Comic Viewers

A list of programs specifically geared to reading digital comics, excluding generic image viewers. Mostly ripped from: http://www.geocities.jp/comicview7/

The most popular comic viewer on Windows is CDisplay.

There are quite a lot of comic viewers out there with a non-English interface. Some of them are way superior to their English counterparts, so there is merit in listing them, even if the interface is puzzling.

bdzExplorer
"'Scanned Comic Management. Include two parts : the Management and the Viewer. Rar, ace, zip, cbz and cbr archives are supported. You can see your pictures without uncompress them if you want ! Can be used too for displaying pictures ! Supports the Jpeg format for numerical pictures reading ! Very simple and fast. Includes a recursive search of comics.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE, PDF


 * Image formats
 * BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PCX, PCC, PBM, PDD, PGM, PSP, PSD, TIFF


 * Last version
 * 3.1.2, 2004-03-12


 * License
 * freeware


 * Language
 * English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portugese, Spanish

http://english.fbsoft.org/

BDViewer
"'BDViewer is a software for reading comic strips. It is composed of two interfaces : an interface of selection of comic strips and an interface of reading.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 0.07b, 2006-01-20


 * Requires
 * Java JRE 5.0


 * License
 * freeware


 * Language
 * English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

http://www.titous.com/bdviewer/ (dead link)

http://www.download.com/BDViewer/3000-2193_4-10493799.html

CBViewer
"'CBViewer is a program for browsing comic book archives on your computer. It can handle .zip, .cbz, .cbr, and .rar files. To be able to view .rar and .cbr archives you will need to get the unrar executable for your OS.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 0.7, 2006-11-21


 * Requires
 * Java, unrar


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://www.renuncln.com/programs/cbviewer/cbviewer.php http://sourceforge.net/projects/cbviewer/

CDisplay
There are three versions of CDisplay floating around these days. The last official release was 1.8.0.1, which was released back in 2004. Since then two new, unofficial, continuing branches have emerged.

CDisplay (up to 1.8)
"'The Windows Image Viewer 'CDisplay' was written to ease the viewing of images in JPEG, PNG and static GIF format. This was partly down to the existing programs currently available being too general purpose and thus awkward to use when simply wanting to view images sequentially.'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG


 * Latest version
 * 1.8.0.1, 2004-04-20


 * License
 * freeware

http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay

CDisplay (Unofficial update 1.8+)
"'David Ayton, the original author of everyone's favourite comic book viewing program CDisplay, disappeared from the web sometime last year. Since then, users have been left wanting new features and bug fixes with no way to implement them.'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG


 * Latest version
 * 1.8.5.1, 2006-08-19


 * License
 * freeware

Download links: @Mediafire @Filedropper

CDisplayEx
"'CDisplayEx is a Comic reader based on CDisplay. It use the popular 7-zip plugins to read many archives types like cbr cbz cbt rar zip tar 7z lzh arj cab tar.gz tar.bz2. It supports jpeg png gif and bmp images.'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT), 7Z, LZH, ARJ, CAB, GZ, BZ2


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP


 * Latest version
 * 1.4, 2006-09-02


 * License
 * freeware (MPL)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdisplayex/

Comical
"'If you're looking for a CBR and CBZ reader for your favorite OS, look no farther. Comical is an easy-to-use, featureful GUI comic book viewer, written in C++ using wxWidgets. It's open-source, so feel Free to contribute!'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF


 * Latest version
 * 0.8, 2006-03-06


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://comical.sourceforge.net/

ComicRack
It is an all in one solution to read your eComics and also manage your library. You can think of it as a kind of ITunes for eComics with lots of the same functionality.

As a reader ComicRack supports all the state of the art features you can expect: different display modes, full screen, information overlays, magnifier, color adjustments, automatic backcolor matching and a multi tab interface to quickly switch between eComics.

As a manager you can browse and search your eComics in the library, create folders and lists to organize them. You can customize the lists to show just the information you need and use advanced tools to tag and edit the information for your eComics. Or create Smart lists to display dynamic lists based on eComic info (never read, author, series etc.)

Like with iTunes you can share your library across your home network and read your eComics on your Tablet/Notebook via wireless.

