Since there haven't been any bug reports over the past few weeks, I think that I can finally move forward with development on the new version!
As usual, you can expect 3–4 months of nightly builds, starting now. Below this post, you’ll find the changelog, which I’ll keep updated as new features and fixes are added over time.
🚨 As usual I remember to Premium members that you can find here on Patreon the nightly builds posts where you'll can download the nightly versions which will already include the new features/bugfixes listed below 👍
Added an option in the Extra menu for Webtoons to choose the position of the number of the chapter used by the website (feature requested by a Premium member)
Added the support for manhwaread.com (requested by a Premium member)
Added support for translate.webtoons.com (requested by a Premium member).
Please note that the download process for this specific website will take significantly longer than average, due to the way translations are stored on their servers.
Added support for tcbonepiecechapters.com (requested by a Premium member).
Fixed an internal bug related to the handling of external scripts.
Fixed and improved the support for asuracomics.com
Improved the support for translate.webtoons.com
Added a new tool in the Extra -> Apps menu to create double-page spreads from downloaded chapters. This way, you can merge single-page manga scans into proper double-page spreads when the artwork was originally drawn across two pages (requested by a Premium member)
Added new options in the tool for merging single-page manga scans into double-page spreads: you can now set a different output folder, choose to delete the original files, and select JPEG (with adjustable quality %) instead of PNG (requested by a Premium member).
Added a new option in the Extra menu for Tappytoon to request the super high-quality variant, if available.
Added support for mangas-origines.fr (requested by a Premium member).
Added support for sushiscan.net (requested by a Premium member).
Added support for inovascanmanga.com (requested by a Premium member).
Updated the database structure to include metadata fields for manga (see next point) and removed old tables.
Added a new function to retrieve metadata for a manga in the bookmarks: this uses the mangaupdates.com API to fetch details such as original title, description, year, type, rating, genre, and cover. For now, the metadata is only stored in the database, but it will be displayed in the new bookmarks view in the future.
Added a new dialog window that allows users to select the correct metadata match for a manga. This helps avoid errors with automatic matching, especially since many manga have very similar — or even identical — titles.
Changed the main program icon (as part of the upcoming rebranding).
Please note: this nightly build heavily changes the internal database where all your bookmarks and downloaded flags are stored. Since I didn’t have time to test everything (the release was unplanned, but I had to publish it because a Premium member requested support for the new websites — which is part of the Premium subscription benefits), please make sure to back up your database file (mangadownloader.db) before using this nightly build! That way, if something breaks, you can always go back to an older nightly build or the public release using your database backup.
Added support for shanemangav1.online
Added support for manhwa18.net
Added a new option in Settings to enable autostart of the download manager when the user adds chapters to the download queue (so without the need to click the button on the toolbar)
A couple of bug fixes for the new database structure
Added a new combobox to the "Add from URLs" dialog in the bookmarks view, allowing users to specify a generic framework to use with the input URLs (requested by a Premium member).
Added an error message to the "Add from URLs" feature for cases where a URL is skipped because the program cannot find a suitable framework for it. This resolves the old issue where users received no information about the skipped links.
Fixed the support for templetoons.com
Moved the check for existing chapters before acquiring the pages list: this way, if the option to skip duplicates is enabled, the program will avoid fetching the pages list, thus reducing the download queue time and preventing unnecessary requests to the server.
Fixed the support for mangaworld.cx by adding the new domain
Continued the rebranding process: many strings have been updated, the initial disclaimer and its related screen have been revised again.
Work on the new bookmarks mode is ongoing (currently disabled by default, so you can't try it out just yet!).
Fixed support for mangaworldadult.net
Fixed support for mangakatana.com and added an option in the Extra menu to allow the user to choose which server to use (fixes the issue #941)
Fixed a bug with the function for parsing chapter names (fixes the issue #943)
Added support for scanita.org
Added support for AVIF image format
Improved the support for mangapark.net: added an option in the Extra menu where the user can enable acquisition of the variants for the chapters. This should fix the issue #860
Other ongoing rebranding updates
Fixed minor bugs in database management
Fixed a critical bug that caused some chapters to be downloaded again when using the schedule feature.
Fixed a bug in the schedule feature that prevented selecting minutes in the spinner.
Fixed a critical bug in the schedule feature that failed to correctly load previously saved settings, effectively disabling any schedule on program restart.
Added a status bar at the bottom of the main window: for now, this bar is used only to notify when a schedule is running (since previously there was literally no way to know). It also allows the user to stop the ongoing process simply by clicking on the status message (previously it was impossible to interrupt a scheduled task).
Fixed a critical bug with database inserts when entries already existed (essentially a REPLACE) that caused loss of columns not updated (resetting them to default values).
Fixed a critical bug (and I’m really surprised no one reported this until now 😱) with chapter folder creation when the folders already existed and the user had enabled automatic suffixes: the program calculated the suffixed folder correctly but then tried to create (and sometimes overwrite) the original folder name, leading to chaos during downloads with overwrites and errors.
Completely redesigned the settings screen about output format: options are now organized by format in a much clearer way.
Added support for ImageMagick via external executable! Once configured, the program can now convert images using ImageMagick instead of Java’s native functions (or relying on third-party libraries). This brings incredible performance improvements: for example, converting a 133-page WebP chapter took 3 minutes 44 seconds with Java native functions, whereas ImageMagick completed the same task in just 1 minute 12 seconds—reducing processing time to less than one-third!
Additionally, using ImageMagick ensures full support for all image formats, including the increasingly common WebP, preventing color profile errors, black images, or other conversion issues.
Added a dedicated ImageMagick configuration section in the settings, with instructions and the ability to choose either the system-installed version or a custom external executable.
Rebranding nearly complete.
Started passing most English translations via ChatGPT to improve correctness and make them sound more natural.
Many other minor bugs fixed and some quality-of-life improvements in the GUI, including fixed fonts, adjusted message sizes, color tweaks, etc.
Fixed all missing Italian strings
Corrected some English translations
Removed several UI buttons related to obsolete and unnecessary features, making some windows appear less cluttered and overwhelming with buttons
Fixed banners that displayed the old "Manga Downloader" name
Slightly adjusted the UI of some labels (font & colors)
Completely rewrote EPUB support from scratch, now it no longer relies on external libraries (which have therefore been removed)
Added the ability to set various EPUB parameters such as title, author, cover, reading direction, and grayscale
Added the ability to resize pages in EPUBs and convert them all to JPEG or PNG
Added the ability to split double-page images into two single pages in EPUBs
Single-file download mode can now also be used with EPUB format too!
Fixed a couple of minor bugs in single-file download mode
Added an additional Reset option in the download manager popup menu, allowing users to keep or change the output format for new downloads without having to go through the program settings again (as requested in #942)
Final note: this nightly build is the final version that will be officially released on Sunday for everyone—so, enjoy it early!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t complete the implementation of the new "library" mode (which will replace the existing bookmarks system) because it was still causing too many issues and crashes. To avoid further delaying the public release, I decided to set it aside for now and proceed with releasing the new version. I will, of course, continue working on it over the next few months and hope that the next public release (which I now expect to be around Christmas) will finally have it ready and fully functional 🤞