digital formats

[Smarty]

I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on various digital formats for comics. I've been working on some short stories and assumed I would just package them as .pdf and release them online if I can't get them into print (likely). But looking through peoples online comics they have used .CBR format and myebook.com . Is their any particular reason for this, or one people prefer? Is their a standard, or one you would put your money on?

I got some good thought from PJholden about this through email and just wondered what rest of you thought.

cheers

[Daveycandlish]

I've used myebook.com for loading stuff on tinterweb because it's easy to use and I'm an idiot when it comes to computers.
If anyone can suggest similarly easy to use options I'm all ears

[Professor Bear]

.cbr is little more than an extension for zipped files, so it's very handy for both originators and consumers of content.  There is a cbr reader that's pretty much the universal standard for shared comic scans online, but a right-click and you can open it as you would any normal zipped folder and look at the pages in the viewer of your choice.

Making a 'cbr is dead easy - just make a zipped file as you normally would but change the file extension to .cbr.  Congrats - you've just made yourself a comic to share on the internets.

[Jim_Campbell]

Making a 'cbr is dead easy - just make a zipped file as you normally would but change the file extension to .cbr.  Congrats - you've just made yourself a comic to share on the internets.

I rather thought that a .cbr was a .rar archive with the extension changed, whilst a .cbz was a .zip archive ...

Cheers!

Jim

[Professor Bear]

Meh - it's all the same thing.  Don't confuse the lad.

[Smarty]

Yer making the .cbr or .pdf or whatever isn't so much a problem. Both options are available for me to create easily. I was wondering from more of a readers standpoint what people thought was the most pleasant experience, and if this .cbr/.cbz thing is a bit of a gimmick or not. I've only really seen it done in comics and was wondering what .pdf wasn't doing for people to make this new format.

good replies thought cheers guys

[HOO-HAA]

Not sure of the technology, but with ipads and kindles and all manner of props for the ongoing digi-revolution, you're in the right game if you're considering putting your stuff out there in a non-paper-based format.

Why not serialise it via the web? That seems to have worked for some of my text-based novelist peers. I would imagine it's even more suited to graphic novelists, therefore...

Good luck!  

[pauljholden]

Since creating multiple digital formats is no more or less difficult than creating one digital format, I'd make something available in as many ways as possible. Once you do that, you can track the downloads and make an informed decision.

As an aside: CBR are RAR compressed files renamed, CBZ are ZIP compressed files renamed. It's important to know the distinction as SOME software may fail to read the file if it hasn't been named correctly.

-pj