What is a CBZ file
CBZ files are known as Comic Book Zip Archives. This means they differ from "normal" e-book files that are not compressed but individual files by themselves. Compressed Comic Book files with the CBZ extension can be viewed in different e-book and comic book readers. They can also be decompressed using a decompression program which allows you to obtain the single images the comic book comprises of.
The CBZ file contains several images in various formats like PNG, JPEG or GIF. These images represent the pages of the comic book. When decompressing a CBZ files, these image files can be viewed independently. However, since the CBZ file also contains information about the specific order of the images, they may be in a random or incorrect order after decompression. What distinguishes the CBZ file from the CBR comic book file is that it uses ZIP compression. CBR files use RAR compression which may cause some problems regarding decompression software.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open CBZ documents:
- Calibre (Windows, Mac, Linux)
- Comical (Windows, Mac)
- Comic Book Reader (Windows)
- GonVisor (Windows)
- Icecream Ebook Reader (Windows)
- kaycha Komik Reader (Android)
- MComix (Windows, Linux)
- Smith Micro StuffIt Deluxe 16 (Mac)
- Xylasoft Comic Seer (Windows, Linux)
