Announcing GlobalComix Reader v4

Today we are excited to announce our largest update to the GlobalComix reading experience so far: Reader v4. We’re especially excited about this update because it’s heavily driven by discussions in the comics community about reading format preferences.

We have several major updates to the reader to unpack, so let’s get started.

Double-Page Reading Layout

At the heart of this update is a new reading experience on GlobalComix: Double-Page layout. This layout is especially delightful on widescreen devices like monitors, but is available to any type of device; large or small.

At times you might run into cases where the cover displays as a single page – this is due to the algorithm developed to better match internal pages together to create two-page spreads like the one below.

The image above is actually two individual pages coming together seamlessly like the artist originally intended as if you were holding the comic in your hands.

The double-page reader will be active by default for browsers that are wider than 1600 pixels, but you can set it to your preferred layout in the Reader Settings pane no matter the size of your screen.

Improved Single-Page Reading Layout

The Single-Page reading layout has received a number of improvements for both ease of access to information, as well as an enhanced reading experience.

You can now see information like crowdfunding alerts, comments, reactions, and more. This information will display above or below the page, depending on the type.

Navigation within Single-Page reading has also seen upgrades. It’s now possible to click or tap to go to the previous/next page. Here’s how that works:

• Left-to-Right reading: Left side of the page goes back, right side of the page goes forward
• Right-to-Left reading: Right side of the page goes back, left side of the page goes forward

Note: These navigation enhancements also work in Double-Page layout.

For mobile users, Single-Page reading now uses native browser zoom for a fluidly smooth gesture experience.

Reading Direction Indicator

Both Single-Page and Double-Page reading experiences now display a reading direction indicator if the direction is not left-to-right. Additionally, when using Double-Page layout, the first page will be positioned on the right and the second page on the left to match the expected content layout.

Swiping, tapping, clicking, or using the keyboard to navigate will now obey the title’s reading direction settings.

Improved Comic Info Pane

While we were updating the reading experience, it was a good time to do a refresh on the Comic Info pane. It has been redesigned to include information about the creator/publisher, credits, available releases with reading progress indicator, and related titles.

You can also add the comic to a list without leaving the reading experience, so start building those lists to share with friends, or just make a “read later” list if you want to come back another time.

Reader Settings

A good reader gives the person reading control over how they want to experience the story. We’ve updated the Reader Settings with that in mind.

For non-vertical series, you can now toggle between Single-Page, Vertical Long-Strip and the new Double-Page layouts. We’ve also added options to choose preferred image sizing for traditional pages: auto, fit-to-height, and fit-to-width.

Additionally, you can now invert horizontal swipe navigation on touch devices (prev./next page) from left to right and right to left in Single-Page and Double-Page layouts.

Panel-to-Panel Reading

We have temporarily turned off panel-to-panel reading for readers by default for interactive comics until we can improve the user experience. Creators can still configure and set up the panel-to-panel reading, and readers can still re-enable it through settings.

We expect to have improvements to our panel-to-panel based reader soon that will again turn on the feature by default for everyone when a release is configured with panels.

Page Read Tracking

For creators, we’ve taken this opportunity to add new tracking data points to the reader. This will be implemented in a future update to Creator & Publisher Analytics, but we’ve started recording the data now – so you’ll have some historical insights to look forward to. 

The new data points are:

• Reader Layout: Interactive, Single-Page, Double-Page, Vertical Long-Strip
• Page Access Mode: Free / Preview / Sponsored / Paid / Superfan

Because of the nature of these data points, some won’t be available for any page reads prior to Feb 16th, 2022.

Please let us know your thoughts on these updates in the comments, and report any issues in our Bug Reports forum section. We’ll continue to improve the reading experience, and your feedback is crucial to its evolution.