Tech —

Finding the best app for reading your DRM-free comics library on iPad

Ars compares Comic Flow, Comic Zeal, Cloud Readers, Sidebooks, and Stanza.

When I read a comic book on a mobile device, I tend to forget I'm doing so. This is especially the case when I'm comfortably seated on the couch with snacks in hand. There’s nothing like getting lost in a comic, but not every app lets you reach reading nirvana so easily. Purchasing comics, moving their files to an iPhone or iPad, and organizing them all can become ridiculously cumbersome depending on what app you’re using. If you’re looking to spend your comics budget on actual titles instead of an app, cost can also make choosing a comic reader pretty difficult.

For us comics aficionados, maintaining a library and having a good reading experience is essential. Which apps offer the best experience when it comes to storing, syncing, and most of all, reading comic books on the iPad? We reviewed five iOS comic readers that let you load your own comics library onto your iPad. You'll notice we did not review the popular comics apps made by the major publishers, such as Marvel and DC, because those apps limit your reading to titles from their own brands. Other apps, like Comics, offer multiple stores to buy from in one app, but they do not readily let you import your own files for easy reading. (We're planning a follow-up piece that focuses on just those types of apps. Keep an eye out for it in the coming weeks.)

If you want to be able to organize your own collection of digital comics, you’ll need an app that can work with DRM-free file types. Some of these formats, like CBZ and CBR, have often been used for sharing pirated scans of comics, but these formats are also supported by many independent online comics stores (such as SLG), who will let you choose your format of choice, DRM-free.

In reviewing these five apps, we focused on the usability of each one. Can you load and sync comics without too many confusing steps? We also looked at the overall user experience: is the comic reader actually enjoyable to use? We focused on the iPad versions, but wherever a universal version of the app is available, we listed it as such, in case you are curious about using it on your iPhone or stretching your dollar.

Comic Flow (free)

ComicFlow keeps things simple so you can focus on reading.
Enlarge / ComicFlow keeps things simple so you can focus on reading.

Comic Flow is an open source comic reader made only for the iPad (sorry, no iPhone version is available). As an iPad app, it aims for simplicity in its interface. After you sync your comics to the app via USB and iTunes, the app presents plain rows of thumbnails showing your digital library. In my tests, however, I had to update the library manually by using a button in the setting panel. Only then could I see titles I had just synced via iTunes.

There are four buttons at the top of the screen that let you sort by series, name, date, and status (read or unread). And that’s where its library management features end. You can mark all the titles as read or unread.

Comic Flow's reading experience itself offers no frills, but it does let you focus on reading your comic. The progress bar at the bottom of the screen is subtle but easy to understand, and it looks a lot like the progress bar found in the iOS versions of Amazon’s Kindle app. Comic Flow is free, and if you’re interested in joining the development community around it, it’s a good place to read your comics while supporting open source initiatives.

Platform: iPad

Format support: CBR, CBZ, and PDF

The Good: The price is right and you can get involved in the project.

The Bad: If you own a lot of titles, it’s going to be a nightmare to manage your library.

Comic Zeal ($4.99)

Comic Zeal's "slider" takes some getting used to, but can actually help manage multiple comics for users with larger collections.
Enlarge / Comic Zeal's "slider" takes some getting used to, but can actually help manage multiple comics for users with larger collections.

Comic Zeal is the only paid app out of the five. Its current price of $4.99 is not a bad investment, considering that it provides a really well-rounded set of features and solid user experience. The interface is elegant and you can tell a lot of thought and creativity went into the design, which resembles a wood-paneled table or shelf similar to the iPad's built-in iBooks app. The controls let you toggle viewing your library in list or grid view. Besides USB sync, you can perform comic syncing over WiFi with iOS 5. There is also a button labeled “Get more comics” which lets you join SyncDocs services or download comics from biolithic. Comic Zeal provides many interstitial help screens and tutorial videos that teach you how to use its features.

Comic Zeal’s interface features “sliders,” which are ribbon-like objects that let you take advantage of its tagging system to help you get organized. You can easily put comics into series or create custom tags by dragging comics titles using the sliders. I found this feature very useful in organizing whole series of comics in my library. Dropbox users on the iPad app can open supported file types using Comic Zeal as their app of choice, which also makes it easier to get comics into the app. The sliders don't readily show you hints that they are actionable (they look like a decorative ribbon), and the learning curve in using them is a bit of an annoyance.

Most comic reading apps don’t provide much besides basic reading and bookmarking functions, but Comic Zeal gives you plenty of options. You can choose background colors or use its eyedropper tool to add a new one. Its built-in brightness slider is a great time saver, because otherwise you’d have to return to the iPhone or iPad Settings app to control the screen brightness. You can even change controls to the other side for left-handed users and customize gestures for advancing pages. The app can differentiate between Western and manga formats. Comic Zeal also offers assisted panning for guiding you from panel to panel without having to use gestures to zoom in and out.

Platform: iPad and iPhone

Format support: CBR, CBZ, RAR, ZIP PDF

The Good: The slick design and robust features make this definitely feel "pro."

The Bad: It has a slight learning curve.

Cloud Readers (free)

Cloud Readers works well with Western comics and manga.
Enlarge / Cloud Readers works well with Western comics and manga.

I have used Cloud Readers in the past, and it does a fairly solid job of both organizing comic files and getting out of your way when you want to read. This app is not going to win any user experience awards, but it works well otherwise. Syncing is not that different from many of the others: you connect via USB cable and sync between your iTunes library, which allows you to add comic files.