ComicRack is multilingual: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and other language packs are available.


 * Native 32 bit & 64 bit versions
 * Supports reading cbz/zip/cbr/rar/cbt/tar/cb7/7z/pdf comics.
 * Database management (extended info storage, thumbnails, quick search, smart searches, custom lists, etc.)
 * Full screen reading mode with two page display, various zoom modes, auto rotation (for tablet pcs), etc.
 * Smart parsing of file names for good initial values (series, number, volume, year etc.)
 * Exporting Comic List into CSV Format
 * Comic Library Network Sharing with optional password protection
 * Custom display grouping, sorting, stacking and filtering
 * Multiple views formats
 * User definable Keyboard shortcuts
 * Thumbnail generation with customization
 * In-viewer extended info editing
 * Batch conversion to cbz/cb7/cbt of all supported import formats


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), TAR (CBT), CB7 (7z), PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.93, 2008-08-04


 * License
 * freeware

http://comicrack.cyolito.com/

Fiew
"'Fiew Image Viewer is a sequential image viewer designed to be used with big collections of images of various types, including those archived in zip and rar files.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP


 * Requirements
 * Microsoft Windows XP or newer (or Windows with GDI+)


 * Latest version
 * 2.0.0.1, 2006-12-26


 * License
 * freeware

GonVisor
"'Viewer of pictures, comics, magazines, books, images in electronic format. Created to view image sequences, fitting them to the proper size, and create and open container files of images (cbr, cbz, cba, rar, ace or zip). Managing these kinds of files, GonVisor allows the user to group in only one file an unlimited amount of sorted pictures, as an album, access of which can be protected with a password.. You can create cb* files (with detailed file info), search and preview them and also extract images from them'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), 7z (CB7), PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP


 * Latest version
 * 2.11, 2012-01-16


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://www.gonvisor.com

Hamana
Japanese reader, sporting an English interface. Uses DirectX to render the display, meaning that it can lock up certain machines when it doesn't like your drivers.


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF, 7Z, CAB, ARJ, LZH


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others


 * Latest version
 * 1.48, 2006-06-19


 * License
 * freeware


 * Requires
 * DirectX 9.0c, Ghostscript (for PDF)


 * Language
 * Japanese, Chinese, Portugese, English

http://miyano.s53.xrea.com/ (Japanese site) (downloads broken, use waybackmachine.org)

Jomic
"'Jomic is a viewer for comic books stored in CBZ, CBR, and PDF files. Features include a two page mode, caching and support for several image formats (PNG, JFIF/JPEG, TIFF, and GIF). It is Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.30, 2008-04-20


 * Requires
 * Java 1.4+, Java Advanced Imaging and unrar (3.50+)


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://jomic.sourceforge.net/

MangaMeeya
Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface. You wouldn't tell it from the site, but this baby is blindingly fast. A Japanese reviewer called the interface "puzzling", so imagine how puzzling it can be if you can't read Japanese.

Sadly, it was discontinued over some license issues.

There is an english version available, but it doesn't appear to be being actively developed. Nonetheless, it is a very good reader. You do however have to take some time to customize the controls, but once you've done that it runs very smoothly. This is a good program for those who like cDisplay, but want more features. The only thing it lacks is yellow reduction.


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ARC (CBA), PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG


 * Latest version
 * 7.4 beta, 2006-06-04


 * License
 * freeware

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6E6ZSELP (english version)

http://db23c.dnsalias.com/MangaMeeya/ (dead)

http://aaa-www.net/~mangameeya/cgi-bin/ (wiki, Japanese)

NDisplay
Z-Cult resident CPN threw this one together. Appears abandoned.


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats


 * Last verstion
 * alpha, 2005-09-11


 * License
 * freeware

http://zcultfm.com/~comic/viewtopic.php?t=38965

pixelComic
"'pixelComic is a skinnable comic books viewer filled with nice features like fullscreen support to make your reading much more fun and enjoyable.'"


