Hello,

OCR Manga Reader is a free and open source Android app that allows you to quickly OCR and lookup Japanese words in real-time. It does not have ads and does not require network permissions. Supports EDICT J-E dictionary, ENAMDICT name dictionary (optional), kanji dictionary (optional), and up to 4 EPWING dictionaries.

Download the latest version via SourceForge

View the documentation for OCR Manga Reader (includes screenshots)

Have Fun!
cb4960

Oh my god. This looks awesome! I will try it on my Galaxy Note 10.1 a bit later. You never cease to amaze me with your software. I am so used to reading light novels with rikaisama and yomichan that this is a natural fit to read manga.

Would there be any possibility of a version for android 2.3?

@PotbellyPig,

Cool, hopefully it works.

@Zarxrax,

I did some initial testing on 2.3 using a Galaxy Player 4 but it was crashing unexpectedly and the dictionary/buttons appeared opaque instead of translucent so I decided to save 2.3 support for another day.

I did some preliminary testing on the Galaxy Note 10.1. The OCR seems to work well. The only problem I had at the beginning was some "unable to load image errors" after I paged through a couple pages. It seemed to go away after I killed the program and restarted. I'm not sure what caused it because I have 1GB of free memory on the device. I'll keep an eye out for it. This program really suits having a wacom digitizer on the tablet since with the pen like stylus since you can manipulate the OCR area a bit easier than with your finger. I'll keep going at it.

That bug is a carryover from the original A Comics Viewer baseline that also happens to me from time to time. Since the restart workaround is simple enough I decided to leave the fix for a future release. Glad to hear that the OCR works though.

This is absolutely priceless when used in combination with AnkiDroid!

Thank you, cb!

It works on a 512 MB RAM device too, just to let you know, but the screen is too small so the box positioning gets kinda annoying without a stylus.

Thanks!

Edit:
Tried it on LG Optimus L5 (E610), 4 inch (320x480) display, 800 MHz CPU, running Android 4.2.2.

Here is a screenshot of it in action on my phone:

http://oi42.tinypic.com/333vguw.jpg

For reasons I'm not sure of, only the ラ of ラブレター out of the ORC'd text is showing dictionary definitions. Essentially, what I am doing wrong, or not doing right, in order to get more than just the first word in the captured text, as per your image example, showing definitions?

I think you just sold me an Android tablet. In the hypothetical situations where I can afford it, of course ._.

uisukii Wrote:Here is a screenshot of it in action on my phone:

http://oi42.tinypic.com/333vguw.jpg

For reasons I'm not sure of, only the ラ of ラブレター out of the ORC'd text is showing dictionary definitions. Essentially, what I am doing wrong, or not doing right, in order to get more than just the first word in the captured text, as per your image example, showing definitions?

I wonder if the OCR engine recognized it as ラブレタ一 (with the kanji for "one" at the end) instead of the correct ラブレター (with the katakana long vowel mark at the end). When I manually type in the former using the OCR Error Correction Editor, the dictionary displays the entry for ラブ (as in your screenshot). However, when I type in the latter, the dictionary correctly displays the entry for ラブレター.

Also, I don't like how some of the buttons overlay one another in uisukii's screenshot. I should probably do something about that.

Have since tried it out on other text and the dictionary pop-up showed an extensive range of definitions for near all different words within the ORC'd text.

...and even without the ORC ability, the program itself as a manga reader is better than anything I've used. You really manage to weave magic with your programming skills, cb.

[RawToast]

Had a quick look at this on my Xperia Z. The program works

Issues:

* I have the same overlap as uisukii
* Could it be possible to zoom in further? On my 5" screen the text is very small at the most I could zoom (tried Visuals -> Scale -> Off and manual zoom using pinch). I imagine those on smaller screens would love higher levels of zoom.
* The arrows to control the OCR box only work if they are tapped and seem to do nothing if held.
* I now want a tablet

Will this be available on the Play store? It would make updating easier.

RawToast Wrote:Issues:
...
* I now want a tablet

I laughed.

Same here by the way!

Flashed a new rom onto my galaxy player 4 so I could run this. Definitely very nice. The overlapping buttons are a big problem here though. Some of them can't even be pressed.

RawToast Wrote:Had a quick look at this on my Xperia Z. The program works

Issues:

* I have the same overlap as uisukii
* Could it be possible to zoom in further? On my 5" screen the text is very small at the most I could zoom (tried Visuals -> Scale -> Off and manual zoom using pinch). I imagine those on smaller screens would love higher levels of zoom.
* The arrows to control the OCR box only work if they are tapped and seem to do nothing if held.
* I now want a tablet

When in portrait mode on smaller screens, I was thinking about putting the text orientation, binarize, send, and hide/show buttons behind a menu button that would reside were the hide/show button is now. Then I would move the nudge buttons to the left. Hopefully that will leave enough room.

Yes, increasing maximum zoom should be easy.

I'll see what I can do about adding the ability to hold the nudge buttons.

toshiromiballza Wrote:Will this be available on the Play store? It would make updating easier.

I was a bit hesitant because I didn't know if it would actually work on devices other than the Nexus 7. But now it seems to at least work on a Galaxy Note 10.1, Xperia Z, and a Galaxy Player 4 with custom ROM. I'll probably setup a Play account this weekend.

If anybody else would like to share what device they are using, please feel free.

Samsung just announced the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. Sounds like it would be perfect for this. But it has a 2560 x 1600 display so I'm not sure how it would look because no one has tested with a resolution that high yet. I'm sure if this is put on Google Play, someone with a Galaxy Nexus 10 which has the same screen resolution will try it.

PotbellyPig Wrote:Samsung just announced the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. Sounds like it would be perfect for this. But it has a 2560 x 1600 display so I'm not sure how it would look because no one has tested with a resolution that high yet. I'm sure if this is put on Google Play, someone with a Galaxy Nexus 10 which has the same screen resolution will try it.

I imagine it would look pretty darn good. Assuming that I've coded it right, the buttons and text should appear the same size on all devices.

[s0apgun]

So... it looks like I'm in the market for an android tablet now >.<

This has made me decide to finally go for a tablet too >_>

For anyone else in the market for one, I just stumbled upon this seemingly amazing deal. Pre-owned nook hd+ (9 inch tablet), with cyanogenmod 10 (makes it a normal android tablet instead of a locked-down nook), 16gb micro sd, and a case, for just $110. : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESXZTMO/ref=...7G.0G90JD3
[edit: it looks like the price has gone up now. your results may vary]

Being pre-owned is a bit of a risk, but at that price I'm willing to go for it. You can also buy a new one for just $150 from barnes and noble.

I've got a lot of reading to do now

cb should get a commission from all these Android sales :p. I have a Nexus 10 and will gladly try this when I get home.

Any interest in putting your work on GitHub? You're more likely to get contributors that way, if you care for that.

cb4960 Wrote:If anybody else would like to share what device they are using, please feel free.

LG Optimus L5 (E610), 4 inch (320x480) display, 800 MHz CPU, 512 MB RAM, running Android 4.2.2.

You should put two versions on the Play store; free and donate.