Chapters for download?

[Aurawyn]

I am pretty sure this has been asked before, and I tryed to do a search, but it didn't work out so well.  Sorry if this has been asked before too.

Has it ever been discussed, or the idea rejected of putting the passed chapters up for download?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

you mean the past chapters?

I don't know. I don't think so. I know I've thought about it a few times, but, well.... part of the archives is the subtitles on each strip. Fitting those into, say, cbr or cbz files requires taking the original image and embedding it into a purple background with the text under it, snapping that, and putting it into a new set of files. It's been on my todo list for a year or so, now. I can't see it happening any time soon, either.

.. and if it did, we'd still have to ask Amber nicely first.

[Aurawyn]

Why would the text below the image need to be included? For the most part they don't usually have any affect on being able to understand the strip. Usually.. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

.... it's part of the experience, or so I feel. Amber went to some effort to make sure it's there. If she feels it's worth the effort of writing it, and including it in the archives, then it's hardly -my- place to remove it all for her, now, is it?

It's not that it's necessary - but sometimes, it's another joke on top of the actual strip. And that's worth keeping, IMNSHO.

[Aurawyn]

.... it's part of the experience, or so I feel. Amber went to some effort to make sure it's there. If she feels it's worth the effort of writing it, and including it in the archives, then it's hardly -my- place to remove it all for her, now, is it?

It's not that it's necessary - but sometimes, it's another joke on top of the actual strip. And that's worth keeping, IMNSHO.

Good Points 

[Zedd]

Soo while you wait and let things cool down..Keep those powerlocks and windows closed

[RobbieThe1st]

Well, a little php scripting, and you could easily both get each joke, and add it to an image as any font. Its pretty easy. The hard part I see is that you would have to get Amber's permission. Once you have that, I could easily make a script to do it.

-RobbieThe1st

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

The problem is, Robbie, you need to get that into an image suitable for use in a cbz or cbr - which only accepts images.

So unless you're talking turning the current image, plus a chunk of background, into a single image, once each for the 800 or so strips, then you've still got a lot of overheard required.

(the strip titles -> php thing is easy. I've done that myself. I just haven't messed about with image manipulation within php, there being, IMNSHO, better ways...)

[Tapewolf]

Well, a little php scripting, and you could easily both get each joke, and add it to an image as any font. Its pretty easy.

You mean insert them into the bitmap itself?  As PNG, I would hope - rather than another run through the JPEG encoder 

[Aurawyn]

If it were to happen, why not just Name them by their Subtext.. Something like "No767 A slightly delayed response":

Seems like that would be easer then what your all talking about, which I have no clue about to begin with.. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... because, at least part of the time, the "subtext" (which is the title we're referring to) contains characters that are not valid in a filename.

Plus it starts getting real messy. But it -is- a possibility...

[RobbieThe1st]

The problem is, Robbie, you need to get that into an image suitable for use in a cbz or cbr - which only accepts images.

So unless you're talking turning the current image, plus a chunk of background, into a single image, once each for the 800 or so strips, then you've still got a lot of overheard required.

(the strip titles -> php thing is easy. I've done that myself. I just haven't messed about with image manipulation within php, there being, IMNSHO, better ways...)

Yes and no. It is not possible(atleast easily) to take the webpage, which is html, and turn it into what you see on the screen(like its done by your browser), then basically screenshot that and put that into an image. What you would do is save a copy of each comic(very easy, with a script or not), then run it through a script which would make a larger image(so you would have space for the new added text), insert the comic image into it(perhaps also resizing it), adding the text at the bottom(any font is possible), then saving that to an image format(probly PNG).
With the text, it would be very simple to grab as text. All you would have to do is have your script open each page, scan through it for the text, then save that text, probly to a file.

I can easily make this, infact its easier than it sounds.

Well, a little php scripting, and you could easily both get each joke, and add it to an image as any font. Its pretty easy.

You mean insert them into the bitmap itself?  As PNG, I would hope - rather than another run through the JPEG encoder 

I can export as PNG, GIF, JPEG(of any quality level), or even BMP.
Other formats are possible, but it would require other libraries in PHP.
What would be easier would be simply doing the change from PNG to whatever format you want with a program like IrfanView.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

If you want, I have a text file listing the titles of each strip, and the images themselves. If you're looking at automating this, I mean.

