How to make Launchbox into a Magazine & E-Book archiver/library to launch your pdf & cbz collection.
5How to turn Launchbox into your personal magazine and e-book library, launching PDFs, CBRs, and CBZs.
My video segment demonstrates creating a comprehensive Media Library capable of storing magazines, comics, and books in various file formats. The primary focus is on accessibility through appropriate applications for viewing source materials from Launchbox.
To begin the process, I use Lunchbox rev 13.6—the free version is recommended since anyone can download and use it, plus it boasts a user-friendly interface.
I didn't include the beginning of the menu creation process in Launchbox. I'm assuming you already have the knowledge of how to build an archival and context/menu.
Choice of PDF Reader: Sumatra PDF is the preferred PDF reader for this project due to its efficiency and compatibility.
Cover Art Creation: For magazine and book cover art, the default Snipping Tool on Windows can be utilized. This tool facilitates the creation of visually appealing cover images.
Adding Magazines to the Library:
The provided walk-through concentrates on the initial phases of adding magazines to the library, encompassing cover image creation and integration, menu structuring, and tile view customization within Launchbox. The video speed is increased by 3.4% to compress the time needed for building a basic library. This sped-up demonstration effectively showcases the steps needed to establish an initial media collection. Essentially, after three to four minutes, the rest of the video reveals me working through the steps to add various types of magazines and organize the archives. This includes renaming files and ensuring that each magazine follows a consistent naming scheme.
You might also catch a glimpse of me getting a little frustrated while adding submenus. Originally, Launchbox was designed to launch games and emulators, not to compete with dedicated media archiving applications. (but boy! what an eye candy it can be!)
My Gaming Rig Spec:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition 10 GB
Mainboard: ASUS ROG Dark Hero w/ 64 GB DDR4 memory
Software:
OS: Windows 11
Front End: LaunchBox (13.6)
Sumatra PDF reader - https://www.sumatrapdfreader.org/free-pdf-reader
Music:
Maurice Ravel - Bolero (1928)