How to Put the Comics onto Your PSP?

Now that everything is converted, you can copy the images using a PSP file manager such as iPSP (http://ipsp.kaisakura.com/) or PSPWare (http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/pspware). On Mac OS X, PSPware offers tight Apple iLife integration, so using iPhoto 5, you can simply create a PSP keyword and assign that keyword to all the images that you want to transfer to the PSP.

The 32MB Memory Stick Duo card that Sony includes with the PSP is just fine for saved games. But if you want to get into transferring JPEGs, MP3s, and movie clips to your PSP, the small 32MB card is just not going to cut it. If you think you'll be carrying lots of web comics around, a bigger Memory Stick Duo card is well worth the investment.

Connect your PSP via a USB to USB mini cable, and use your PSP file manager software to sync the images over to the PSP.

You could also manually drop the pictures off in the directory /PSP/PHOTOS/WEBCOMICS/ on the Memory Stick if you don't want to use software to manage your PSP.

Convert the Images to JPEG

If you're running anything other than Version 2.0 of the firmware, the PSP's Photo capabilities only extend to JPEG files; there are plenty of web comics in GIF and PNG, so you will need to do a batch conversion into JPEG. If you have a PSP with Version 2.0 of the firmware, then you can skip this step. First, make an empty directory called Cleaned Comics, where your batch image program can deposit the converted images before loading them onto the PSP.

You don't want to resize the web comics, since most of the fonts are designed to be read at a 1-to-1 onscreen aspect ratio. If you are using Mac OS X, we recommend Easy Batch Photo (http://www.yellowmug.com/easybatchphoto/) as an inexpensive solution to convert all the comics to JPEG. If you already have a copy on hand, or have been looking to invest some real money in the image-editing arena, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or any other major image editor should be able to do a batch conversion on a folder of images with very little difficulty. Another, less expensive solution would be to use the free and open source GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) that is available for Windows, Linux, and many other operating systems, along with the GIMP plug-in, David's Batch Processor (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hodsond/dbp.html).

Make sure to use an image quality compression ratio better than 50%, so that the comics don't become distorted. Also, don't save a thumbnail in your JPEG file, because the PSP doesn't need the thumbnail and may choke on it, and that thumbnail will just take up more space on your precious Memory Stick.

Finding the Images

Once the download has completed, you need to find the directory where all the comic strip images are stored. This may be a simple matter of opening the Images folder inside the site's root folder on your hard drive. However, one of the problems you'll find is that some web comic authors have broken down their comic archives by month and year, so there can be a plethora of folders containing those precious images.

Do a local search for the image file format using your operating system's file search tools. This will generate a list of all the comic strip files in that directory. Now copy the results into a single folder for image processing.

Grab and convert comics off the Web for portable viewing

When Jacob first got his USB link cable, he tried a little experiment to see whether he could use his PlayStation Portable to read web comics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webcomic), and it worked out quite well. This tips will help you to do the same.

Downloading the Comics
The first step will be to download a web comic site of your choosing to your local computer.
Use a web site copier such as HTTrack (http://www.httrack.com/) on Windows and Linux or SiteSucker (http://www.sitesucker.us/index.html) on Mac OS X.

Download, install, and launch your web site copier. Supply the URL of the web comic that you want to view on your PSP and start the download. Once you type in the URL, press the download button (the one that looks like a downward-pointed arrow) to begin the download.

Make sure you spend some time adjusting the settings of these web site copiers to exclude downloading any forums associated with your target site, since there are no comics there and forums can add up to quite a lot of HTML pages.

We used Diesel Sweeties (http://www.dieselsweeties.com/) and Cat and Girl (http://www.catandgirl.com/). Download the web comic site of your choice, starting with the archive where all the comics are located.

Downloading all the images and HTML pages on the web site will take a couple of minutes over broadband. While you are doing this, you should seriously consider buying a T-shirt or other fine products from the web comic authors to thank them for providing their comic goodness for your pleasure. We have both Cat and Girl T-shirts and Diesel Sweeties T-shirts, and they rock ever so hard.

