[GeoRW]

Hello everyone,

I'm working on a XML based comic book format that I call "Advanced Comic Book Format" or simply ACBF. Widely used Comic Book Archive (CBR, CBZ etc.) has many drawbacks. It's basically just an archive of images. ACBF in contrast will support:
- comic book metadata (title, author(s), genre, annotation, keywords, publisher, publish date, city, ISBN, license etc.)
- definition of comic book structure (pages, frames) - if frames are defined you can zoom in to frame level and read frame by frame (usefull on smaller screens like PDAs, tablets ...)
- it will support a separate semantically enhanced text-layer over the background graphics (like emphasised text, commentary, striked-through text, computer code etc.). Comic book with such separate graphic and text-layer can be more easily readable on smaller screens again because text is drawn by fonts instead of be part of the background image. Besides, more text-layers can be defined for particular comic book, each for different translation.

Everything (included binary data like images and maybe fonts, sounds in the future) will be in a single file, though there's support for having these in separate files outside the ACBF document.

For this project I created project page on Launchpad (https://launchpad.net/acbf). Current specifications you can find in the repository, inside the Docs directory. I'm looking for any feedback, suggestions.

I'm also developing a ACBF Viewer application. So far it is in early stages but is able to load ACBF file and navigate through the whole comic book - also zoomed in to the frame level. It is written in python and uses GTK library for drawing user interface. I'm using Linux (on desktop as well as on my PDA) but it should be possible to run the viewer under Windows or Mac as well (after installing Python and GTK, but don't have any experience with this). ACBF Viewer as well as all ACBF specifications are free.

There's still a lot of work to do. Specifications should be improved, XML schema created afterwards, ACBF viewer improved and also some comic books converted to ACBF. There is a sample comic book in the repository, which currently has only 3 pages (with frames definition included). It's a "Craphound" comic book based on Cory Doctorow's story - I really recommend to read it, it's a classic and it's free :-). You can find it here in PDF format: http://www.archive.org/details/CoryDoctorowsFuturisticTalesOfTheHereAndNow. Hopefully I will soon add more pages but programming ACBF viewer takes most of the time I spend on the project currently.

So any feedback, suggestions or help is appreciated. If you have any questions, just let me know.
Have a nice day.

[Janus Wolf]

As a test can you convert one of the comics here in ACB Format?

[GeoRW]

Well, I can do that but may take a while. Which one you suggest? Meanwhile you can check the sample .acbf file in the project repository. You can take from ACBF capabilities just anything you want when creating acbf document. For example you may just fill in the meta-data and insert background images. You don't have to define frames or text-layers. Here it is how the XML file looks like (from sample comic book in the repository):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ACBF xmlns="http://www.fictionbook-lib.org/xml/acbf/1.0">
<meta-data>
  <book-info>
   <author activity="Writer">
    <first-name>Cory</first-name>
    <last-name>Doctorow</last-name>
   </author>
   <author activity="Adapter">
    <first-name>Dara</first-name>
    <last-name>Naraghi</last-name>
   </author>
   <author activity="Artist">
    <first-name>Paul</first-name>
    <last-name>McCaffrey</last-name>
   </author>
   <author activity="Letterer">
    <first-name>Robbie</first-name>
    <last-name>Robbins</last-name>
   </author>
   <author activity="CoverArtist">
    <first-name>Paul</first-name>
    <last-name>Pope</last-name>
   </author>
   <author activity="Editor">
    <first-name>Tom</first-name>
    <last-name>Waltz</last-name>
   </author>
   <translator lang="sk">
    <first-name>R

[GeoRW]

and here's the direct link to repository: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~just-me/acbf/trunk/files

[narfstar]

Sounds great hope to have time to try it

[GeoRW]

I've made some screenshots of Viewer application, if anyone interested: https://plus.google.com/photos/110989843476988874482/albums/5692035097709963025

[GeoRW]

Just sharing the news about ACBF: I finished the creation of the first comic book in ACBF format. So the first ever is Craphound by Cory Doctorow. You can find it in the project repository. You're welcome to download it, study it and give me any suggestions to improve the file format, or Viewer application.

[GeoRW]

I managed to run ACBF Viewer under Windows, so if anyone with Windows wants to try it, here's the recipe (for 32-bit Windows):

Install python:
http://python.org/ftp/python/2.7.2/python-2.7.2.msi

Install PyGTK:
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binaries/win32/pygtk/2.24/pygtk-all-in-one-2.24.0.win32-py2.7.msi

Install Python Imaging Library:
http://effbot.org/downloads/PIL-1.1.7.win32-py2.7.exe

Install lxml library:
From http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#lxml get lxml-2.3.2.win32-py2.7.exe

If you encounter any error messages like "unable to register a library" or something like that, just ignore it.

After you install all 4 packages, download ACBF Viewer from here: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~just-me/acbf/trunk/view/head:/ACBFViewer.zip
Unzip the file and inside you will find src directory. Navigate to it and double click acbfv.py file.

