YACReader, or Yet Another Comic Reader, is exactly what it says it is: a comic book reading app. Only it should be called TOCRYEL, or The Only Comic Reader You’ll Ever Need.
Comics+iPad=awesomeness. We all know that already. But getting the comics into an app is usually far from awesome. This is the first thing that sets YACReader apart: While the iOS app is new, the desktop version isn’t. There’s a reader app and library app, both cross-platform and both free.
If the mention of “cross-platform” made you throw up in your mouth a little, then lets take a second to go brush our teeth together. Done? Me too – fresh as a minty daisy. The desktop app is indeed as ugly as you’d expect, but it acts like a kind of iTunes for Comics (and iTunes isn’t exactly beauty-queen material).
Point the app at your comics folder and let it run. In a few minutes (depending on your library size, but it’s fast enough) you’ll have a library complete with horribly-wobbling faux CoverFlow browsing and just a single entry in the menubar.
Fire up the iOS app though and you can browse this library direct from the device in a non-fugly, speedy interface. Pick individual comics or entire series, and download them over the Wi-Fi network. You can also import from Dropbox or via iTunes Sharing (aka. The Snail Mail of File Transfers).
But easy transfer matters for nothing if the reader app sucks. This one doesn’t In fact, it is my favorite reader so far. The page-turns are simple and smooth. If you zoom in the zoom level is locked and tapping scrolls the view across and down, zig-zagging over the page until you reach the end and then flipping to the top of the next page with the same zoom level still set. It’s similar to Comic Zeal in this aspect, only it works better and doesn’t have CZ’s stupid will-it-won’t-it page flip animation.
There’s more – a great alphabetical navigator, lovely cover thumbs, bookmarks with page numbers on them, title search – but you should discover that for yourself after dropping the absurdly small sum of $2 on this app. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have the first 100 issues of Hellblazer to re-read. Where’s my pack of Silk Cut..?
Source: YACReader
Source: iTunes
Thanks: Elia!
