If you are the owner of 8” iPad Mini or smaller devices and a comic or graphic novel fan, you might explore free or paid comic apps. I was googling available iOS apps to enjoy Saga series and MoonKnight comics. This app is never listed in the first google result of “best comic reading apps”. I list down the features that I want in the app.
Features of the ideal comic book in my mind
I tried many apps in both Android and iPad apps and this is the features that I wish it have
- Free or NOT so crazy pricey
- Support major comic book formats
- Able to import files from computer and internet
- Support both portrait and landscape mode on the fly
- File organization and collection creation
- The most RARE feature - panel detection and able to scroll panel by panel without manual zoom
- Sync among devices (preferable between my Macbook M1 and iPad and iPhone)
- A bit of color optimization or normalization to look the paints awesome.
Ultimate comic reading app with auto panel navigation
I was trying few of these 10 top comic reading apps. Panels and Chunky seems great but still the navigation feature is missing. Somehow, my search is done with the app called Smart Comic Reader. It is noting fancy with very similar feature like other apps. However, that smooth automatic panel detection and navigation blown me away.
Check out the demo of the feature here.
The app don’t receive enough rating at Apple Appstore to stand out and I wrote this piece to show appreciation to the creator.
I made a short picture to promote this. I was rotating screen to landscape mode to show that it can adapt for a long horizontal panel.