Looking for free ebook for your PSP

The list of freely available e-books designed for viewing on the PSP is growing daily. Use Google (http://www.google.com) to search for PSP e-books and see if any new titles that haven't been mentioned in this brief sampling appear.

Of course, the best way to find content for your PSP that you will be interested in reading is to make your own. Head on over to The Online Books Page (http://onlineBooks.library.upenn.edu/) or Project Gutenberg
(http://www.gutenberg.org/) to grab some books that are freely and legally available in the public domain.

How to read magazine in PSP?

PSP Magazines (http://www.pspmagazines.com/) is a site created and maintained by Jason Schuller, who notes on the site's About page: "I was doing this for myself anyway and figured why not share my work." This site consists of various short articles and selections from various magazines. These selections would all appear to be scraped from the online versions of the magazines and then reformatted for viewing on the PSP by Schuller, who then serves them up for download.

There is a rather large selection of magazine snippets available, and the list is updated regularly. There is even a section of independent PSP Magazines listed. All images are set to the default 480 x 272 size of your PSP's screen and are, for the most part, designed for normal viewing without having to hold your PSP on one end.

How to read manga in PSP?

The first PSP "e-books" to emerge online came in the form of Japanese manga comics or graphic novels.

Seven Seas Entertainment's GoManga.com
(http://gomanga.com/pspmanga/index.php) has made an entire selection of black and white Manga titles customized for display on the PSP. They are releasing these titles in serialized form, episode by episode. Their current titles include Amazing Agent Luna, Blade for Barter, Last Hope, and No Man's Land. Each episode is freely downloadable from their site in a zipped folder. All you have to do is download the files, unzip them, take the folder containing all of the individual page images, and drop it onto your PSP's Memory Stick in /PSP/PHOTO/. Each picture is 480 x 297 at a resolution of 72dpi (the image has been turned on its side so that it will nicely fill the PSP's screen).

This is larger than the 480 x 272 size of your PSP's screen, so you will have to use the analog stick to move around each page of the comic slightly. Holding the PSP on its end with the directional pad and analog stick beneath the screen will let you view the comic properly, and clicking on the R trigger of the PSP moves you ahead to the next page.

A PSP PAK of full-color Manga comics is also freely available from eigo-Manga English Comics (http://s95330819.onlinehome.us/manga/psppak.htm). So far, there is only one PSP PAK available, and it contains samples from five different manga comics. These images are set to 480 x 311 and turned on their side, so again you will need to hold the PSP on end and use the analog stick to move around on the page.

Photo view in PSP

If, instead of launching a slideshow, you hit X after selecting one of your folders of images (or if you didn't bother with the whole folder aspect in the first place), you will see a list of all the images within that folder. Simply selecting an image and hitting the X button will display it on the PSP. If you hit Triangle instead, an informational menu will pop up with Slideshow, Display, Delete, and Information options (see Figure 3-26), which behave pretty much the same as the similar menu for the image folder.

If you have Version 2.0 of the firmware, you will have additional options, such as Send, which would allow you to transmit the image via infrared to a friend's PSP; and Receive, which lets you receive a transmitted image from a friend's PSP.

When viewing an image, you can hit the Triangle button to bring forth an overlay control panel. This one is slightly different from the Slideshow control panel. The options include View Mode, Display, and Help on the top row, Clear Zoom, Zoom Out, Zoom In, Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Up, Down, Left, and Right on the middle row, and Previous, Next, and Slideshow on the bottom row.

If you have Version 2.0 of the firmware, you will have two additional controls on the top row of the control panel: Send, which allows you to send the image via IR to a friend, and "Set as Wallpaper," which lets you set the current image as the background image (wallpaper) for your PSP.

