Comic book archive
Filename extension |
.cbr, .cbz, .cbt, .cba, .cb7 (containers) |
---|---|
Internet media type |
application/x-cbr |
Type of format | Multimedia, archive file |
Container for | Images |
Standard | None |
A comic book archive or comic book reader file (also called sequential image file) is a type of archive file for the purpose of sequential viewing of images, commonly for comic books. The idea was made popular by the CDisplay sequential image viewer;[1] since then, many viewers for different platforms have been created.
Design
Comic book archive files mainly consist of a series of image files, typically PNG (lossless compression) or JPEG (lossy compression) files, stored as a single archive file. Occasionally GIF, BMP, and TIFF files are seen. Folders may be used to group images.
The file name extension indicates the archive type used:
Comic book archive files are not a distinct file format; only the file name extension differs from a standard file of the given archive type.
Comic book archive viewers typically offer various dedicated functions to read the content, like one page forward/backwards, go to first/last page, zoom or print. Some applications support additional tag information in the form of embedded XML files in the archive or use of the ZIP comment to store additional information.[4] These files can include additional information like artists, story information, table of contents or even a separate text layer for comic book translations.[5] Efforts, such as the Comic Metadata (CoMet) Format, have been made to define an open standard.[6]
Adoption
Windows
- Calibre can view and convert to different formats. Does not handle .cbz or .cb7 formats.
- CDisplay was the first application to support the CBR format.
- CDisplayEx inspired by CDisplay with additional viewing features.
- ComicRack is a full featured comic reader that supports cbz/zip/cbr/rar/cbt/tar/cb7/7z/pdf/djvu formats.
- Comic Seer (Desktop) is a comic book archive viewer and organizer for the desktop.
- Cover is an UWP app which support CBZ/ZIP, CBR/RAR, 7Z/CB7, CBT, PDF, EPUB
- Gonvisor is a comic reader simple to use with some features to improve image quality.
- MComix is a fork of Comix.
- STDU Viewer
- SumatraPDF
Mac
- Calibre can view and convert to different formats.
- Simple Comic, an open source comic viewer with many features including archive reading support.
iOS
- Marvel Unlimited, is an online service by Marvel Comics which distributes thousands of past issues of their comics.
Android
- FBReader supports CBZ/CBR files on android with the comic book plugin available from the website.
Unix-like
- Calibre can view and convert to different formats.
- Comic Seer (Desktop) is a comic book archive viewer and organizer for the desktop.
- Comix is a full featured comic book viewer and organizer.
- Evince document viewer, includes support for the format.
- MComix is a fork of Comix.
- Okular can view many formats, including PDF and CBR, and is included in the KDE Software Compilation.
- MuPDF is a cross-platform lightweight PDF, XPS, and E-book viewer.
See also
References
- ↑ CDisplay Image Display Download.com
- ↑ "CBR file extension". Retrieved 15 June 2011.
- ↑ "CBZ file extension". Retrieved 15 June 2011.
- ↑ "Metadata for Digital Comics".
- ↑ "Advanced Comic Book Format project page".
- ↑ CoMet - DenVog Retrieved 18 November 2015