* In order to sell through iBookstore you need to have an iBookstore Account, a copy of iTunes Producer, an active contract with iTunes Store, a bank account registered to recieve electronic payments from iTunes, an ISBN for each title, and a US Tax ID. Additionally, any .ibooks file you create with iBooks Author for sale cannot be sold anywhere but the iBookstore (terms apply to the file itself, not the content).

During development of Ryuzine a decision was made to not reproduce within the app those features which are already built into most web browsers.  For example, multiple bookmarks and bookmark management is done with the browser’s bookmarking tools.  Searching text is another example.  For other features such as bookmark syncing, highlighting, or annotation Ryuzine readers have the freedom to use any one of many plugins or online services to accomplish those tasks.  Even within the web app itself you have the option of using any widgets, scripts, or plugins you want to use.  No installations, no DRM, no App Stores.  This is what the web is supposed to be like.

What About Professional Layout Software?

Quark XPress 9 ($899) can create magazine apps for the iPad and iPad 2.  To publish and distribute through Apple’s App Store you also need a License Pack which varies in price from one issue ($349) to 24 issues ($6,799).  Templates cost extra for a single issue ($149), multiple issues of one title ($749), and multiple issues of multiple titles ($1,499).

Adobe InDesign CS 5.5 ($699) users can also purchase the extra Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. The “Single Edition” ($395) can also create magazine apps for the iPad and iPad 2.  ”Professional Monthly Edition” ($495) creates them for iPad, iPad2, Android Tablets, Amazone Kindle Fire, BlackBerry Playbook, and Desktop.  There is also a “Professional Edition Annual” ($5,940) and “Enterprise Edition” ($47,940).

Both these digital publishing options deliver content to the devices through the platform’s respective “app stores.”  For iPad publications there is also the possibility Apple will reject the publication, and if you can’t distribute it in through their App Store you can’t distribute it for the iPad at all.  Google, Amazon, and RIM’s apps stores are more forgiving, but you’re still asking your readers to purchase, download, and install a magazine on devices that often do not have a lot of storage space to spare.  In addition to the overhead just to start publishing, for each sale, the app stores will also take a percentage of whatever you charge for the publication.

If your point is to get a digital magazine in the hands of your mobile and desktop readers and not spend a small fortune doing it, Ryuzine is your cost-effective solution.  Distribution is via the web just like any other site, which also means Ryuzine targets a wide range of devices and platforms from desktops to tablets to phones.  No app stores, no app to download and install since the browser already installed on the device is the “reader app,” no requirement for an additional expensive Authoring application, plus Ryuzine is FREE to use if you aren’t making money off of it, and if you are making money the “Commercial Use License” is an incredibly reasonable one-time flat fee per title – no matter how many issues of that title you may publish or how much revenue it generates for you.

As these two tables above demonstrate, the Ryuzine Machine and Ryuzine web apps offer publishing and reading experiences on par with (and we’d argue even better than) the other options presently available, but without the restrictions.  So if you want to start putting together your own Ryuzine publications DOWNLOAD THE FREE PDK right now!

“Ryuzine” and “Ryuzine Machine” have just been updated to version 0.9.3!  This is a big update from a performance stand-point and fixes issues discovered in the previous release.  Here’s the run-down:

Ryuzine Web App

• Views preference now persistently stored in a cookie file so it automatically restores the last used view setting.
• Can now send custom themes to BlackBerry tablets and Windows Phones.
• Send different themes to Android 2.x and 3.x+
• +300% faster loading time
• 30-50% reduction in memory usage (depending on content)
• 26% reduction in main script file size
• Improved stability on iOS platform
• Android 2.x page turn bug fixed (requires Android is not spoofing User Agent string)
• “Widescreen” Android phones now correctly fill content in landscape orientation
• Fully compatible with 0.9.2 Themes
• Compatible with existing 0.9.2 Ryuzine HTML files*

Ryuzine Machine Authoring App

• 19% reduction in main script file size
• Simulator devices can now be skinned
• Simulator devices can be zoomed in/out
• Ability to add Custom Device profiles to the configuration file
• Option to over-ride WYSIWYG loading even on supported browsers (if you prefer to hand-code everything)

In addition to these improvements in the FREE DOWNLOAD files the online Ryuzine Machine Demo has also been updated so you can try out the new Simulator Skins and a unique Guided Tour option has been added to help you get started.

