I’m still struggling with justifying the purchase of an iPad but I thought I’d throw some resources together that I’ve found.
The iPad only natively (and for free) supports the ePub format. No PDFs without an app and no CBR/CBZ files without an app.
I’m a gamer and comic geek so those file types are very important to my reading habits on computers. Without those, it’s a complete loss. There are ways to get these file types on the iPad though. A good conversion program for PDFs is Calibre. It’s listed on several sites as the best out there. I haven’t tried them all so I’ll have to take their word for it.
In testing Calibre it does a great job of taking plain (text only) PDFs over to ePub, but in converting even a small game PDF, each image was on a separate page, the corresponding text on another page, and the frequent call-out boxes were on separate pages as well (and yes, any background images etc were on a separate page). So for the best out there, it just doesn’t work in a useful way for layered game PDFs. A simple scanned comic PDF would work just fine though. Calibre also works great for CBR/CBZ comic files. It converted over easily without any formatting issues. It does take a few moments to convert a 25mb file over though, so batch these up if that’s the route you want to take. However, the conversion turned the color comic into black and white. Messing with the settings on Calibre might do the trick, but I couldn’t find a b&w or color option for the output.
For fully layered PDFs your best bet is still to shell out a few more bucks for a proper app. Really though, you just dropped $500+ on an iPad, another $15 for a decent app shouldn’t be stopping you. And since we’re at the point of buying apps, why not shell out for a proper CBR/CBZ reader while you’re at it. If you only do black and white manga, Calibre is cheaper (it’s free), but for the full color comics it’s only another $15 or so for a proper reading app. Currently Marvel is the only one available, but in the coming days or months, you’ll see many more pop up.
Several places and people have recommended GoodReader – Tablet Edition. They’re running a $0.99 special on the app now. It’s listed as a limited offer. Don’t know because the regular iPhone version is only $0.99.
This story from NPR is apropos.
