Ensuring double-page spreads properly line up when reading - GC Forums
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Ensuring double-page spreads properly line up when reading
Hello!
New user here, so apologies if this has been covered elsewhere! I searched but I don't believe it has been.
I enjoy the interface here, but I do wish that when reading on desktop you could customize which two pages are shown in a double-page spread. It appears to differ depending on the comic. For some the odd-numbered page is always on the left, and the even numbered page is always on the right, and for others its vice-versa (the difference appears to come down to if the comic presents the cover page as a separate page or as part of a two-page spread alongside the first interior page).
Regardless of how it's set up, the end result is several comics end up with double page spreads split incorrectly!
For instance, here is a double-page splash page from Casual Fling #2 split incorrectly. The splash occurs on pages 5 and 6, but you're forced to view pages 4-5 and 6-7 together.
If you try to go to the page view to view page 5 directly, it pushes you into a single-page view for that page, and any subsequent navigation returns to the locked-in EVEN-ODD page arrangement.
Another instance of this happens in the first issue of the Elsewhere anthology. This one has storytelling across the pages, so it really threw me out of the story, I'm afraid. Have a look at that "CRRAASSH" sound effect split between the pages.
As with Casual Fling, the double page spreads are all locked in the same incorrect position, for this one it happens to be ODD/left--EVEN/right.
From the user perspective, I'd hope an easy fix would be to enable the user to choose which pages they'd like on the left-hand page. However, I fully admit to knowing nothing about the backend, so I'm sure any solution that seems easy to me can be far more complicated than it would appear!
Thanks again for building such an intuitive site! Can't wait to keep seeing improvements!
Best,
Paul Gilbert
Hello Paul! So there could be a couple things happening here and I'll address each one at a time:
1. As far as which pages are in a spread, in each comic's release settings (manage title) there is a "force first image as cover" option. It would need to be sure that this is or is not turned on for each release. This is why it might vary comic to comic. It looks Additionally, if the spreads do not line up as planned, a spare page might help set the order correct as well.
2. For Casual Fling #2, I'm not entirely sure what is causing this as the force-single-page-cover is not on. I'll bring that up to the dev team and see if we can figure that one out.
3. As for pages not lining up, it can be a few things, it could be that the pages themselves are not the same size or were not cropped correctly, which I know I've done myself as a creator, oops! It could also be way the paneling is done by the artist. Some creators take art to the bottom of the page always. Some don't and might stop the panels at the live area margin with enough space left around the panels for a nice and clean black margin/gutter. This second possibility is quite common. It's also common to change this from page to page if the creator feels a full page of art would be better than stopping at the margins this time (manga is famous for this too).
Thank you for letting us know about the pages not lining up in Casual Fling #2! I'll see what can be done about that. Great catch!
I'll add a tweak to how the double-page lineup works to be able to user select this sometime soon! Thanks for the report @UosdwisRDewoh
Thanks for the quick replies! As for ArtCrumb's point #3, I can totally understand why two side-by-side pages wouldn't literally line up perfectly side-by-side. Years of reading comics (and making books in my day job!) have taught me that getting two pages to print juuuust right can be a tricky thing. I'm merely talking about having the correct pages display side-by-side and not have the book's display the pages on the opposite side of the spread from what the creator intended!
While I'm noting issues, I also just spotted that the first two-page splash in Redemption #1 also appears to be improperly split on the second page turn, but I'm sure that will also be taken care of with the tweak Christopher mentioned.
Thanks again for being an incredibly responsive and positive online comics community! It's a wonderful thing to find in the year 2022!