 * Archive formats


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 1.26, 2003-09-15


 * License
 * freeware

http://futureprojects.free.fr/pixelcomic/ (mirror)

PyComicsViewer
"'A Comic Viewer in Python'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)


 * Image formats


 * Requires
 * Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.4, GTK


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.12, 2005-02-28


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://developer.berlios.de/projects/pcv/

Comical
"'If you're looking for a CBR and CBZ reader for your favorite OS, look no farther. Comical is an easy-to-use, featureful GUI comic book viewer, written in C++ using wxWidgets. It's open-source, so feel Free to contribute!'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF


 * Latest version
 * 0.8, 2006-03-06


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://comical.sourceforge.net/

ComicBookLover
"ComicBookLover is an easy to use digital comic viewer, collector and organiser.* Find comics by browsing cover art.


 * View comics in full-screen mode, with external display support.
 * Edit comic information quickly and easily.
 * Supports popular comic archive formats CBR and CBZ."


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF, folder


 * Image formats
 * JPEG (perhaps more)


 * License
 * shareware ($24.95)


 * Requires
 * Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Supports Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)


 * Latest version
 * 1.3 build 810 (date unknown)

http://www.bitcartel.com/comicbooklover/

cooViewer
Japanese comic viewer with an English interface.


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), LZH, LHA, 7Z, SIT, PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others


 * License
 * freeware


 * Latest version
 * 1.2 beta 18, 2008-03-02


 * Language
 * Japanese | English

http://www.geocities.jp/coo_ona/viewer_en.html (English) http://www.geocities.jp/coo_ona/viewer.html (Japanese)

FFView
"'FFView is a fast OpenGL-powered picture viewer a la ACDsee (2.x). It is aimed at letting you read manga or other comics onscreen (windowed & fullscreen mode). Features include fast prefetching, smooth panning, voice commands, 2-page mode, a magnifying lens, the ability to browse pictures inside archives (.rar/.cbr, .zip/.cbz/, .pdf) and sticky per-picture options. It reads EXIF tags and is scriptable.'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.9, 2007-08-26


 * License
 * freeware


 * Language
 * English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Swedish

http://www.feedface.com/projects/ffview.html

Jomic
"'Jomic is a viewer for comic books stored in CBZ, CBR, and PDF files. Features include a two page mode, caching and support for several image formats (PNG, JFIF/JPEG, TIFF, and GIF). It is Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.30, 2008-04-20


 * Requires
 * Java 1.4+, Java Advanced Imaging and unrar (3.50+)


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://jomic.sourceforge.net/

PyComicsViewer
"'A Comic Viewer in Python'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)


 * Image formats


 * Requires
 * Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.4, GTK


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.12, 2005-02-28


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://borco.net/html/PyComicsViewer/

Asparagino's Comic Viewer
"'A minimal java-gnome application thrown together for viewing the contents of scanned comic archive files (.cbz, .zip etc.) on Linux.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ)


 * Image formats


 * Last version
 * 0.1 (2005-11-15?)


 * Requires
 * Java, Java Gnome (2.6.0+)


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://home.asparagine.net/software/comicviewer/

cbrPager
"'A no-nonsense, simple to use, small viewer for cbr and cbz (comic book archive) files. As it is written in C, the executable is small and fast. It views jpg (or jpeg), gif and png images, and you can zoom in and out.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image fornats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.19, 2008-05-23


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://www.jcoppens.com/soft/cbrpager/index.en.php

CBView
"'CBView is a viewer/converter for CBR/CBZ comic book archives, written with gtk2-perl.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 0.06, 2004-04-06


 * License
 * freeware

http://elvine.org/code/cbview/

CBViewer
"'CBViewer is a program for browsing comic book archives on your computer. It can handle .zip, .cbz, .cbr, and .rar files. To be able to view .rar and .cbr archives you will need to get the unrar executable for your OS.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 0.7, 2006-11-21


 * Requires
 * Java, unrar


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://www.renuncln.com/programs/cbviewer/cbviewer.php

Comical
"'If you're looking for a CBR and CBZ reader for your favorite OS, look no farther. Comical is an easy-to-use, featureful GUI comic book viewer, written in C++ using wxWidgets. It's open-source, so feel Free to contribute!'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF


 * Latest version
 * 0.8, 2006-03-06


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://comical.sourceforge.net/

ComicMaster
Comic viewer by Tanuki.


