1QCOMICBOOK(1) QCOMICBOOK(1)
2
6 QComicBook - QT viewer for comic book archives (cbr/cbz)
7
9 qcomicbook [archive] [dir] ...
10
12 QComicBook is a viewer for comic book archives containing
13 jpeg/png/xpm/gif images, which aims at convenience and simplicity.
14 Features include:
16 - automatic decompression of zip (cbz), rar (cbr), ace (cba),
17 targzipped (cbg) and tarbzip2ped (cbb) archives
18 - full-screen mode
19 - two-pages viewing
20 - page scaling
21 - mouse or keyboard navigation
22 - bookmarks
23 - thumbnails
24 - page caching and page preloading
25 - ... and more
26 QComicBook software requirements:
28 - rar/unrar (one of them), unzip, unace and tar (with gzip and bzip2
29 support compiled-in) available somewhere in the PATH (e.g. in
30 /usr/bin). If one of them is missing, you won't be able to open some
31 archives
32 - a lot of disk space available in /tmp directory, for handling decom‐
33 pression of archives
34
36 File
37 File menu provies basic operations for loading comic books:
39 - Open directory - open directory containg images.
40 - Open archive - open archived images.
41 - Recently opened - list of ten recently opened archives / directories
42 (most recently opened on the top).
43 - Info - displays information about currenly opened comic book. This
44 includes contents of file_id.diz *.nf o files (if any) as well as mem‐
45 ory usage info.
46 - Settings - allows you to fine-tune some options.
47 - Close - closes currently opened comic book.
48 - Quit - quits QComicBook.
49 QComicBook offers some tunable options, available via Settings menu
51 option. These options include:
52 - Background color - the color of the empty area around displayed
53 image.
54 - Hide menubar in fullscreen mode - menubar may be hidded in
55 fullscreen mode if desired; together with toolbar hiding option, it may
56 give you the whole screen for displaying page contents.
57 - Hide statusbar in fullscreen mode - statusbar may be hidden in
58 fullscreen mode, giving you even more space.
59 - Small mouse cursor - toggles small (4x4 pixels) mouse cursor for
60 QComicBook window.
61 - Scaling method - the algorithm used for image scaling; either Smooth
62 or Fast. Smooth scaling provides best quality, but is slower; it is
63 recommened method unless you have really slow machine.
64 - Cache size - the number of pages kept in memory. Value of 0 disables
65 caching; 1 has no effect on performance; 2 or more may improve your
66 experience. Keep in mind, that caching may consume a lot of memory -
67 for example, an 1280x1984 image may take as much as 9Mb of memory!
68 - Preload next page - enables page preloading in the background. This
69 setting takes effect only for cache size of 3 and greater. It is recom‐
70 mended to enable this option, as it may really improve overall experi‐
71 ence.
72 - Use disk cache for thumbnails - thumbnails are saved to disk, which
73 speeds up things when loading them later. Set this option on if you
74 tend to open comic books more then once.
75 - Number of days to keep thumbnails - defines, for how long to keep
76 thumbnails on disk; old thumbnails are deleted when exiting QComicBook.
77 Value of 0 disables purging.
78 - Help browser - allows to choose between simple built-in browser (the
79 default) or any other external web browser.
80 - Forward and backward two pages in two-pages mode.
81 - Open info dialog after opening comic book - when enabled, info dia‐
82 log is opened after opening comic book. You may still open this dialog
83 manually with File/Info menu option.
84 - Confirm exit.
85 Note: changing cache size takes effect on new comic book.
87 View
89 View submenu provides some basic settings for page view.
91 You can select one of the following scaling modes:
93 - Original size - no scaling is done and original image size is pre‐
94 served.
95 - Fit width - image is scaled to fit window width.
96 - Fit height - image is scaled to fit window height.
97 - Whole page - image is scaled to fit window.
98 - Best fit - depending on image dimensions, QComicBook chooses the
99 best method to scale image.