I -could- automate it, but it'd likely take me a while, and I have a few other projects on the boil, so...

Of course, we'd still have to get Amber's approval for distributing it (easy enough, as she's said in the past, 'as long as you don't make any money off it'...) before we went any further.

[RobbieThe1st]

If you want, I have a text file listing the titles of each strip, and the images themselves. If you're looking at automating this, I mean.

I -could- automate it, but it'd likely take me a while, and I have a few other projects on the boil, so...

Of course, we'd still have to get Amber's approval for distributing it (easy enough, as she's said in the past, 'as long as you don't make any money off it'...) before we went any further.

Yea, as I said. I also have a copy of both the files and the titles, the only thing I need is permission(atleast, I had better get permission before i show anyone em... otherwise I'd probly be kicked off the forum or atleast be yelled at <_< ).

Edit: Ok, I built said script, now as soon as we get permission from amber, I can have them made in... oh... 10 mins.

[rt]

  Perphas I'm missing the point entirely, but if you want the purple background and little text under the picture like the web page ... just use an html file (and some drawers/folders to put the images files in) ... off line web page. Voila exactly the same.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Yeah, rt,  but cbr and cbz formats don't support anything -but- the images themselves.

And cbr/cbz has this neat feature where you can get this reader that opens the file, and shows you the images, and manages the page forward/back stuff, etc etc, provided you put it all together right. And providing a set of files to Amber with "here's a file for each Arc" is significantly better than re-engineering the whole website. Because, let's face it, if we wanted to do that, we could just mirror the whole thing using wget or some windows tool for the same thing.

Make more sense now?

[GabrielsThoughts]

wouldn't it be simpler to just have the images in Jpeg/PNG/ or whatever in a folder chronologically numbered.

[Faerie Alex]

What can read cbr/cbz files? I've never seen them before.

Would it be possible to put the pages in a PDF form? That would preserve the background and links. The only thing is, I'm not 100% sure how to do it. Print to PDF is similar, but it flattens the page to one layer and adds a header & footer. Perhaps if Word (or something similar) could read the source, then save it as a PDF file.

[Tapewolf]

What can read cbr/cbz files? I've never seen them before.

Nor have I, but this just filled me in:
http://www.sketchyorigins.com/comics/showthread.php?t=424

[rt]

Yes I've seen a few comics dibruted via cbr and know exactly what your saying how nice that would be to distribute with the controlls done for you. And you are right, I don't think text comments are possible, cbr is just a rar package of ordered images.

Essencially I do mean what you say in your last sentance:

"Because, let's face it, if we wanted to do that, we could just mirror the whole thing using wget or some windows tool for the same thing."

Just forget cbr standard all together since it doesn't do the job and package the standard site archive. Then Zipping/Raring the whole thing up is a fairly easy for distrobution, you can realease packages as needed, unzipping will update the end user's archive.

Avantages: No special reader is needed, any browser will do. And you overcome the no text limitation. As you stated you can archive the site using some tool, no sence reinventing the wheel.

Disadvantages: Yes the poor users will have to unzip/unrar, and double click a html file to get going. It's a hard life . Also you might need abit of fiddling with the links in the top coner, thankfully no fiddling with most of the link refferences looking quickly at the html file.

So my confusion is/was why even bother to fight with a standard that doesn't fit your requirements, and suggest this other option.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Why fiddle with a standard that doesn't fit?

Well, because I'm aware that not everyone is as technically minded as I am. I know -I- don't mind faffing about with folders, etc. I know a large number of people, however, who wouldn't know where the hell they stored the archive last time.... and wouldn't extract an archive like that anyway.

The other side of the coin is, I wouldn't supply an archive for the current arc, because it changes every other day, and if it's -ever- out of date, Amber will be the one to get the email, not me (assuming I was updating it)

Updating once an arc, on the other hand, would be dead easy, and wouldn't involve people going and downloading the same thing over and over again. Now... if I could set up rsync and some other things, we could work that into it, but that's another cup of tea altogether...


... speaking of rsync, the other option is to torrent the compressed images. Of course, that depends strongly on Amber's willingness to work with other folks...

