launchbox The Ultimate Magazine Experience

[Baggio]

7 minutes ago, DerSchlachter said:

@Baggio Tested your bat File....Wonderful! Works like a charm!

Good stuff. Hopefully it saves you a bit of time 👍

[Baggio]

2 hours ago, SiriusVI said:

Where do you put these Spline images?

They go in the Box - Spine folder of whichever platform image folder you're in

[Baggio]

btw @DerSchlachter this may be of use to you as well with your spines and save you a few steps of what you posted earlier.

I made it a while ago and it's been very useful for stuff like this.  It'll just create a text file with all the things in that folder (not the subfolders) and without the path so you'd just need to remove the extension in a text editor.  I'm sure there is a way to do this without the extension showing as well but i don't know how to do it lol

 List files in Folder.zip

[Baggio]

Another thing,  if you want to use BRU to rename the files, run that bat file above in the folder you created all your images in to get your names.  Paste them into the first cell in excel/libre,  in the second cell put a pipe | in each row, and in the third cell put the names you wish to change it to.  For this again you can run the bat file I posted in the relevant folder to grab them all and paste into excel.

Select all that once you have done and paste it into a text file, save it and load up BRU. 

Once there select "Actions>Import Rename-Pairs" and select your text file your just created.

Then it's just a matter of selecting all the files you're wanting to rename and pressing rename

Doing it this way you don't need to remove the extension the bat file created either.

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Baggio
added images

[Baggio]

After messing about will all sorts of programs trying to extract the first and last pages from a PDF I have found out that Adobe Acrobat has actions like Photoshop so you can create a set of commands to run on a whole folder, so I have created 3 for anyone that uses AA.

First and Last page to JPG.sequFirst Page To JPG.sequLast Page To JPG.sequ

Just double-click each one to install them and in Acrobat to Tools>Customise>Action Wizard, choose which action you want to use, select the folder with the PDFs you want the covers for, and click start. 

It will extract all the images to the folder with the PDFs in with the back cover having 'BACK' in the name (if using front and back or just the back action file.)

 

The reason I have been trying to find an alternate solution to Comic Utility Belt was that it was outputting really really small JPGS on some PDFs and I couldn't figure out why.

[Baggio]

I forgot to add it you want to use Acrobat for the reader i have found these settings (and the transitions) work really well.

And here's an AHK to open them in fullscreen, just change the Acrobat location and the PDF name

run, "X:\YOUR LOCATION\Acrobat.exe" /A "pagemode=FullScreen" "FILENAME.pdf"

Escape::
WinClose, ahk_exe Acrobat.exe
ExitApp
return

If you don't want to make an AHK for every mag, you can run this Action file Set_Initial_View.sequ

Once installed, edit it and set "Open In Fullscreen mode" to yes (like the images above),  then run that on your PDF folder and it will set them all to open fullscreen by default. 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Baggio

[ShawnS]

Absolutely brilliant obsession! I don't know that I will ever do this myself but I really love your dedication to getting the look and feel the way you want. The FlipPDF viewer reminds me of the desktop app EGM used to use. For a time in the early 2000's you could get a digital version of their monthly issues and it had the same kind of page-turning features. I'm glad to see FlipPDF recreates that kind of effect!

Well, I don't have anything to add or ask of you, just a great idea and love your detailed write up!

[Playnite_Is_Better]

2 hours ago, ShawnS said:

Absolutely brilliant obsession! I don't know that I will ever do this myself but I really love your dedication to getting the look and feel the way you want. The FlipPDF viewer reminds me of the desktop app EGM used to use. For a time in the early 2000's you could get a digital version of their monthly issues and it had the same kind of page-turning features. I'm glad to see FlipPDF recreates that kind of effect!

Well, I don't have anything to add or ask of you, just a great idea and love your detailed write up!