100 The page can be rotated with 90 degree step, with these options:
102 - Rotate right - rotates image clockwise.
103 - Rotate left - rotates image counter clockwise.
104 - No rotation - resets rotation, restores original image.
105 - Preserve rotation - makes rotation "permanent" for viewing next
106 pages.
107 Other options in this menu:
109 - Fullscreen - toggles beetween fullscreen and windowed mode; please
110 note, that depending on you settings, menubar may be hidden in
111 fullscreen mode, so to back to windowed mode you need to press F11 or
112 ESC key.
113 - Two pages - display two pages, side by side, just like when reading
114 normal book.
115 - Japanese mode - scrolls to top-right corner on page change; in two
116 pages mode additionaly swaps pages.
117 - Thumbnails - toggles thumbnails window.
118 - Scrollbars - toggles displaying of scrollbars for large pages;
119 please note that scrollbars will be shown only if necessary.
120 - Toolbar - toggles displaying of toolbar.
121 - Statusbar - toggles displaying of statusbar.
122 Settings in this menu are saved when quitting QComicBook (except for
124 "fullscreen" option).
125 Bookmarks
127 Bookmarks menu allows you to bookmark pages in comic books. These book‐
129 marks are however somewhat different than, for example, in any web‐
130 browser and are more similiar to real bookmarks. Each bookmark keeps
131 bookmarked page number (as well as file name), so you can easily start
132 with your comic book from the point, where you last stopped reading.
133 Two options are available in this menu:
135 - Set bookmark for this comicbook - creates bookmark for current comic
136 book; existing bookmark for this comic book is deleted.
137 - Remove bookmark for this comicbook - removes existing bookmark for
138 current comic book; to remove other bookmarks, use Manage bookmarks
139 option.
140 - Manage bookmarks - opens bookmark manager, where bookmarks can be
141 easily removed.
142 Below these options you can see the list of currently saved bookmarks.
144 Just click on one of them to go to bookmarked comic book and page.
145
147 Keyboard reference:
148 - Ctrl+O - Open archive
149 - Ctrl+D - Open directory
150 - Alt+I - Show comicbook info
151 - Arrows - Scroll page contents
152 - Shift + Arrows - Scroll page contents fast
153 - PageDown - Go to next page
154 - PageUp - Go to previous page
155 - Home - Scroll to page top
156 - End - Scroll to page bottom
157 - Space - Scroll down by visible width (hint: enable continu‐
158 ous scrolling to jump to next page after reaching bottom)
159 - Backspace - Scroll up by visible width (hint: enable continuous
160 scrolling)
161 - Alt+O - Original image size
162 - Alt+W - Fit page width
163 - Alt+H - Fit page height
164 - Alt+A - Show whole page
165 - Alt+B - Best fit
166 - Alt+T - Toggle thumbnails window
167 - F11 - Toggle fullscreen mode
168 - ESC - Exit fullscreen mode
169
171 Here is some information for people interested in QComicBook internals.
172 1. Settings handling
174 QComicBook keeps settings in ~/.qcomicbook directory within these two
176 files:
177 - qcomicbookrc - main configuration file
178 - bookmarks - bookmarks file
179 Both files are plain text files and may be edited manually (with cau‐
181 tion!), if needed.
182 2. Thumbnails handling
184 Thumbnails are stored (if thumbnails disk caching is enabled) in
186 ~/.qcomicbook/cache directory.
187 3. Archives handling
189 Archived comic books are decompressed to temporary directory
191 (/tmp/qcomicbook-XXXXX, with XXXXX being some random number). This
192 directory is purged when closing current comic book, opening a new one
193 or quitting QComicBook.
194
196 QComicBook was written by Pawel Stolowski <pawel.stolowski@wp.pl>.
197 This manual page was written by Michal Pena (Cyb.org)
199 <mp@horisone.com>, for the Debian project (but may be used by others).
200Michal Pena (Cyb.org) july 31, 2005 QCOMICBOOK(1)