Feature request: Full page overview before/after switching pages

[Darthagnon]

I have been enjoying the dynamic panel zoom while reading manga on my Kindle. I have noticed though that sometimes I lose the overall context of the page.

I remembered a feature from the old PSP comic reader days: the PSP had dynamic panel zoom on its tiny 480x272 screen, and when you got to the end of a page, it would zoom out to give you an overview of the page before advancing to the next one. On advancing pages, you would first have an overview of the page, before seeing zooming into the first panel. So the reading sequence was something like: p1 overview --> p1 panel 1 --> p1 panel 2 --> p1 panel 3 --> p1 overview --> p2 overview --> p2 panel 1 --> p2 panel 2 --> p2 panel 3 --> p2 overview --> p3 overview --> p3 panel 1 --> etc. (it's been probably 10 years since I last read comics on the PSP so my memory is a little hazy, but it was roughly like that)

Would it please be possible to add in the settings:

• Full page overview:
  • leading (full page overview after advancing and on p1)
  • tailing (full page overview on completion of page)
    which, if enabled, adds leading/tailing full page overview(s) to the sequence of zoomed panels?

[JorgeTheFox]

@Darthagnon , thank you for the detailed feedback and for taking the time to share this idea!

I experimented with a similar approach for this plugin a while back.
While I completely agree that it can be very useful for getting the overall context of the page, my impression at the time was that having those forced overviews sometimes broke the reading flow.

That being said, your point about losing context during dynamic zoom is totally valid. I will definitely revisit this idea and re-analyze how we might be able to integrate an option like this smoothly.

As a temporary workaround in the meantime:

• Make sure you check your settings under: Standard panel Settings >> Show adjacent page content.
• Whenever you feel like you need to see the context of the page, you can simply tap the center of the screen to instantly zoom out and view the full page.

Thanks again for your contribution to the project!

[Darthagnon]

be able to integrate an option like this smoothly

Thank you for considering my suggestions. The smoothest way I can think of integrating it is as independent toggles in the settings for Dynamic Panel Zoom, grouped under Full Page Overview.

[tarcisiotm]

Hi, there. I have just opened a pull request implementing this feature.

I also believe it to be really important, especially since the panel detection is not flawless, so this gives readers a good way to make sure they don't miss anything.

Please let me know if you have any questions about it.

[Darthagnon]

@tarcisiotm your patch works very well! Thank you! It's pretty much perfect, though I don't suppose you could please add an option to zoom the page overview, e.g. fit-width/fit-height/inherit from reader? The page overview is perfect to the image size, but is too perfect :D It does not fit width which I have set in normal reading mode for legibility (maybe it could inherit the normal reading setting for page view?) - on older/smaller Kindles, if there are a few slightly oversized panels in a comic/manga, I (and maybe other readers?) would generally prefer to crop the height slightly for the overview and fit width so there isn't a large white border and the rest of the panels aren't tiny.

Photos, Kindle 4:

Fit width, normal reading mode:

Page overview using tarcisiotm patch:

The large popout panel in the bottom of the page forces the rest to zoom out and display the full margins, which is technically the correct way to display it (but it results in quite tiny text and pictures).

[tarcisiotm]

Hi, @Darthagnon

Thank you for testing this feature! About your additional request, I have been thinking about it and will see if I'm able to find a good solution for it. I don't want to overly complicate the flow for this feature and I also want to make sure the experience will be consistent across different devices and panel configurations.

My biggest worry is that allowing crop will sort of break the original intent, which is to show the whole page so you map out the layout and know if you are missing something on zoom mode. In your example, though, it should be possible to get more of the image without cropping, this could be a good compromise, so I would try to start there.

[Darthagnon]

My biggest worry is that allowing crop will sort of break the original intent,

Yes, I started thinking that too. I was probably overthinking things. Thank you for making your patch!

[tarcisiotm]

My biggest worry is that allowing crop will sort of break the original intent,

Yes, I started thinking that too. I was probably overthinking things. Thank you for making your patch!

I did give it a try, though, but I didn't find a good way to do it.

In another note, I have been pushing more changes and improvements to my own fork, in case you want to take a look: https://github.com/tarcisiotm/koreader-dynamic-panelzoom/