You will need some comic book in ACBF format as well. So download Craphound comic from http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~just-me/acbf/trunk/view/head:/Sample%20Comic%20Book/Doctorow%2C%20Cory%20-%20Craphound.acbf
In ACBF Viewer the first icon on the toolbar opens "Open File" dialog.

A bit complicated, huh? :-)

You may download easy to use Windows 32 executable. See a couple of posts later.

[Janus Wolf]

Yes, its a bit complicated, it seems your at a beta stage with this. This is alot to ask a regular user to do. Most users just want to click once and install.

Nevertheless, I what are your plans with this software? Goals, visions etc? I think there is always many users maybe slow to consider your software.
However, I would like to see how your software with:

http://www.goldenagecomics.co.uk/index.php?dlid=9867 (Purple Claw 1) as I have this book myself.

JW

[GeoRW]

Actually the reader is quite stable, version 0.3 can be used without problems. File format specifications can change though, but I don't think there will be any major change in specs now. Version 1.0 should be ready in a couple of months, just letting enough time for people to give some feedback about it.

About the installation procedure, it is quite complicated for Windows users because python is interpreted language, so you don't usually compile those languages. Most linux distributions (I would say almost all) have python installed by default and many programs use those additional libraries as well, so you don't have to install them - they are already present in your system. That's because the installation is quite complicated in Windows. But maybe there's a way how to compile the code and make an easy to use Windows .exe file, will have to research this option as I'm not using Windows normally.

Regarding the Purple Claw comic book I will convert it as soon as I can. Are you able to use the ACBF Viewer on your computer meanwhile?

[narfstar]

I use windows. When I looked at the installation I gave up on the idea. I am spoiled to just an exe install file

[GeoRW]

thanks for all the replies. I managed to create a Win32 executable for ACBF Viewer, so if you wanna try it you may get it from project main page (green Downloads section on the right side). There's a viewer and sample comic book to download. No need to install Python and all those libraries anymore (at least I think so - tried on 2 different computers with Windows XP installed)

[narfstar]

I forgot to bring my charger home so my laptop is not long for the night. I hope to try this on the weekend

[GeoRW]

Hi,

I converted "The Purple Claw 1" to ACBF, You can find it here: https://rapidshare.com/files/4190139318/The_Purple_Claw_1.acbf
It does not contain pages with advertisements, and there's only Purple Claw comic inside, not that written story nor comic pages about space travel that were included in original. Looks like it's still copyrighted in EU so I cannot put it on project server and publish it myself ... therefore Rapidshare ... and as a publisher I stated GoldenAgeComics.co.uk :-)

[Janus Wolf]

Looks good, you will have to get alot of buy in (people to do this) to add data you have added in the comic.
I liked how you singled out parts / boxes of the comic...

[GeoRW]

Adding frame/panels definition is a tricky part, I have tools for that but it may be complicated for people to do until someone creates a user friendly editor :-) Adding meta-data, pages definition, including page titles (for creating Table of Contents) should be much easier. But I appreciate all the work people already did scanning all those comics that are available here. It's a great resource to build upon.

[GeoRW]

If anyone interested, I just released version 1.0 beta of ACBF specifications along with complete XML schema as well as linux installer and Windows executable for ACBF Viewer version 0.4. Five sample comic books are also available to download. Everything can be found on project page in the green download section on the right side.

Some major improvements:
- ACBF Viewer is capable of loading CBZ files as well as ZIP files containing images
- comics can be read on "fit width" zoom level
- *.acbf file can be embedded into CBZ archive for improved compatibility with pure CBZ viewers (this is supported by the viewer as well)
- and many other minor fixes and improvements

Final version of specifications is planned for the beginning of next month. Any suggestions and spotted bugs are welcome. If you don't want to install the Viewer you may want to take a look at some screenshots perhaps :-)

[GeoRW]

Hi everyone,

it's been a while since I posted this topic. Meanwhile, ACBF project has evolved a lot. So, if anyone from this community is interested to try it out, here's what's new:

• ACBF Viewer (Linux and Windows version) almost fully supports 1.0 format specifications, has it's own comic books library, based on comic metadata you can browse it easily
• ACBF Viewer for Android - new application, port of ACBF Viewer to Android, supports smooth panel by panel viewing
• ACBF Editor (Linux and Windows version) - application to help you create ACBF comics (CBZ files with ACBF file inside), edit metadata and you can already create frames/panels definitions there
• Several comics have been converted to ACBF, many of them having panels definitions and text-layers with translations; complete list is available on Wiki page: http://acbf.wikia.com/wiki/ACBF_Comic_Books

Main project page: https://launchpad.net/acbf
Wiki page having a lot of information about the format and available tools: http://acbf.wikia.com/wiki/Advanced_Comic_Book_Format_Wiki

For maintaining a my comic book library I use desktop ACBF Viewer application, for editing metadata ACBF Editor and for actual reading ACBF Viewer for Android. ACBF Viewer for Android is also available from Google Play store for 0.5 EUR, if anyone wants to support the project and receive updates from there, but otherwise everything is open source and free to download from project page on Launchpad.

Enjoy converting some of your comics to ACBF with metadata and panel by panel viewing