Categories: Techtoday
With Avengers, Batman, Spider-Man, and a host of other superheroes proving that comic book stories and characters aren't passé, isn't about time you tried out digital comic books? And if you were ahead of the game and started accumulating manga or Marvel comics, then you should consider organizing them.
The press and the Internet is so focused on the "app" phenomenon for Android and iOS that users tend to forget that at the end of the day, you're either going to store all your files in the cloud or on your hard drive. And if you're one of those people who want to keep their files in your hard drive (and why shouldn't you?), there's no reason to learn about really good freeware. Linux users have an easy time of it searching and trying out free, fully-functional applications via software managers, but Windows users still have to undergo the painful process of trial and error. For digital comic book fans, however, look no further than Comic Rack for a comprehensive, free, and exceptional software for managing your .cbr and .cbz library.
Comic Rack is a great Windows comic book organizer – Here's Amazing Spider-Man
Annual #14 (1980) where Spidey and Doctor Strange team-up (art by Frank Miller).
Comic Rack goes a bit overboard with its features and comic book management, but if you just need to organize your comic books, add meta data and notes, and read comic books on your desktop, laptop, netbook, or ultraportable, Comic Rack is a fantastic application. The sheer amount of ways to view the books and organize them into lists is daunting enough, but you don't have to use all of them.
I honestly got lost in my own collection when I decided to add my library of Spider-Man comic books from the 70s to 90s at one go. I could barely find the great ASM issue where Spidey beats the tar out of that dork Namor (#211). The trick with Comic Rack is to add folders incrementally and then create lists to ensure that you can find them all in the right place even if the issues weren't named correctly or didn't have correct metadata.
In this example, I already have a folder containing a series of Spectacular Spider-Man issues. To add a list based on this title:
1. Click Alt to display the Main Menu bar.
2. Click File then Add Folder to Library . . .
3. Navigate and select the folder (in this case my Spec issues #1-50)
4. The issues will be loaded into the Library folder.
5. Right-click on Library panel and click New List. Type a name for the new list.
6. Click and select all the issues on the thumbnail pane you want to add to the list. Drag them to the list. The issues will now be stored there like a music playlist.
Besides having exceptionally convenient Layout views for reading on a screen, users can add all sorts of metadata using the Info feature and can export a comic book page as an individual image file (for posting in blogs such as this).
Spidey shows Namor what a loser he is in ASM#211 (art by John Romita Jr.) – ahem, right-click
and click Export Page.
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