The thumbnails are mysteriously blank, and it looks like you can also see your reading progress in the bars next to each title, though the lighter colors used for the reading portion make it look like it’s reversed. The app’s support for reading from right to left might have something to do with this, but the lack of visible cues, labels, or other useful information just left me guessing.

If you want to sync via WiFi, the app comes with some complicated instructions on how to do so by connecting via an IP address. A note on the instructions screen basically tells you it’s easier to use the USB method and that you are better off without trying over WiFi. Cloud Readers does offer some ability to download titles from its “cloud,” but since the app doesn’t have a lot of documentation, it’s hard to say if these are just sample titles that can be used to test drive the app.

Cloud Readers supports tagging as a way to manage and organize titles, and I would be excited to take advantage of this if it weren’t so difficult to use. The tagging function lets you filter, but it’s impossible to manage tags. In terms of reading simplicity, the app gives you a progress tracker bar that is easy to spot and hide/show as necessary. You can also toggle the reading direction from conventional left-to-right into right-to-left if you are reading manga.

It’s worth mentioning that Cloud Readers supports annotation and peer-to-peer sharing over Bluetooth. The annotation feature requires you to download the Neu.Notes app (which is free). I can’t recommend it, since it doesn’t integrate right into the comic reading experience. The peer-to-peer sharing is an in-app purchase, and it costs $2.99.

Platform: iPad and iPhone

Format support: PDF, CBZ, ZIP, CBR and RAR

The Good: It works just fine and it's especially good if you read lots of manga.

The Bad: Mediocre user experience.

Sidebooks (free)

Sidebooks plays nice with users who have comics collections in Dropbox.
Enlarge / Sidebooks plays nice with users who have comics collections in Dropbox.

I have to admit, Sidebooks is the first "real" dedicated comics app I ever used on my iPad, and it remains a favorite. Sidebooks performs decently both in the transfer and organization of comics files onto the device, as well as in the actual comics reading experience. You can load and sync your comics into Sidebooks using USB, but Sidebooks lets you integrate your Dropbox account. You can view all your folders, and if you select supported comics files, you can begin reading within seconds. It also supports direct transfer from other applications inside iOS, just like Comic Zeal.

Sidebooks offers nice customization to read from left to right or right to left, and you can also turn on page animations (though I'm not sure how many people actually want this anachronistic feature nowadays). The bookmarks are easy to read and use. Sidebooks also lets you send your comics to other apps to open them, and it can also e-mail and print, right from the reading view.

Platform: iPad and iPhone

Format support: PDF, ZIP, CBZ, ZIP, CBR and RAR

The Good: Syncing and opening files is awesome, and Dropbox integration makes it a winner.

The Bad: Sorting is limited to name and date.

Stanza (free)

Stanza is a little neglected, but it still works if you need to read books and comics in one app.
Enlarge / Stanza is a little neglected, but it still works if you need to read books and comics in one app.

Stanza is an app that has plenty of nice UI touches and features that make it a pretty robust reading application for both iPhone and iPad. When Lexcycle, the developer of e-book reader Stanza, was acquired, support for the app virtually disappeared. Stanza supports multiple e-book formats, and it also happens to support CBR and CBZ files for people looking to read their comics. Sure, there may not be much support coming, but those iOS users looking to conserve space can use it to hold both books and comic books in one single app. This app also syncs book collections via USB.

If you’re using a retina-screen iPhone or iPad, you will notice right away that many of the UI elements of stanza are pixellated and fuzzy, since they have not been updated for retina screens. Don't let that deter you from trying out the app. What the app lacks in sharpness is made up for in a great interface. The management of files is simple. Add your books using USB and iTunes, and when you launch the app, you’ll see your library listed on the main screen. The large thumbnails and title text make it easy to read, and you can even see your progress in each book listed in the pie-chart inspired progress trackers next to each one. You can sort books and comics by title, author, and groups, provided that your files have metadata that can sort into groups according to genre, and other attributes.

Formats supported: CBR, CBZ, PDF, ePub, E-reader, DjVu

The Good: You can use it for comics and books.

The Bad: Don’t expect any support.

Conclusion

My reading habits are always dependent on being able to have easy access to my own libraries. I like the convenience of having lots of titles to choose from on my device, and if it can be done with very few steps, even better. Before I reviewed all the apps mentioned above, I was a pretty avid user of Sidebooks. Sidebooks' user interface kept things pretty simple. It's not very customizable, but it is very easy to use. It was also the first comics iOS app that I ever used in conjunction with my comics folders in Dropbox.

As I began to use Comic Zeal, I was really blown away by its overall elegance. It really stands out as the best of the bunch. The design and UI feel warm and inviting, and its controls give me quick access to search and tags, which really can help cut down on time when I need a particular title. It was also quite responsive, and its reading customization put it way ahead of the other apps. I still wish it could sync with other cloud storage services, but I can easily say that its $4.99 price tag is worth the money for readers who care about enjoying comics. Though Sidebooks takes the runner-up title, it's still a great option for those on a budget.

The other three apps in the group are not bad either, and readers who have certain preferences will probably find something that fits most of those needs. The storing and syncing capabilities of these apps still leave some room for improvement, but the addition of syncing over WiFi helps. The resolutions available in newer versions of the iPad and iPhone certainly render comics pretty nicely. When it comes to the reading experience, these apps do a pretty good job of letting you forget that you are reading, which is definitely what any comics lover wants most of all.

Channel Ars Technica