Comic book viewers

Comic book viewers are image viewers specialized in Comic Book Archive files, or that offer native support for this format. Below is a partial list of known comic book viewers grouped by operating system.

Recommendations

Recommended viewers are colored green. A non-recommendation of a comic book viewer without a rating does not mean the viewer was found lacking: it simply means we haven't tested it yet.

Windows

• BdzExplorer (official site)
• CBViewer (official site)
  
• CDisplay (official site)
• CDisplayEx (official site)
• Comical (official site)
• ComicRack (official site)
• Fiew (official site)
• GonVisor (official site)
• Jomic (official site)
  

Mac

• Comical (official site)
• ComicBookLover (official site)
• cooViewer (official site)
  
• Jomic (official site)
• FFView (official site)
  
• Xee (official site)
  

*nix

• cbrPager (official site)
• CBViewer (official site)
• Comical (official site)
• Comix (official site)
  
• Jomic (official site)
• Okular (official site)
  
• QComicBook (official site)
• RadicalCodex (official site)
  

iPhone

• iComic (official site)

Palm

• ComicGURU (official site)
• ComiX (official site)
  

Pocket PC

• ComicGURU (official site)

Criteria

The list doesn't pretend to be complete. When newer viewers are available with the same or better characteristics, comic book viewers that haven't been updated in years are not included in the list.

Updates

If there is a comic book viewer that you think should be included in the list or if you found a dead link, please leave a comment below or let us know at the following email address:

cbrcomicsblog@gmail.com

What is a CBR or CBZ file?

Definition

A CBR or CBZ file, also known as Comic Book Archive or Comic Book Reader file, is an archive file for the purpose of sequential viewing of images, generally comic books.

A renamed RAR or ZIP file

As the first two letters imply, CBR or CBZ files are normally used to pack comic books. The third letter identifies the archive format, the most widely used formats being:

• CBR: RAR
• CBZ: ZIP

Comic Book Archive files are, in fact, RAR or ZIP files with their extension renamed. CBR files are the most common, which is the reason these are also called Comic Book Reader files.

Other archive formats

The following extensions are rarely used, but are supported by most comic book viewers:

• CB7: 7-zip
• CBT: TAR
  
• CBA: ACE

Inside the archive

Comic Book Archive files are composed by a series of images, tipically JPEG or PNG files. GIF, TIFF and BMP are also supported by most comic book viewers.

Comic Book Archive files can also contain text files that some comic book viewers display when opening the file.

Adoption

The Comic Book Archive format was made popular by the CDisplay image viewer, which has now been discontinued by its original author. There are now many comic book viewers that support this format.

The most common use of Comic Book Archive files is the illegal distribution of scanned comics over P2P networks. The format has been so widely accepted that in the last years various publishers and creators have started to offer their comics in this format.