Ecomic Metadata

[Nyarlathotep]

I'm wondering if anyone can comment on the inclusion of comic metadata with ecomic files.  There doesn't seem to be any standard way built into the cbz or cbr format (they're just archives), though I see there are naming conventions in the FAQ.  It's looking like each reader has it's own method.  The one I'm familiar, ComicRack, uses a Comicinfo.xml file (among other methods) to store the metadata.

I'm wondering if it would be useful to include such metadata files in submitted ecomics, or whether it might be considered objectionable.  Would scanners be interested in doing so, perhaps with the help of a tool to easily generate them for multiple readers?  Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[JonTheScanner]

I'm not sure what you mean.  Do you mean data on things like artists, etc.?  Many scans have those included as text or image files.

[Nyarlathotep]

Yes, that's basically what I mean.  Info on the Publisher, Year, Month, Title, Number, etc.  More specifically though, in a machine readable form that the ecomic reader expects.  For a ComicRack example, if a ecomic came preloaded with a Comicinfo.xml, the reader would know the correct values off all those things, instead of guessing from the filename (which I often have to correct or add to).  I'm unfortunately not yet familiar with other readers to know how or if something similar would be possible.

Edit: Hmm, it looks like the reader I use might be in the minority.  I've just tried out CDisplay, PixelComic, and CBreader and none of them seem to have much in the way of an organizer in them, where this info would be most useful.  Only PixelComic seems to support a meta file, but it looks like it doesn't get along with other text files in the archive.  Unfortunately at the moment I'm not in a position to try out Linux or MacOS readers.   Guess that this sort of thing wouldn't be terribly useful for most of the comic readers commonly used.

[narfstar]

Janus is working on bringing in our very own comic reader soon. PM him with any suggestions