* 0.9.2 Ryuzine files will work, they just won’t see all of the performance gains.  If you still have source documents for those files consider regenerating them with the current version of Ryuzine Machine.

On iOS there is only one screen size that matters for phone-size screens (on the iPhone and iPod Touch) and another that matters for tablet-size screens (on the iPad and iPad2).  There are only a couple device-independent-pixel densities to consider and only two sets of pixel sizes.  Android devices come in a lot more screen sizes, multiple densities (which can be set by end users with root access), and the browser also has multiple zoom modes.  All of these factors make it nearly impossible to know exactly how any given Android user will actually experience the Ryuzine web app – and furthermore they may even see the “phone” UI in portrait and “tablet” UI in landscape.

Ryuzine was designed for Android devices based on the most common screens and densities under the assumption the browser zoom factor is set to “medium.”  However this can still cause it to show one UI in portrait and another in landscape.

In order to ensure you see only the “phone” UI in both landscape and portrait in your browser go to Settings>Advanced>Zoom and set it to “Close.”  If you want the “tablet” UI in both orientations you’ll need to set it to “Far.”  This is the only screen setting you can change without requiring root access to the device.

There is also an issue in landscape orientation with some Android and Windows phones with “widescreen” displays where full-bleed background images fail to fully cover the page (leaving an unsightly blank strip down the right-hand side).  This will be remedied in the next release.  UPDATE: You don’t have to wait for the next version, you can fix this in 0.9.2 with an updated thisissue.css file!

Ryuzine™ is our very own digital magazine, newsletter, and comic book web app and you can use it for YOUR PROJECTS too!

Ryuzine targets both desktop and mobile users whether they are using Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or viewing on an iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7.5, HP webOS, or BlackBerry Playbook device.  It’s the exact same file served up with a custom size and user interface.

Want to make your own Ryuzine?  Download the “Ryuzine™ Machine” – a free webapp that makes Ryuzine publications!  Compose right in the “what you see is what you get” editor, preview how it will look on various devices, then save and upload to your own web site and join the digital publishing revolution!

Ryuzine and Ryuzine Machine saw a ton of bug fixes and features added right before and after the first public Beta release. If you were lucky enough to try out the private Beta or tried out the first public release, here’s the changelog of what awaits you in 0.9.2:

Ryuzine Web App

• Added ability to target webOS devices with custom theme
• Set up optional features as “add-ons”
• Fixed Share bubble for third party widgets
• Added Zoom & Pan capability for mobile devices
• Added User Configurable Options Panels with Cookie Preference storage
• Meta Viewport now added dynamically based on device and settings
• Rewrote page animation function to disable it for legacy browsers for better performance
• Rewrote page flip function so links can contain anchor targets
• Added ability to share link to specific page within magazine
• Added In-App Bookmark feature
• Separated page curves from themes as optional add-on
• Switched UI animations from JS to CSS so themes can now change animation effects
• Added more keyboard controls for panels and add/remove in-app bookmark
• Added support for Windows Phone 7.5 devices
• Added support for BlackBerry Playbook (BB Tablet OS 1.0.7)
• Two-Page Spreads and Portrait views now available in Legacy Browsers
• Added Internet Explorer 7 support (requires legacy_ie addon)
• Page numbering position changes with binding/orientation
• Phone Nav Page Count Limit bug fixed.

Ryuzine Machine Web App

• Touch-enabled web app so it can be used on mobile devices
• Added meta viewport data compatible with webOS
• Added Toggle Button for Editor Panels
• Added code to hide disabled toolbar buttons in Text Edit mode
• Custom Device Profiles now persistent (stored in Cookie)
• Option to import custom stylesheet for “My Styles” panel
• Option to change default issue-specific style
• In-Page Styles can now be preserved
• Pop-Out option for Simulator (fills browser)
• Added Output Options Panel
• Automatically corrects for uneven page counts

After it has loaded you should already be on the “Editor” tab.  To navigate to the other sections (“Help” and “Simulator”) just click on the tabs across the top of the browser window.  The easiest way to try it out is with the “Sample Magazine” template.

1. Click the “Load File” button in the upper left of the “Editor”
2. The Demo dialog is preconfigured, so just click “Load File”
3. You should see the source file load into the editor

Now you can play around with it.  Try changing some of the text, apply styles from the “My Styles” panel, or take a look at the HTML by switching to code view to really see what’s going on behind the scenes.  When you’re ready then do this:

1. Click the “Options” button in the upper right of the “Editor”
2. Select which options you want to use, for example a Custom Default Theme
3. Click the “Submit” button
4. Click the “Refresh” button to commit your changes to the document
5. Click the “WebAppify!” button in the upper right of the “Editor”

It should now slide the source file editor to the left and reveal the Ryuzine file editor windows.  Click on the “Simulator” tab at the top and you should see a simulated phone in landscape mode showing the Sample Magazine.  Try rotating it, switching devices, or creating your own custom device profile.

