Why do many people rar their manga?

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[edomikari]

Sorry if this thread seems to be off-topic for this thread but I do think it's related as it concerns what people upload through P2P or file hosts.

I use Comix for reading manga archives on my Linux box. The problem I keep coming across is: opening .rar files.
Installing RAR should do the trick, but sometimes it uncompresses incorrectly for reasons unknown. I usually end up having to unpack the rar using p7zip-rar, a module for 7zip. And then I will recompress it into zip. As I compare the the two archives, I found out the filesize difference of the two is very negligible (after all, they contain images already compressed in jpeg or any other format).

So here comes my question: why do many people compress in RAR instead of DEFLATE/ZIP? If it were a ton of files of varying formats, then I'd understand the need, but in this case, they are all images. Why not just use something readily available instead?

I usually grumble about this especially when it comes to manga viewing. Most manga reader software (I used  Leeyes when I was on Windows) would open a zip manga straight away, loading the first few pages; on the other hand, it seems to need to uncompress the whole rar before the first page can be read (probably due to solid archiving? No idea).

[marat75]

I think it is because many people use WinRAR and RAR is obviously the default format that program compresses in. I also use WinRAR and let me tell you this: Out of hundreds of archive that I compressed, about 96% were in RAR format. You probably can figure out why.

It is true that the difference between the two formats is pretty negligible, but not many people think of others while compressing the manga, they just use whatever is convenient to them.

[edomikari]

Hmm I suppose you are right. I didn't have that long of experience using WinRAR, but from what I've heard, it's one the archiving programs with the best user interface, along with best Windows Explorer integration (for this, I can only comment about 7-zip. I didn't like it :( ). And like you said, it defaults to compressing as .rar.
Now, about solid archiving? I wonder if it's enabled in WinRAR by default...

[Revilenigma]

.stix is really awesome, it's too bad that's no good program out there to decompress it on a pc.

[marat75]

I think someone needs to move this topic into Computer discussions subforum.

I can only comment about 7-zip. I didn't like it :( ).
Now, about solid archiving? I wonder if it's enabled in WinRAR by default...

Yes, I know from experience that indeed 7-zip doesn't have an intuitive interface like WinRAR.
Regarding your next question, solid archive creation is not a default function per se, but if you select the appropriate check mark, you will be able to create solid archives from then on. Here's a concise explanation how to do this in a graphic format with some random text thrown in:
Some explanation of why you need solid archives:

[-crono-]

It is true that the difference between the two formats is pretty negligible, but not many people think of others while compressing the manga, they just use whatever is convenient to them.

lol tell me about it. how about the ones who name their files "1 2 3 4..." instead of "01 02 03 04..." so that they are displayed in proper order once you get into the 10s and beyond. so annoying sometimes...

[robotnik]

OTOH, doesn't RAR by default support unicode filenames while ZIP doesn't? That might be one reason, to preserve the Japanese filenames. File-splitting might be another (for uploading <100mb slices to Rapidshare or something), but just about every archive program can do that now.

The main reason I can think of is for passwording RARs - IIRC they're much harder to crack than a passworded ZIP. I used to see them all the time on Share, with links to a "send me money for the password" page. Ugh.

Several years ago I worked for a company that was too cheap to get a WinRAR corp license and had everyone just clicking through the fricking sharware nags. Talk about being really cheap and ignorant of the good free software out there! We switched to 7Zip and I've used it ever since.

[edomikari]

OTOH, doesn't RAR by default support unicode filenames while ZIP doesn't? That might be one reason, to preserve the Japanese filenames.

Aha, in the raw manga scene, this is a very vital point! I missed this one because I've been making zips on Ubuntu only and the filenames turn out okay. But older versions of zip do not support non-system code page encoding, so I suppose it's not supported by Windows' default archiver. And no one would bother to install newer version of WinZip, although they would install WinRAR (but that's due to the allegedly cool interface).

The main reason I can think of is for passwording RARs - IIRC they're much harder to crack than a passworded ZIP. I used to see them all the time on Share, with links to a "send me money for the password" page. Ugh.

I dunno if ZIP's password is inherently weak, or it's due to old version, then above rule might apply. Share is notorious for its abundance of fake rar, which claim you can get the password by doing certain thing but then find out it's a ruse. Actually there is someone doing the business of distributing password protected manga, and charge people for it. Probably many people didn't like it and started making fake copies with password, probably to make the business look like a scam.

[mono]

easy answer

because rar is better than zip

[RiderFan]

Winrar has more features and is generally easier to use than other compression formats like GSC and ZIP. You get the option of compression modes that are not present on just regular WINZIP. It even gives you the option of saving the archive in both RAR and ZIP formats.
 But the main reason is that most people in the manga community use PCs and relatively few use Linux.

[Grumpy]

as marat75 said, I think it's lot more about what's more convenient than which one is better. I use rar all the time b/c it's just easier. Very rarely would I ever bother using any of the finer controls. Also, zip handles unicodes fine unless you haven't updated since the 90s...

btw, i use comix frequently too but I never had a problem b/c something was done in rar. only annoying part is 1, 10, 11..., 2, etc. lol

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edit, geez, just realized this forum is very inactive and that i responded to months old thread. Guess it's just proof that i'm new. lol

[vachzar]

because many people use winRar as decompresing program since winrar can do any type of  decompressing, Rar, zip, tar.gz. and Rar is default format from winrar apps.
I usually make a mistake when compressing. surely I like zip format because it can be decompressed on file manager at web hosting.

[edomikari]

One of the many mistakes that people make when archiving comic using rar is that they forget to turn off solid archiving. Because of that, comic readers are forced to unpack all images before showing the first page.

[Suika-kkuri]

RAR and ZIP is still the Scanlation industry format. Reason RAR is chosen over others is because it is easier to protect, split, and in case of data loss, compensate.

[Poulpos]

I'm the kind of person who rar-pack my mangas, and there are reasons for that :

- When i care about a manga, I end up by making a backup of it, either on a HDD or burning it onto a DVD. In those cases, file fragmentation pisses me off (it slows transferts) so i want my precious data properly packed into an archive which will generally be a single file (except if it exceeds 4 Gb, except for games or huge softwares that i generally keep as an ISO or CCD).

- Solid archive (when there are tons of small files, that makes the archive significantly smaller, despite the need to unpack it all before being able to view its content.

- Restauration feature : THAT feature is why i won't use 7-zip which is still a great program. when you find an archive that is corrupted, most of time its good to throw away, but if you have an archive with 5% to 10% data recorvery restauration feature incorporated, you'll recover most of its content, generally speaking all the content. And i HATE loosing data, so according to me archive that matters are rar archive with at least 5% restauration feature included

- Fast compression / decompression

- Has all the other features I want in a compression software (password, splitting, commenting, SFX, knows lots of compression formats, etc etc)

I switched to 7-zip 5-6 years ago, but when I've been confronted once with a corrupted archive I cared about and couldn't recover the content, i went back to RAR format, keeping 7-zip for the very rare occasion where only size matters (LZMA rocks).

[Edit : wow, i just saw that was quite an old topic, sorry i just felt reacting to a question that matters to me. That topic could have stayed in the graveyard... ]

[v5etboyphc]

its to compress the files to smaller size
+ also then you don't have to upload every files in that folder.