How to Read Comic Books on an iPhone

ComicZeal Application Logo

Now thanks to iPhone and ComicZeal--you can take your comic book collection with you anywhere you go! With its touch and zoom capabilities and beautiful display--the iPhone is the perfect device for reading comics. This tutorial will show you how to take comic books that are in either .cbr or .cbz format and upload them to your iPhone to read.

Things You'll Need

• Computer running Mac OSX (version 10.4 or higher)
• ComciZeal
• ComicZeal Creator
• SyncDocs
• iPhone

Instructions

1. 

   Gather the comics you want to read and make sure they are in the .cbr or .cbz format. You can download or purchase comics that are already in this format or you can take your own comics and convert them into this format. See my article: "How to Convert Comic Books Into Digital Format to Read on a Computer."

2. 

   Download the Comic Zeal Creator using the link in Resources below and unzip it on your Mac. This will extract an application called "Creator," which you can move to your Applications folder.
   
   
   
   * Note: If you want to use the web server capability of ComicZealCreator you may also need to install Python. There is more information about this on the Bitolithic site (this is not necessary for putting comics on the iPhone.

3. 

   Run the "Creator" application. The first time you run the application it will make a folder in your Documents folder called "ComicZeal_Creator." There are 2 sub-folders called "Comics" and "CreatorOutput." Copy the comics that you gathered in Step 1 into the "Comics" folder.
   
   
   
   * Remember, they must be in .cbr or .cbz. format.)

4. 

   When you ran the Creator application it should also have opened a window with the ComicZealCreator logo on it. Hit the "Convert Comics" button and you will see it begin to convert the comics you added. What is happening is that the comics are being converted from the .cbr and .cbz formats to what is called the .cbi format. The .cbi format is optimized for viewing comics on the iPhone. If you go to the "CreatorOutput" folder you will see your newly converted .cbi files.

5. 

   Download and install the SyncDocs application to your Applications folder (see Resources for a link to download). This is the application that will communicate with ComicZeal on the iPhone and copy the comics over to it.

6. 

   Go to the iTunes App Store on your iPhone to buy and install the ComicZeal application.

7. Run SyncDocs and it will open a window. Drag your .cbi files from the "CreatorOutput" folder onto the SyncDocs window. Once you're ready, hit "Sync."

8. 

   Open the ComicZeal application on your iPhone and hit "Sync."

9. Choose "SyncDocs" from the list of sources. (If you don't see SyncDocs you may need to edit the firewall settings on your Mac.) Now you will see the comics download to your iPhone.
   
   
   
   * Note: ComicZeal also includes a list of free Golden Age comics that you can download directly from them as well. When it's done downloading, hit OK and also close SyncDocs on your Mac.

10. 

    Go back to ComicZeal on your iPhone and hit "Collections" and you'll see a list with the comics you uploaded.
    
    
    
    Tap on the comic to open it and you're ready to read!
    
    
    
    You can pinch zoom in and out and swipe from side to side to go to the next page. Also, tapping the bottom of the screen will give you arrows to go to the next page and an up arrow to exit the comic and go back to the "Collections" page. Happy reading!

Tips & Warnings

• ComciZeal is available in the iPhone App Store for around $2.

Resources

• ComicZeal Creator
• SyncDocs