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats
 * jpeg, png, gif


 * Latest version
 * 0067, 2010-07-31


 * Requires
 * Qt 4.6


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)
 * http://de.eu.mirrors.freshmeat.net/projects/comicmaster

Comix
"'Comix is a user-friendly, customizable image viewer. It is specifically designed to handle comic books, but also serves as a generic viewer. It reads images in ZIP, RAR or tar archives (also gzip or bzip2 compressed) as well as plain image files. It is written in Python and uses GTK+ through the PyGTK bindings.'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), TAR, GZ, BZ2


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP, ICO, XPM, XBM


 * Latest version
 * 3.6.5, 2008-07-07


 * Requires
 * Python, GTK+, unrar


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://comix.sourceforge.net/

Jomic
"'Jomic is a viewer for comic books stored in CBZ, CBR, and PDF files. Features include a two page mode, caching and support for several image formats (PNG, JFIF/JPEG, TIFF, and GIF). It is Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.30, 2008-04-20


 * Requires
 * Java 1.4+, Java Advanced Imaging and unrar (3.50+)


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://jomic.sourceforge.net/

PyComicsViewer
"'A Comic Viewer in Python'"


 * Archive formats
 * folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)


 * Image formats


 * Requires
 * Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.4, GTK


 * Latest version
 * 0.9.12, 2005-02-28


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://developer.berlios.de/projects/pcv/

QComicBook
"'QComicBook is a viewer for comic book archives containing jpeg/png images, which aims at convenience and simplicity.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT)


 * Image formats
 * JPEG, PNG


 * Requires
 * Qt4 and the various archive programs.


 * Latest version
 * 0.4, 2007-11-06


 * License
 * freeware (GPL)

http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=19509

ComicGURU
"'ComicGURU is the most stunning solution for changing your PDA into an electronic ComicBook.'"


 * Archive formats
 * proprietary


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 2.0.2, 2003-02-21


 * License
 * shareware

http://www.comicguru.net/

ComiX
"'ComiX PalmOS is a comicbook reader for PalmOS handhelds. It comes with a converter (Windows .NET) that opens .cbr and .cbz files, scales the images for better viewing on mobile devices.'"


 * Archive formats
 * ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 1.2, 2006-09-18


 * License
 * commercial

http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&prodid=125399

ComicGURU
"'ComicGURU is the most stunning solution for changing your PDA into an electronic ComicBook.'"


 * Archive formats
 * proprietary


 * Image formats


 * Latest version
 * 2.0.2, 2003-02-21


 * License
 * shareware

http://www.comicguru.net/

some other Japanese (plus one Chinese) viewers
These still need to be properly formatted.

BkView
Japanese comic viewer. Interface looks pretty Japanese too.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: zip, rar, lha

Status: dead (last version: 0.3.0 beta, 2004-12)

License: freeware

http://k-min.hp.infoseek.co.jp/bkview.html

comicoon
Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: zip, rar, lha

Status: dead (last version: 1.3, 2005-04-2)

License: freeware

http://homepage.mac.com/jackyravo256/paso17.html

ComicsViewer
Chinese comic viewer. English translation available.

"'A picture viewer with some enhanced features to view scanned comics."

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: zip, rar

Status: unknown (last version: 1.21)

License: freeware

http://www.comicer.com/stronghorse/software/index.htm#ComicsViewer

http://www.comicer.com/stronghorse/software/html/ComicsViewer.htm

ComicViewer
Japanese comic viewer. No idea if the interface is English or Japanese.

Platform: MacOSX

Supported formats: zip (cbz), rar (cbr), lha

Status: unknown (latest version: 1.57)

License: freeware

http://cathand.org/soft.html#comicviewer

Leeyes
Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface. Like most Japanese viewers, extensible through Susie plugins.

Platform: Windows (2000+)

Supported formats: zip, rar, lzh, cab

Status: active (latest version: 2.5.3, 2006-03-31)

License: freeware

http://www3.tokai.or.jp/boxes/leeyes/

ZeeD
Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface. Extensible through Susie plugins, but not bundled with them, so it can't handle much out of the box.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: whatever Susie plugins can provide

Status: dead (last version: 0.814, 2003-02-23)

License: freeware

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA032995/