I love the flipPDF viewer, was a bit of work converting them all but I can't go back to a normal reader now. I remember reading about the virtual mags back in the 2000's but never actually downloaded one, sounds like I was missing out! You have sparked my curiosity I will admit, I plan to get my hands on those today somehow. Thanks for the positive vibes

[Playnite_Is_Better]

I've been away for a few weeks playing some ps2 games, it turns out I have a obsession with the actual video games as well and forget to check back on threads I created 😁 I see Baggio has been busy in my absence adding a bunch of cool batch scripts and other useful stuff, I'll add those to the front page, thanks for all that btw I will use those when I get back to adding some new mags.  

[Baggio]

3 hours ago, KingSlayer420 said:

I've been away for a few weeks playing some ps2 games, it turns out I have a obsession with the actual video games as well and forget to check back on threads I created 😁 I see Baggio has been busy in my absence adding a bunch of cool batch scripts and other useful stuff, I'll add those to the front page, thanks for all that btw I will use those when I get back to adding some new mags.  

No worries bud.  You're bang on about me being busy with this as I have made another 9 UK magazine sets that I need to send you.  You’ve got me well into it now lol

Regarding FlipPDF, I love the style but it was the converting to exe’s that made me steer away from it becuase I dont think you can convert them back to PDFs. That meant if I ever needed them in PDFs again and i would have to find and download them all again which as you know is no easy feat 😂

[Playnite_Is_Better]

1 hour ago, Baggio said:

No worries bud.  You're bang on about me being busy with this as I have made another 9 UK magazine sets that I need to send you.  You’ve got me well into it now lol

Regarding FlipPDF, I love the style but it was the converting to exe’s that made me steer away from it becuase I dont think you can convert them back to PDFs. That meant if I ever needed them in PDFs again and i would have to find and download them all again which as you know is no easy feat 😂

That's how it happened to me haha, I started with just a few sets but just couldn't pull away from it. I personally think it's just as much fun collecting all this stuff as it is playing/reading them, you can shoot me any of the stuff you made or you can upload them into your own download page if you prefer that. I can just link your media download page right next to mine if it's easier that way.

As far as converting them back to pdf I am unsure if it can be undone, you can however enable the "Download PDF" feature in the Flash Settings (i think) it allows you to download it in PDF format. I turned that off in the template i sent you because it makes the filesize twice as big, because it embeds the pdf file into the exe. It wouldn't be a bulk thing for sure, you would have to open each exe and download the pdf if you wanted to go back. Most people are probably happy with all the other pdf readers out there, flipPDF isn't required to have a badass magazine collection. I was just being ocd about how i wanted to read them, I get that way about certain things. Excited to see what you have been working on, I like the UK magazines the most because I have never read any of them since I'm in the USA.

Edited August 14, 2023 by KingSlayer420

[JaysArcade]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:08 PM, Baggio said:

I'm sure there is a way to do this without the extension showing

Try this.

list.zip

[JaysArcade]

I've converted 550 something Mad mags to PDF from CBR so I can extract the back covers. Do you guys think there is there any real good reason to keep the CBR versions other than the compression savings? The compression doesn't really seem to have saved much space to be honest.

@Baggio, your Acrobat actions work great.
@DerSchlachter, The CBR converter was a good find. Thanks for the heads up.

I figured out how to do the ImageMagick thing and I've been creating a shitload of complete sets of logos for these humor mags. Still have a few sets I'm working on. I'll share them if anyone thinks they are of use to anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

[JaysArcade]

Forgot to mention, I also made platform videos for these.

[Baggio]

19 hours ago, JaysArcade said:

Try this.

list.zip 161 B · 0 downloads

That worked great thanks. I'm glad the actions files are of some 👍 

Them logos look great, how did you go about using ImageMagick to make them?   

I used Photoshop in the end and if anyone wants a run down of how to use that ill put a little guide up.   