[RobbieThe1st]

Well as it is now, I just have 770+ PNG images which consist of the original comic, and then the  text below it in size 12 Arial.  From this, I can zip them into either a full archive, chapters, or even sections, for example each 100 comics(or 50) in one archive. I can probly rig up an update script to a cronjob which when it finds the new comic, it: saves it, opens it, adds the text, and adds it to the current zip file.
The script would only have to download each file once, because once its in the zip file you can just add another file to the zip file without rebuilding the entire thing(remotely also). or perhaps it would just keep a copy of each file on the web-host.

As the images have the text already in them, its easy to load them either individually with a program like IrfanView, or have a simple html document load em all from your extracted zip.

Unfortunately I can only do zip(or tar.gz) dynamic archives, so no rar. If I was going to manually upload each file, yes rar would be possible, but I dont plan to.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

heh.

Make them zip, and call them .cbz. Personally, I'd put them in arcs, but that'd require some manual intervention...

[RobbieThe1st]

It would require just a little more coding I think... but yea, I had planned to do that. We can tell people that if they cant use the .cbz file, just rename it to .zip. simple

edit: Ok, the first 20 chapters are all ready to go.

[rt]

Yeh I guess alot of people would not bother unziping and knowing what to click. But you can have the same issue of how many of those people wouldn't know what a cbr reader is, how to use it, or how to install it (or want to install a random program). Same people would definatly have trouble the other way as well with knowing what to do. Once set up for CBR they are good to go though, so html-zip is more technical having more work each time for the user.

I'd say it's as easy to loose the folder as it is the cbr. I'm always trying to find files and folders 

And either way, yes definatley one package per arch.

Anyways it was a random thought, and it had worked for me (sorry not a dmfa archive all setup). Probabaly another method to look at too. Or some one can add .. 'but we can add this freeware installer thing-a-migig and automate the end users frustration'

The comics do look really nice in the cbr reader I tried, even without the captions. And Robbie said he has added the text to the picture easily (and I'll assume withought damaging the picture), so then cbr/cbz is the way to go.

[Amber Williams]

Honestly?

I had considered making a special anniversarry cd for DMFA with all the comics(well, all the ones to a particular point) as well as commentary for each strip and some bonus content.   But truthfully, from what you guys have planned if you go through with it, it probably will shoot down any desire for me to do so because I'm lazy enough as is.

So really it's your call. I wont throw a tizzy if you want to mass-file archs, but on the flipside it gives me an excuse not to go out of my way and provide content I see as obsolete.

[RobbieThe1st]

Honestly?

I had considered making a special anniversary cd for DMFA with all the comics(well, all the ones to a particular point) as well as commentary for each strip and some bonus content.   But truthfully, from what you guys have planned if you go through with it, it probably will shoot down any desire for me to do so because I'm lazy enough as is.

So really it's your call. I wont throw a tizzy if you want to mass-file archs, but on the flipside it gives me an excuse not to go out of my way and provide content I see as obsolete.

Hm... In that case, maby it isn't such a good idea, as extra content is always good.
I will wait for a few other forum users to decide, as I dont want to be known as "the noob who made amber not do a bunch of extra content"
As it is now, if we decide to do it, Iil have it ready as soon as I know. If we dont, well, I won't have it ready.
Of course, a better idea would be to get amber to just make the raw content, and then we could easily package it and redistribute it

[RobbieThe1st]

Yes, I am double posting. I need people to notice it, and its been 5 days.

Well, does anyone have any input on this? Should I do it, or are you, the fans, going to yell at me if I do?

-Robbie

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Personally, I think Amber might do better than the fans. Certainly I'm all for extra content, and I know -I- would get one of those CDs.

Heck, I can even look at ways of organising the mass-production thereof, should it come to that :-]

[RushFox]

Honestly?

I had considered making a special anniversarry cd for DMFA with all the comics(well, all the ones to a particular point) as well as commentary for each strip and some bonus content.   But truthfully, from what you guys have planned if you go through with it, it probably will shoot down any desire for me to do so because I'm lazy enough as is.

So really it's your call. I wont throw a tizzy if you want to mass-file archs, but on the flipside it gives me an excuse not to go out of my way and provide content I see as obsolete.

No, that's fine. DO THE CD.

I don't think you're lazyDO THE CD.

You're probably best person to do this anywayDO THE CD.

I mean that would be a good way to really give this "obsolete" content the treatment it truly deservesPLEASE FOR GOD'S SAKE DO THE CD.

...