Most of these controls function the same as their counterparts in the Slideshow control panel, although there are some slight differences. View Mode toggles between Zoom and Normal view. Display shows the information for the file in an overlay across the top of the screen and a small window indicating the level of zoom. The controls on the second row all do what their names imply. The Up, Down, Left, and Right functions won't work if the full image is within view. If you are zoomed in, however, you can use these controls to scan around the image.

On the other hand, the majority of these functions can be accessed more easily by the PSP's controls themselves. It is much more convenient to simply use the Analog Stick to move around the image when you are zoomed in. The L and R triggers move you back and forward through the images, the square button plus the L and R triggers rotates the image left and right, respectively, the X button clears Zoom, and the Square button used in tandem with the analog stick zooms in and out. Refer to the Photo Help screen for a full list of all of these controls.

If you put your PSP to sleep while viewing pictures, you will be returned to the main menu the next time you wake up your PSP.

How to create photo slideshow in PSP?

If you choose Slideshow and hit the X button, each of the pictures in the folder will be displayed in order, for about four seconds each at Normal speed.

If this is too fast or too slow for your tastes, you can change the slideshow speed to Fast or Slow. The slideshow speed is set in the PSP's main settings. Navigate to Settings Photo Settings and hit the X button to bring up Slideshow Speed. Hitting either the X button or the right arrow button on the directional keypad will bring up a menu offering the choices of Fast, Normal, or Slow. Make your selection and hit the X button.

Hitting the Triangle button while the slideshow is running will open up a special slideshow-only control panel as an overlay over the current picture. This menu consists of Slideshow Options, View Mode, Display, and Help on the top row, Previous, Next, Play, Pause, and Stop on the middle row, and Repeat on the bottom row. The middle row, as you can see, consists of basic and rather self-explanatory navigational controls for the slideshow. The Repeat control simply keeps the slideshow going in a continual loop (at least until your battery runs out). The top row of controls needs a bit more explanation.

Selecting Slideshow Options and hitting the X button brings a small informational overlay in the bottom-right corner of the screen. This overlay contains an image of a clock indicating the time the picture file was created, the name of the file, the date it was created, and the time it was created.

Keep in mind that the time and date displayed by the PSP in these informational menus are determined by the time and date that the file was created, rather than the time and date your picture was taken. If you had to convert your pictures into JPEG to be displayed on the PSP, the time and date displayed will correspond with when you made this conversion.

If you select Slideshow Options again, and then again hit the X button, a small preview list of other images in the current slideshow will be displayed at the bottom of the screen, with the one you are currently viewing displayed in the middle. Hitting the X button again while the Slideshow Options control is highlighted will return you back to a regular slideshow, sans all the meta-information. If you don't want to use this control panel, simply hitting the Square button while you are viewing the slideshow will cycle you through these different Slideshow Options.

The View Mode option toggles the slideshow view between Normal (in which the picture is fitted to the screen) and Zoom (in which the picture is made to fill the screen, albeit with some cropping of the image to maintain proportions).

The Display option places an overlay across the top of the screen with the name of the image, the image's number within the slideshow (3/5 would mean that you are viewing the third picture of five), the date the file was created, and the time the file was created.

The Help option displays the Photo Help screen that displays all of the basic controls for navigating photos on the PSP.

How to Navigate Photos on Your PSP?

On your PSP, navigate to the Photo menu, highlight your Memory Stick, and hit the X button. The folders that you placed inside the PHOTO folder of your Memory Stick will show up in a list, sort of like separate photo albums. Each folder will feature a preview image of the first image in the folder and the name of the folder, and will display the number of images contained in that folder.

Once you have the folder you want to view selected, you can either hit the X button again to bring up another list of all the images contained or hit the Triangle button to bring up the menu featuring Slideshow, Delete, and Information.

This menu allows you to view a slideshow, delete the entire folder, or display information about the folder. If you choose Information, the only additional information you will discover is the sizedisplayed in kilobytesof the folder and its contents.

If you have Version 2.0 of the firmware, you will have the additional option to Receive, which lets you receive a transmitted image from a friend's PSP into the currently selected folder.