You can go back to the source editor at any point and change things, including the Output Options (for example to try out another Theme).  Each time you make changes just hit the “WebAppify!” button again to reprocess and simulate the updated version.

When you feel a little more comfortable with the editor you can try using the source editor’s “Template” option to create a custom template on the fly with however many pages you want and select which optional features to include.

Then you should read the “Ryuzine Machine Publisher’s Manual” and Download the PDK to get started on your OWN publications!

Note: Minimum recommended desktop browsers are Safari 5.x, Chrome 14, or Opera 11.5x.  Minimum recommended mobile browsers are Mobile Safari in iOS 4.3, Browser or Dolphin HD in Android 3.2, webOS Browser build 234.76 (in webOS 3.04), or BlackBerry Browser (in BlackBerry TabletOS 1.0.7).

Best of all YOU are in charge with Ryuzine so you can create and distribute your comic online without needing a big publishing or distribution deal for a print version, and without having to get “approval” from an app store.

Check out the special Ryuzine Edition of Jon D. Sloan’s “Sa-Bom Jim” Issue #8.  This was the last regular print issue of the comic before he switched to doing web comics.  It demonstrates how easy it is to take an existing print comic and turn it into a simple Ryuzine comic!

Sa-Bom Jim #8 (Ryuzine Edition)

READ NOW!

Compare these features to other comic reader apps:

• Fill View option (+ auto-hide controls)
• Right-Bound “Manga” Option
• Mouse, Keyboard, and Touch navigation
• Swipe Left/Right to flip page
• Realistic page turning animation
• Pan & Zoom on Touch devices
• User Configurable View Settings
• Single Page and Two-Page Spread views
• In-App Bookmarking
• Social Networking Widgets to share with friends
• Add Bonus Content (gallery, audio, video, etc.)
• No DRM
• No App Stores – nothing to install
• Runs in most modern web browsers
• Cross-Platform Compatible
• Fully Theme-able User Interface
• FREE “Ryuzine Machine” Authoring Web App
• No frameworks, no server-side code, no Flash required

This is a very minor bug-fix release to address the creation of books greater than 100 pages. It should be good for up to 1000 pages now, which is hopefully more pages than anyone should ever need.

Update: Also works with Snow Leopard 10.6.8!

You may need to manually rebuild imagemagick to get it to work though. There is a problem with libtiff but I resolved it by opening a terminal and typing:

fink rebuild imagemagick

If Fink isn’t working for you, though, you can try MacPorts instead: http://www.macports.org/index.php

Jon D. Sloan, creator of “Sa-Bom Jim” has just assembled his first book of his web series. The book, titled “Sa-Bom Jim: A Watcher In Our Midst” is 6×9, 189 pages, grayscale, and perfect bound with a wrap-around cover. The original pages were US Letter size, but at low resolution so a smaller book size and the minimal print resolution of 150 dpi was used to make the pages look a little better in print than publishing the web images directly. Some of the pages, originally posted to his web site, were also in full color. To keep the price of the book low, though, Jon chose to convert those pages to grayscale. The colorspace conversion, page scaling, image compression, and PDF assembly were all handled automatically by Comixer! The files were accepted by Lulu and printed without any issues.

Jon’s project also exposed a bug regarding page counts higher than 100 pages and an issue with the CoverCreator that needed to be fixed – which led directly to the public release of version 0.6 and highlights how important it is to beta-test the program in real-world situations. Thanks Jon!

Jon’s book is available for purchase at his Lulu.com store page. Please consider buying it and supporting independent comic book creators.

The Downloads page has a DMG file you can download.  Just mount it, run the Install script and – assuming you’ve met all the system requirements and have your X server and Nautilus configured properly the rest is the same as using the program on Linux.  Well, not exactly the same!  The User Manual is set to open in Safari and PDF open in Preview, but other than that is the same.

The dmg download has an automated installer, but if it doesn’t work on your system for some reason there are full manual installation instructions are in the Forums.

(Tested under Mac OS X Leopard, not Snow Leopard, btw).