support
If enables, Droid Comic Viewer will allow the SD browser to open CBR and
RAR files. Disabled by default.
9.10. About:Android Market listing
Opens the Droid Comic Viewer listing on the Android Market (Internet
connection required).
9.11. About:Contact
Tap to send an email to Robot Comics.
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 10 of 16
9.12. About:Website
Opens Robot Comics website on the Android Browser.
9.13. About:ACV version
Displays the current version of Droid Comic Viewer.
9.14. About:Credits
Displays Droid Comic Viewer development credits.
10. Custom controls
Custom controls allow you to set the action of most of the supported events.
10.1. Customizable events
Droid Comic Viewer currently allows customizing the following events:
• Single tap
• Double tap
• Long press
• Trackball up
• Trackball down
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 11 of 16
• 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
10.2. 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.
10.3. 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)
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 12 of 16
• 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
11. Temp files
Droid Comic Viewer stores temporal images in your SD card to reduce image
loading time. 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.
12. Uninstalling
Droid Comic Viewer can be uninstalled like any other Android app.
It is possible but unlikely that some temp files remain after uninstalling Droid
Comic Viewer. If this is the case, simply delete the /sdcard/acv/temp folder on
the SD card.
13. Known limitations
Large image files my cause Droid Comic Viewer to crash. The size limit of
image files may depend on your phone model and internal memory usage.
In any case, Droid Comic Viewer 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 Droid Comic Viewer was unable to open by sending us
an email to support@robotcomics.net.
14. Support
If you need help with Droid Comic Viewer or want to report a bug, please send a
message to support@robotcomics.net.
If reporting a bug, please specify:
• Description: a brief description of the bug
• Steps to reproduce: how to reproduce the bug, step by step
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 13 of 16
• Comic book archive: if applicable, the comic archive file that was
loaded when the bug occurred. Provide a link, attach the file (if lest than
20MB) or send it through a service like yousendit.com. If you can not
send us the comic book archive, please provide a screenshot or
description of its file contents.
• Settings: any Droid Comic Viewer settings that you changed and that
may be related to the bug.
• Model number: Mobile phone model. If you don't know it, you can get it
from "About Phone" in system Settings.
• Firmware version: version of the Android firmware. If you don't know it,
you can get it from "About Phone" in system Settings.
• Other: any other information that might help us isolate the bug.
A member of our support team will contact you to your email address within 24
hours of receiving the support request.
An example bug report (not an actual bug):
• Description: Droid Comic Viewer hangs up after requesting the next
page after navigating to the last page
• Steps to reproduce:
1. Open comic book archive
2. Press Menu
3. Navigate to the last screen
4. Single tap on the screen
• Comic book archive: http://www.miserydepot.com/download/en/misery-
depot.cbz
• Settings: load last comic turned off
• Model number: Android Dev Phone 1
• Firmware version: 1.0
• Other: also happens if you get to the last page by browsing the images
15. Feature requests
Our development team will be more than happy to hear your feature requests.
Ask for new features by sending an email to development@robotcomics.net.
An example feature request:
"Add an option in Settings to disable touch screen navigation. I prefer to use the
touch screen strictly for scrolling, and clicking the trackball for navigation."
16. Android OS compatibility
Droid Comic Viewer 1.3.1 works with Android 1.5 and up. Previous versions of
Droid Comic Viewer work with Android 1.1 and up.
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 14 of 16
17. FAQ
17.1. Why is CBR/RAR support beta?
RAR is an archive format that isn’t as widely supported as the ZIP format. In
particular, the Android platform natively supports ZIP decompression and not
RAR decompression.
We added CBR/RAR support because it was a commonly requested feature.
However, current RAR decompression algorithms for Android are slow and
consume too much battery life. While this implemented is not improved, we
recommend converting your CBR/RAR files to CBZ/ZIP, or simply
decompressing them to the SD card and open the image folders.
17.2. My CBR/RAR/CBZ/ZIP comic crashes. How can I view it in
Droid Comic Viewer?
Try decompressing the file (you might need to rename CBR or CBZ files to RAR
or ZIP respectively) into a folder, and copy the decompressed folder in your SD
card. Then open the image folder with a long tap in the SD browser.
In any case, we would greatly appreciate if you could send us the problematic
file. We may be able to fix the bug for everyone.
17.3. How can I use the trackball for scrolling?
Go to “Settings->Controls:Custom controls” and configure the following control
scheme:
• Trackball up: Scroll up
• Trackball down: Scroll down
• Trackball left: Scroll left
• Trackball right: Scroll right
You will need to do this only once.
17.4. How can I contribute?
We are humbled by your interest in contributing to Droid Comic Viewer. The
easiest and preferred way to help us is by buying comic titles released by Robot
Comics.
You can also help us by translating Droid Comic Viewer to a language in which
it isn’t already available. If interested, please send us a message to
development@robotcomics.net.
18. Disclaimer
The contents of this manual are released under a Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 15 of 16
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
Droid Comic Viewer User Manual Page 16 of 16
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