Comic Zeal 4 for the iPad previewed

We've mentioned Comic Zeal on the site here before -- it's an iPhone app that allows you to read comic book .cbr files on your iPhone. Of course, it's exactly the kind of app that you'd hope to bring itself right on over to the iPad, and that's exactly what developer Bitolithic has done -- they're provided an excellent preview of the Comic Zeal iPad app over on their blog. It looks great -- there's a full-screen view, of course, but the navigation has been tweaked, and there's no real separation any more between selecting a book and seeing it. While the iPhone's smaller screen meant they had to compartmentalize those two functions, the bigger iPad screen means they can just put a pop-up in and do the whole thing all together.

Also interesting to note is that they've placed controls at the top of the screen rather than at the bottom -- they say that when the iPad is sitting in your lap, it's awkward to hit buttons at the bottom as you usually do on the iPhone. And this version will be called Comic Zeal 4, not Comic Zeal iPad or HD, because eventually most of the features in this version will find their way back to the iPhone version as well. Comic Zeal looks like a great comic reading solution on the iPad, and it's awesome to finally see some apps.

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Source: http://www.bitolithic.com/spilling-the-beans-on-comic-zeal-v…

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We've mentioned Comic Zeal on the site here before -- it's an iPhone app that allows you to read comic book .cbr files on your iPhone. Of...

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stingthebee

So, I am actually using ComicZeal 4 on the iPad and the syncing is not perfect, it often times out or drops one or two files, but it's worth the frustration to get all my CBR files on my iPad and once on the iPad the comics/graphic novels are glorious. I love Comixology and Panelfly, but as of now, ComicZeal 4 is the only iPad optimized app that allows you to upload your own CBR files.

April 11 2010 at 9:16 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

michae1

I'm so glad to see Comic Zeal working on its iPad app. I read Andy I.'s column about how the publishers are dragging their feet to bring their product to this platform. I've only recently started using Comic Zeal, but I've had no problem's with syncing. Can't wait to try it on my iPad (3GS, so I've got a while to wait).

The reading experience on Comic Zeal is good, but for overall readability, I prefer Comics' GI/navigation over Panelfly's. It's much more reliable and intuitive.

March 29 2010 at 6:31 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

macserv

Panelfly is easily the best comic reader on the iPhone right now, and their sneak peek of the iPad version looks far more polished than this.

March 26 2010 at 10:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Roger Benningfield

I gave up on Comic Zeal a looong time ago. I stepped up to the expensive-but-worth-every-penny Comic Reader Mobi... it's not as pretty as CZ, but it does one thing that no other app does: intelligently zooms captions and speech bubbles. I've tried everything from CZ's standard zoom-and-pan to Comixology's panel-at-a-time approach to reading comics on a small screen, and CRM's "zoom the text and leave everything else in place" method is infinitely more satisfying.

March 26 2010 at 5:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jan Rychter

I've had a very bad experience with the iPhone Comic Zeal app. Basically, I never got syncing to work reliably. I sometimes manage to get a single comic CBR file onto the app, but not always, and syncing entire collections lies in the realm of impossibility.

Unless the desktop syncing is improved (as in: made to actually work), I don't see myself using any other version...

March 26 2010 at 11:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Jan Rychter's comment

brandaid

Are you using ComicZeal Sync to convert your cbr files to cbi files before syncing? This step won't be necessary on the ipad version but it is for the iphone because of the smaller screen.

April 30 2010 at 12:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bobm

My favorite reader on OS X is Sequential (http://sequentialx.com/) hopefully they will also do a port.

March 26 2010 at 12:30 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

KosherSalt

What iPad are they using? Screen proportions kinda off.

March 25 2010 at 10:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to KosherSalt's comment

SIP

That's probably a screenshot from the iPhone/iPad emulator in the SDK.

March 26 2010 at 5:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ECJ

I just wonder how this will stack up against what Comic Book Lover has brewing for the iPad. I already have the iphone and Mac Desktop version.

http://www.bitcartel.com/comicbooklover/ipad.html

March 25 2010 at 6:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply