Comic book archive explained

Comic book archive file
Extension:	.cbr, .cbz, .cbt, .cba, .cb7 (containers)
Noextcode:	y
Mime:	application/vnd.comicbook+zip [.cbz only], application/vnd.comicbook-rar [.cbr only]
Genre:	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 is not a distinct file format. It is a filename extension naming convention.

The filename extension indicates the archive type used:

• .cb7 → 7z
• .cba → ACE
• .cbr → RAR^[2]
• .cbt → TAR
• .cbz → ZIP^[3]

Comic book archive files mainly consist of a series of image files with specific naming, typically PNG (lossless compression) or JPEG (lossy compression, not JPEG-LS or JPEG XT) files, stored as a single archive file. Occasionally GIF, BMP, and TIFF files are seen. Folders may be used to group images in a more logical layout within the archive, like book chapters.

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]

Adoption

Windows

• Calibre e-book reader can view and convert comic archives to different formats
• CDisplay was the first application to support the CBR format.
• CDisplayEx, inspired by CDisplay with additional viewing features.
• Comic Seer (Desktop) is a comic book archive viewer and organizer for the desktop.
• Gonvisor is a comic reader simple to use with some features to improve image quality.
• STDU Viewer
• SumatraPDF

Mac

• Calibre can view, library manage and convert to different formats.

Android

• FBReader supports CBZ/CBR files on Android via the ComicBook plugin available from its website.^[6]
• Tachiyomi, a manga reader, supports CBZ/CBR files, but does not support CBR files using the RAR5 format.^[7]

Unix-like

• Calibre can view and convert to different formats.
• Comic Seer (Desktop) is a comic book archive viewer and organizer for the desktop.
• Evince, a document viewer, includes support for the format.
• 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.
• Zathura supports this format (as well as PDF, PostScript and others).

See also

• Comparison of image viewers

Notes and References

1. http://download.cnet.com/CDisplay-Image-Display/3000-18488_4-10162238.html CDisplay Image Display
2. Web site: CBR file extension. 15 June 2011.
3. Web site: CBZ file extension. 15 June 2011.
4. Web site: Metadata for Digital Comics . 2010-11-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110428152605/http://code.google.com/p/comicbookinfo/ . 2011-04-28 . dead .
5. Web site: Advanced Comic Book Format project page .
6. Web site: FBReader ComicBook plugin. FBReader.
7. Web site: Local manga Tachiyomi . 2022-08-11 . tachiyomi.org . en-US.