Smart Guided View and Reading Modes

How Guided View Works (Deep Learning / ONNX)

Comics Now! features an AI-driven panel detection pipeline:

• Utilizes onnxruntime-node with two specialized computer vision models:
  • western.onnx: Optimized for Western comic layouts (left-to-right, top-to-bottom).
  • manga.onnx: Optimized for Japanese manga layouts (right-to-left).
• Analyzes page contrast, borders, and margins to compute exact panel coordinates ([x, y, width, height]) and speech bubble regions.

Admin-Generated, Community Shared

• Panel detection is computationally intensive. Therefore, generating Guided View is an Admin privilege (via the comic card long-press menu or Comic Summary page).
• Once computed, the panel maps are saved permanently in the database.
• Every user with access to that comic can then read it in Guided View with zero performance overhead.

Reading Modes

Switch between reading modes instantly in the reader overlay:

1. Standard Mode: Single page view with left/right page flipping.
2. Continuous Mode: Infinite vertical scroll down all pages (ideal for webtoons and mobile phones).
3. Manga Mode: Right-to-left reading flow with reversed navigation touches and keyboard arrows.
4. Guided View: Zooms and pans into each individual panel sequentially with smooth animations.
5. Bubble Zoom: Focuses dynamically on dialogue balloons for easy reading on small phone screens.
6. Hot Zoom: Automatic pan-and-scan focusing on active narrative areas.

Display & Viewport Controls

• Fit to Height: Scales page height to 100% viewport height.
• Fit to Width: Scales page width to 100% viewport width.
• Orientation Lock: Portrait, Landscape, or Auto Dual-Page Spread.
• Full Page Overview: Double-tap in Guided View to view the full page before stepping to the next page's panels.
• E-Ink Anti-Ghosting Mode: Toggle in the fullscreen toolbar cycles Off → Monochrome → Color, saved per device (Kindle, Kobo, Onyx Boox, and PocketBook are auto-detected on first visit). Monochrome applies a grayscale + contrast filter for black-and-white e-readers; Color boosts saturation for color e-paper displays. Both modes disable animations and flash the screen black on each page turn to prevent ghosting.
• Cinema Pan (Spreads): In Fullscreen, wide double-page spreads pan across automatically when they overflow the screen, starting once per displayed page (a re-render never restarts a pan you've stopped; navigating away and back re-arms it). A Cinema Pan Spread badge indicates the spread — tap it to toggle panning manually; spreads that already fit the screen don't pan.

Authoring & Editing Guided View with GVE Now!

While Comics Now! automatically extracts panels and dialogue balloons via deep learning (manga.onnx and western.onnx), you can inspect, author, and fine-tune panel coordinates using the official companion application: GVE Now! (Guided View Editor).

Key Features:

• Visual Bounding Box Canvas: Interactive editor allowing you to draw, resize, snap, and nudge panel borders and speech bubbles with 1:1 pixel accuracy.
• Reading Order Sequencing: Drag-and-drop sequencing to adjust panel transitions (critical for complex multi-tier layouts, splash pages, and non-linear storytelling).
• Direct Database & Cache Integration: Points directly at your Comics Now! installation via comicsNowRoot in config.json — shares the SQLite database, metadata sidecars, and WebP page cache without file duplication.
• Live Sync to Reader: Any edits saved in GVE Now! are instantly reflected in the Comics Now! web reader upon page reload.
• Sidecar Management: Generates and updates standalone .guided.json sidecar files adjacent to your .cbz archives, enabling portable guided-view metadata across setups.
• Import & Export: Backup panel coordinate maps or share community-authored guided views as clean JSON definitions.

To install and run GVE Now! alongside Comics Now!, follow the instructions in the GVE Now! Repository.