Comical, A Sequential Image Viewer

[Kaze]

source available: http://jathey.home.comcast.net/comical-0.4.tar.gz

.cbr files are .rar files containing images

CBR, CBZ and CBT Files
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Archive-name: Z-Cult FM - Overview-CBR, CBZ and CBT files/FAQ
Version: 1.0a
Last-Modified: 2004/07/23 20:10:07 GMT
Started by Serj; converted to FAQ format/edited by Discovery; maintained by Z-Cult FM staff.

This FAQ covers general information for CBR and CBZ file types, used primarily for digital comic book files.

In the interest of maintaining an ever-growing quality FAQ document, we welcome your submissions for inclusion via posting to: (ADD FORUM/THREAD URL HERE). Each contribution should consist of a question and an answer, ready for publication. The authors of this document do not provide personalized help; please use the "Help" forum at ZCultFM.com to request assistance from the general community.

This FAQ is maintained/updated at http://www.zcultfm.com . This FAQ may not be freely redistributed .

Copyright © 2004 Z-Cult FM. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés.


This FAQ is provided "as is" in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

All licensed/copyrighted properties mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.


Table of Contents (TOC)

* 1.0 CBR and CBZ

1.1 What are CBZ files?
1.2 What are CBR files?
1.3 What are CBT files?
1.4 What are ZIP, RAR and TAR files?
1.5 How do I view these files?
1.6 What's so good about the CDisplay/Comical/FFView programs?
1.7 How do I make my own CBR, CBZ or CBT files?
1.8 I've opened a CBR, CBZ or CBT file and the pages are out of order.
1.9 I can't open the archive at all. CDisplay/Comical/FFView just hangs. Help!
1.10 How do I change multiple file names? How do I change extensions from .rar to .cbr, or .zip to .cbz (and vice-versa)?

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1.0 CBR, CBZ and CBT

This document provides an overview of CBR (.cbr), CBZ (.cbz) and CBT (.cbt) files, what they are, how to view them, how to make them, and how to change file names if needed.

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1.1 What are CBZ files?

CBZ files are file archives with their extension renamed from .zip to .cbz

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1.2 What are CBR files?

CBR files are file archives with their extension renamed from .rar to .cbr

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1.3 What are CBT files?

CBT files are file archives with their extension renamed from .tar to .cbt

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1.4 What are ZIP, RAR and TAR files?

The ZIP format takes one or more files and compresses them as one file, with a .zip file extension. The RAR format does the same (and has better compression sometimes).

The TAR format is found primarily on UNIX and Linux operating systems; it can be used on Windows and Mac platforms, although the ZIP format has become the most popular. (Most users are not familiar with .tar files.) The .tar file bundles files together, although without any compression. If a user wishes to compress them, they are advised to use gzip (which turns the compressed file into *.tar.gz ) .

Software programs for making/opening/viewing the contents of these .zip, .rar and .tar files can be found on the Internet.

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1.5 How do I view these files?

The de-facto standards for reading digital comic books have become:

* CDisplay, the Windows Sequential Image Viewer for Windows by David Dayton.
Available here: http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay.html

* Comical, the UNIX, Linux and MacOS X Sequential Image Viewer.
Available here: http://www.sketchyorigins.com/comics/forumdisplay.php?f=47

* FFView for MacOS X.
Available here: http://www.feedface.com/projects/ffview.html

These are free software image viewing programs designed specifically for reading digital comic book files, particularly those in .cbr and .cbz formats (and .rar and .zip formats, if they haven't had their file extensions changed to .cbr and .cbz yet).

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1.6 What's so good about the CDisplay/Comical/FFView programs?

They're a great way of viewing image archives, including various options which are optimised for digital comics!

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1.7 How do I make my own CBR, CBZ and CBT files?

Place all comic scans into a folder and rename them in page order, eg. 001 002 003 and then archive the files using WinZip, WinRAR or other compression software. Now just rename them with the different extentions. Remember .zip files are .cbz; .rar files are .cbr; and .tar files are .cbt. (Viewers, like CDisplay, can read .all of these file formats, among other extensions, but the de facto standard has become .cbz and .cbr. We recommend you use these two formats.)

You can rename a *.cbz file to a *.cbr file and CDisplay will still view it, although it isn't recommended. (This might be because WinRAR can read both .zip and .rar files.) Please stick to the original file format/extension name, especially if you're distributing files via DC++ and/or Bit Torrent.