Edited August 20, 2023 by Baggio

[JaysArcade]

Once you install imagemagick, you run a batch file. I run it in the folder with the seed image and then copy out the images to another folder when its done.

for /l %%x in (1, 1, 34) do (
   echo %%x
   magick convert "Mad.png" -font "Segoe-UI-Black" -pointsize 155 -fill white -strokewidth 7 -stroke black -gravity south -annotate +0+0 "XL #%%x" "Mad XL #%%x.png"
)

 

The things to focus on are:

On the first line, the 34 means create up to 34 images. Change this according to however many you need. Not sure what the 1,1, are but probably means start at number one, and increase by one for each file.

On the second line, tell it to convert Mad.png which is the seed png I already made with space on the bottom for the new text. Font and pointsize should be self explanatory. Fill text with white and add a black stroke. The 7 indicates how thick the stroke. Gravity is where you want the text. SouthWest would be the bottom left, SouthEast bottom right, North is the top middle, etc, etc. The Annotate means to write on the image. The +0+0 is the XY offset from whatever gravity you set. the "XL #%%x" is what you want it to write. So this would write XL #1, XL #2, XL #3, etc, etc. The "Mad XL #%%x.png" will be the filename it writes. So the files will be Mad XL #001.png, Mad XL #002.png, Mad XL #003.png, etc, etc.

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by JaysArcade

[Baggio]

On 8/21/2023 at 12:21 AM, JaysArcade said:

Once you install imagemagick, you run a batch file. I run it in the folder with the seed image and then copy out the images to another folder when its done.

for /l %%x in (1, 1, 34) do (
   echo %%x
   magick convert "Mad.png" -font "Segoe-UI-Black" -pointsize 155 -fill white -strokewidth 7 -stroke black -gravity south -annotate +0+0 "XL #%%x" "Mad XL #%%x.png"
)

 

The things to focus on are:

On the first line, the 34 means create up to 34 images. Change this according to however many you need. Not sure what the 1,1, are but probably means start at number one, and increase by one for each file.

On the second line, tell it to convert Mad.png which is the seed png I already made with space on the bottom for the new text. Font and pointsize should be self explanatory. Fill text with white and add a black stroke. The 7 indicates how thick the stroke. Gravity is where you want the text. SouthWest would be the bottom left, SouthEast bottom right, North is the top middle, etc, etc. The Annotate means to write on the image. The +0+0 is the XY offset from whatever gravity you set. the "XL #%%x" is what you want it to write. So this would write XL #1, XL #2, XL #3, etc, etc. The "Mad XL #%%x.png" will be the filename it writes. So the files will be Mad XL #001.png, Mad XL #002.png, Mad XL #003.png, etc, etc.

 

Brilliant thanks for this.  This will come in very handy in the future no doubt 👍

[SiriusVI]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:29 PM, Baggio said:

After messing about will all sorts of programs trying to extract the first and last pages from a PDF I have found out that Adobe Acrobat has actions like Photoshop so you can create a set of commands to run on a whole folder, so I have created 3 for anyone that uses AA.

First and Last page to JPG.sequ 977 B · 4 downloads First Page To JPG.sequ 759 B · 1 download Last Page To JPG.sequ 760 B · 2 downloads

Just double-click each one to install them and in Acrobat to Tools>Customise>Action Wizard, choose which action you want to use, select the folder with the PDFs you want the covers for, and click start. 

It will extract all the images to the folder with the PDFs in with the back cover having 'BACK' in the name (if using front and back or just the back action file.)

 

The reason I have been trying to find an alternate solution to Comic Utility Belt was that it was outputting really really small JPGS on some PDFs and I couldn't figure out why.

Hey, I cannot install the .sequ files. Acrobat Reader tells me they might be damaged?

[Baggio]

55 minutes ago, SiriusVI said:

Hey, I cannot install the .sequ files. Acrobat Reader tells me they might be damaged?

They don't work in the reader unfortunately, only Adobe Acrobat Pro supports them.

[Lucoshi]

King Slayer I sent you more covers