Hello,
A month ago, I switched to Panels from Chunky.
Now it’s time for a feedback 
My context
iPad Pro 12.9 (2018 - 3rd generation) with iPadOS 14.8
Panels 2.9.0
Like
- The Library presentation : it’s the main reason I leave Chunky.
- the choice between small and large grid
- the option full covers
- the stacked covers for collection
- the comic title displaying the extension, the size and page number
- single comics and collections displayed altogether
- The various reading mode. I played with them but stay on classic for now.
- The SMB import, as my files reside on a NAS (not all comics reader have this one).
- The download section and its history (useful to check if I already imported something).
Dislike (aka rooms for improvement)
- The scrolling in the Library isn’t fluid at all, whatever mode or option I use. That’s my main complain about the app.
- The Search experience isn’t fluid. It works but there are seconds of lag between each typed letter.
- In the Reading Now section, the covers for current and next reading are too huge. I expected the same size as in library.
- When navigating inside and outside of a collection there is a small lag before the animation occurs. That’s a bit disturbing.
- In the Library, when in grid mode, the row spacing is bigger than the column spacing. That broke a bit the aesthetic.
- The reading progress indicator on a comic is badly visible (depends of the underlying cover thought). Maybe increase its height ?
- In the Library, I miss a scrollbar when scrolling. I found out it’s a useful indicator of the current position inside the whole library.
- The collection cover which needs at last 3 covers for its display. Missing covers are replaced by an ugly dashed rectangle. It’s even worse with full cover on.
- The sort inside the Library isn’t accurate.
- accented letters aren’t equivalent to their base letter (characters like é, è must be equivalent to e).
exemple: Metal / Metronom / Méto => the last title should be in second position.
(yes I’m French
) - uppercase and lowercase aren’t equivalent.
exemple: Showman killer / SHI => position should be inverted.
- accented letters aren’t equivalent to their base letter (characters like é, è must be equivalent to e).
- Comic title inside the Library: why displaying the file size before the page numbers ? It seems more pertinent to read the pages number first.
Question
- What is the purpose of the option ‘Show collections titles’ ? I checked and unchecked it and observe no difference.
Feature requests
- Add global statistics about the library: how many collections and comics ? I suggest to place it inside the panel Manage Space.
- Collection title: in addition to the number of titles inside it, add its size (the sum of its titles’s size).
- SMB import: add the possibility to save a path instead of alway starting at the root folder.
- Collection inside collection. I know it’s already on the path, just adding more coin in the machine
- Downloads: in addition to the progress indicator, add the size of the downloaded item. Will be useful to understand why this download is so long.
- Add a custom option to exclude starting articles in title for sorting (a, an, the in English, le, la, les in French). Custom option to let the users specifying what are the articles to exclude.
Bug
- Library display: when switching between apps and returning to Panels, the covers aren’t correct - i.e. I see the wrong cover for the visible collections/comics. Scrolling one page up/down to force the refresh correct the display.