Also, if you are using WinRAR to rar images into an archive for CDisplay to view, you can just rename the extension from *.rar to *.cbr before you actually start the archiving process.

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1.8 I've opened a CBR, CBZ or CBT file and the pages are out of order.

The most likely cause: The files have not been named appropriately. A prime suspect is numbering: 1, 2, 3... rather than 01, 02, 03 which means page 10 will come before page 2 and 3.

The best way to fix: Change the file name back to either .zip or .cbr. Then unzip/unrar the file and rename yourself. (It's a bit of a pain though). In some cases, there are multiple directory structures within the file. You may want to unpack the entire contents, place into one directory and rebundle (.zip, .rar or .tar) the file.

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1.9 I can't open the archive at all. CDisplay/Comical/FFView just hangs. Help!

This could be for a number of reasons. The file might be a corrupt archive or download. Or the file may have been incorrectly named to begin with (such as a .zip renamed as .cbr instead of .cbz). The best recommendation is to try unarchiving (opening) the file and see if you get any errors when you do that.

For example: If you downloaded a .cbr file, change the .cbr file name to .rar then try to open it. (If your system doesn't know what a .rar file is, then you may need to download/install WinRAR, the software application for .rar files.) Same with .zip files. (Try downloading/installing WinZip.) Use Google.com to find these (and other) software applications.

You may also need more RAM, whether for your video card and/or motherboard, depending on the file size.

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1.10 How do I change multiple file names? How do I change extensions from .rar to .cbr, or .zip to .cbz (and vice-versa)?

If you have multiple files named .zip and/or .rar -- and don't feel like taking the time to rename the extensions individually -- you can either use command line code or an application to make changes. It's important to note: You are responsible for any changes you make, using the information provided below. Make changes at your own risk!

Also: Don't change .rar file to .cbz, or .zip to .cbr. Remember: It's .rar to .cbr and .zip to .cbz

AS A GENERAL RULE: DO NOT CHANGE FILE NAMES UNLESS YOU MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR FILES FIRST!

Save the entire set of files to another directory, or offline, before you make any changes. If you screw up, you'll still have the original files.

Using the Command Line in DOS or MS-DOS prompt in Windows:

1. Start-->Run-->type in cmd
(Another option: Evoke the MS-DOS Prompt from within the Accessories menu.)

2. In the new window type cd <path to the directory where files are> eg. c:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\comics\Alpha Flight

3. Now type ren *.* *.cbr to rename all files in the folder to a cbr, or ren *.* *.cbz to rename all files in the folder to a cbz.


Using the Command Line in Linux, UNIX, and MacOS X:

# change .rar files to .cbr
Note: for file in *.rar ; do mv $file `echo $file | sed 's/\(.*\.\)rar/\1cbr/'` ; done

(Go here for more information: http://lab.artlung.com/other/unix-batch-file-rename/ )


Software applications for renaming files:

For Windows:

THE Rename for Windows
http://www.herve-thouzard.com/modules/wfse...php?articleid=1

A.F. 5 for Windows
http://www.fauland.com/af5.htm

1-4a-rename for Windows
http://www.1-4a.com/rename/

(See also: Google.com to search on more Windows options.)

For Linux

GPRename for Linux
http://gprename.sourceforge.net

(See also: Google.com to search on more Linux options.)


For Mac

A Better Finder Rename for Macintosh
http://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderRename/

(See also: Google.com to search on more Mac options.)

Again, use these applications at your own risk. ZCultFM.com bears no responsibility for their use/misuse.

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# # #

[Kaze]

Wow, 1202 Views 0 reply, Noone is interested? the Nice Z screen would make a perfect comics reader....

[slapout]

So you just want a program that will open the compressed file and display the images one by one? Doesn't sound too hard, but it's beyond my skill level. (And I don't care for most of the comics today :-)

[pelrun]

Because Comical is wxWindows based it would probably be reasonably easily compiled for pdaXrom or XQt/debian, but QTopia is another matter. I'm actually looking into knocking together a QTopia based CBZ viewer myself; the Comical source probably won't be a great deal of use for it, but I appreciate the link nonetheless.

(I would have started coding it already but I became somewhat distracted these past few weeks by a cd-changing robot I've been building    )

[vputz]

Not sure what the state of PyGame is on Z (I think it's OK) but you may want to try Superchick, a PyGame/SDL-based comic reader.  Terrible name, but it works OK.

-->VPutz