Since shipping manga out of Japan is expensive and takes ages and scanning them requires you to debind the books, I thought that getting raws from ebooks would be much more economical. Since there's no shipping costs, you'd save around 50% and the raws would be of better quality and easier available.

Now, I have no idea how to actually do this though. Making screenshots of the ebook pages seems tedious, there's gotta be an easier way. Also I don't know what formats they use in Japan and if you can play them on PC without buying some expensive software.

Anyone got experience with this? Thanks!

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Well I've used e-book Japan for years for our raws. Yes print screening them is tedious but when you think about having to debind the books then scanning each page in, then leveling, rotating each page, etc. I think it's a very small price to pay for something that's already scanned, leveled, rotated, etc.

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

What software do you need to play the ebooks?

Also, I've registered on that site in the past. I've run into some problems however, I think it was with payment. Do they accept paypal?

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I know they accept visa and mastercard. Let me check if they use paypal.

I use Gadwin PrintScreen. Just set the hotkey to F2 or F3 since the site will prevent you from print screening. I also use their reader for ease. You can view one page at a time making it easier to just crop the images in batches.

Be sure if you're using their reader you need to log into it.

Yeah sorry seems they only accept JCB, MasterCard, VISA, American Express, Diners Club International.

They also seem to accept WebMoney, BitCash, and some other stuff but no paypal.

Last edited by lambchopsil at 12:08 am, Apr 30 2014

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

Thanks. Damn, that sucks though. I have no idea how to get a credit card.

You don't happen to know a store selling ebooks that accepts Paypal, do you?

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Here's an example of another reason why I love ebooks. Most of the newer titles are scanned in full images unlike when printing in book format you lose some of the art because of binding or resizing to fit the format.

http://www.mediafire.com/view/n03cmnq6d45zbxp/Uchi_no_Heik a_ga_Shinmai_de_1.jpg
http://www.mediafire.com/view/uanczsudjohhslr/Uchi_no_Heika _ga_Shinmai_de_2.jpg

I have just print screened them cropped and aligned the spread pages. Now not all the titles are going to fit perfectly like this but there's a good chance. Plus no worries about gutters from the binding if someone doesn't debind the book. The images are also unleveled. Only draw back is not all titles are out in ebook there's a bunch of the classic stuff but also a ton of newer stuff.


@-shiratori-
there's Renta but it's web browser based and the quality is rather icky. They go by a ticket system. 24hr ticket purchase and a permanent purchase. Their stuff is more self published authors or small pressed.
http://renta.papy.co.jp/

Last edited by lambchopsil at 12:09 am, Apr 30 2014

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

I assume ebook are actual ebook file you can download and not something you have to connect to the internet to read.

I don't know what kind of ebook manga are in but if it's epub like other books then you can unzip it as it is just another form of zip file. If it's in another format then you can try to use Calibre to change it into epub and unzip it. If it's in pdf then I have no clue really. Maybe there are some program that can do it for you but I'm not too sure.

Well with Ebook Japan you download some sort of thing that you double click then the ereader starts up and downloads the files. Where it downloads to, I have no idea. I've checked the program folder and I see nothing there.

Or more like downloads the images into the reader. Which is linked to your online account.

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

Thanks, gonna try getting a credit card then I guess lol

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I assume you don't live in the US huh? If you have a bank account see if you can getting a VISA debit/credit card. Or see if any of you group members have a card and you can just reimburse them.

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

Yeah, I don't. And they check your income in my country so if you're poor like me it's unlikely my bank will grant me a credit card.

However, I've checked out WebMoney and that seems to be easier than getting a credit card (or using the other Japanese services).

//edit:

Hm nevermind, I thought WebMoney meant the Russian service, but apparently it's a Japanese one with sales only in Japan. Damn.

Last edited by -shiratori- at 4:03 am, Apr 30 2014

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Some banks offer VISA debit cards, I got one myself before from RBC, they had a virtual VISA debit. See if your bank offers anything similar. And there are those prepaid VISA cards, gift cards. I dunno the availability outside Canada, but I do know that the ones we have here can be used worldwide.

I know there's a lot of ebook sites around, just that I haven't much paid attention myself, mainly due to the assumption that there wouldn't be enough manga on there... I mean, ranging from Amazon to CDJapan have ebooks I believe, and a dozen other sites.

That said Shiratori, are you looking to purchase for the group? I can help if required, either from my own cards or getting a prepaid one. Just be careful since prepaid ones come a lil more expensive, while banks... I fell for their trap in only one withdraw per month or it'll be $10...

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Yeah, I checked my bank's website and they offer a prepaid VISA card. Gonna go there tomorrow and ask what it costs. Thanks for offering to help out, if it's too expensive I might get back on that offer

Ebook Japan seems to have a lot of titles btw.

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You'll also have to keep in mind that your bank will charge you for every purchase outside of your country. The whole currency issue/transaction and such. I don't pay much, maybe like 50 cents per transaction? It also takes about a month until Ebooks Japan takes the money out of the account. International slowness or something. If you need help setting up the reader and everything just e-mail me.

Ebooks Japan also gives out free manga weekly. Only thing is that it's only the first volume of the series. Since they want you to buy the others. There's the read on the web browser the blue buttons and then under that list there's the download onto your reader option the orange buttons.

http://www.ebookjapan.jp/ebj/freebooks/index.asp

Enjoy and good luck!

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Owner of Antisense Scanslation.

How did you get 300dpi that amazing!
I almost give up using ebookjapan since i dont like to be dependent on their reader to read, teach me master!