24 hours later feedback

[pax0707]

1st of all let me say that you guys (and gals?) are doing a great job. It’s refreshing to find a good looking, feature-rich, and actually usable comic reader, that’s been updated in this decade. As a long time ComicRack and then Chunky user I would like to point a few things that IMHO would make this app even better.

Panels beta, iPad Pro 2018, iPadOS 14 (yes I know - don’t do that but I’m too cheap to buy 2nd iPad for testing purposes)

Feature suggestions:

• Single hand mode - clicking both left and right margin goes to the next page; I spend a good part of my reading time in bed, before sleep and I use my iPad onehandedly, with this, I don’t have to use my right hand to tap the right margin for next page when I’m holding the iPad with my left. I can just use the left thumb for that.
• Mark as unread for partially read files - from what I’ve seen I can only mark finished files as unread (bug or feature?); I will often fly through pages and forgot to reset it to start, this way I can do fix that fast.
• Fade out read files in the library
• Finishing a comic should give you the option to go straight to the next one; avoiding unnecessary taps to get to the next comic. Much more streamlined reading experience.
• Control brightness with 2 fingers up - down gesture; I mostly read in the dark and color pellet can vary wildly from comic to comic. This way I can easily manage brightness in a single gesture instead of fiddling with the control center.
• SMB import support; I have my files on a network share and this would simplify getting fines on to my devices, without extra software involved. Related - is there a way to download a whole folder using the Files app? From what I can see fro SBM connected server I can only download individual files.

Bugs:

• Reading progress doesn’t show in the library for better visual representation.
• Many read comics stuck at 95-97% complete - 2nd to last page in the file (filed feedback for this on testflight).

[Impulse1up]

Just wanted to add that it DOES have next comic when your done. As long as the comic is in the same folder and named appropriately.

[dani]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this @pax0707
We’ll take everything into account. Let me answer each point anyway:

Single hand mode - clicking both left and right margin goes to the next page;…

Thanks for the suggestion. Sounds like a really good idea. We’ll give it a thought.

Mark as unread for partially read files - from what I’ve seen I can only…

We think that marking an unfinished comic as unread is an edge case that can be easily worked around by marking it as read and then marking it as unread. We wanted to keep the menu as small as possible, and adding an extra button just to cover that edge case wasn’t worth it.

Fade out read files in the library
Reading progress doesn’t show in the library for better visual representation.

I think these two are related. There’s an option in settings you can enable to show the reading progress. It shows a progress bar on top of the comic cover.
We are already using the opacity of a comic to communicate “selection”. Nevertheless, that falls on the design area. As the design is often very subjective, we prefer not to discuss those matters.

Finishing a comic should give you the option to go straight to the next one;

Yep. As @Impulse1up pointed out, this is feature exists and only appears when comics are in the same collection. We can’t know if two consecutive comics in the library are meant to be read together, so we decided to only show “the next” when they are grouped in a collection.

Control brightness with 2 fingers up - down gesture; …

We don’t want to reinvent the wheel and we think that ControlCenter is convenient enough to not having to implement a custom control for it.

SMB import support; I have my files on a network share

The same way as the previous suggestion, we think that Files.app implementation is the best way to cover all these services that we don’t support in the app. You should be able to select multiple files from the Files.app importer by tapping on “Select” on the upper right corner, then select multiple files manually or use the “Select All” button on the upper left corner. And then tapping on “Open” (yep, I know it’s a weird copy, but that’s the one Apple shows and we can’t do much about it for now)

Many read comics stuck at 95-97% complete - 2nd to last page in the file…

What reader do you normally use? We’ve identified this bug in the vertical reader, and we’re planning to fix it shortly. I want to double-check this is not happening to you using a different reader.

[pax0707]

@dani

Mark as unread for partially read files - from what I’ve seen I can only…

We think that marking an unfinished comic as unread is an edge case that can be easily worked around by marking it as read and then marking it as unread. We wanted to keep the menu as small as possible, and adding an extra button just to cover that edge case wasn’t worth it.

Fair point.

@dani

Fade out read files in the library
Reading progress doesn’t show in the library for better visual representation.

I think these two are related. There’s an option in settings you can enable to show the reading progress. It shows a progress bar on top of the comic cover.
We are already using the opacity of a comic to communicate “selection”. Nevertheless, that falls on the design area. As the design is often very subjective, we prefer not to discuss those matters.

This must have been a bug, reading progress wasn’t showing.
Fixed in the latest TF build.

@dani

Finishing a comic should give you the option to go straight to the next one;

Yep. As @Impulse1up pointed out, this is feature exists and only appears when comics are in the same collection. We can’t know if two consecutive comics in the library are meant to be read together, so we decided to only show “the next” when they are grouped in a collection.

OK.
I expected it to work the same way in the Library.
Will import my comics to a collection.
OK 2 - so in a collection there’s “return to library” / “continue reading” prompt. IMHO there should at least an option in settings to go straight to the next comic, without prompts.

@dani

SMB import support; I have my files on a network share

The same way as the previous suggestion, we think that Files.app implementation is the best way to cover all these services that we don’t support in the app. You should be able to select multiple files from the Files.app importer by tapping on “Select” on the upper right corner, then select multiple files manually or use the “Select All” button on the upper left corner. And then tapping on “Open” (yep, I know it’s a weird copy, but that’s the one Apple shows and we can’t do much about it for now)

I’ve double-checked and there’s no “select” there. There’s new folder icon, icons/list icon, and cancel.
It might be iPadOS 14 issues/change.

@dani

Many read comics stuck at 95-97% complete - 2nd to last page in the file…

What reader do you normally use? We’ve identified this bug in the vertical reader, and we’re planning to fix it shortly. I want to double-check this is not happening to you using a different reader.

Using the Default view.
Looks to be fixed in the latest TF build.

As I final note, I appreciate you trying to keep it speak and simple but (again IMHO) you don’t lose anything by adding some “obscured” features under “advanced” options, you just gain appreciation from regular users.

[dani]

Thanks @pax0707

OK 2 - so in a collection there’s “return to library” / “continue reading” prompt. IMHO there should at least an option in settings to go straight to the next comic, without prompts.

Gotcha! I got it wrong when I read it the first time. We are actually thinking about how to improve this in specific. Next big release after 2.0 is going to be focused on the readers. We are thinking about presenting the next comic right away when you’re swiping.

I’ve double-checked and there’s no “select” there. There’s new folder icon, icons/list icon, and cancel.
It might be iPadOS 14 issues/change.

I’ll double-check this on iOS 14 and get back to you thanks for the heads up.

As I final note, I appreciate you trying to keep it speak and simple but (again IMHO) you don’t lose anything by adding some “obscured” features under “advanced” options, you just gain appreciation from regular users.

Definitely. Actually, we do this all the time and we take into consideration all the suggestions. But we’re only 2 indie developers and we have to choose our battles carefully to make the most of our times. Please bear with us.
Actually, your suggestion about the brightness control came up again in a conversation I had with @victor today. We are looking into ways of implementing something like that. But for the sake of transparency: that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be implemented. But it’s still on our radar.

Please, keep the feedback coming. We really appreciate all the time and thought you’re putting onto Panels.