PDF to CBZ Converter
Comics often arrive as PDFs, from a bundle download, a publisher's store or your own scanner, but comic apps and e-ink readers handle them better as CBZ. This converter renders every PDF page as an image and packs the pages, numbered in order, into a CBZ archive.
E-book Converter
or drop EPUB, MOBI, AZW … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
0 keeps the book's own size. E-readers let the reader change size anyway; this mainly matters for PDF, DOCX and TXT output.
Space around the text on each page. 5 mm suits e-ink screens; use 15–20 mm for a PDF you plan to print.
Justified text has straight edges on both sides like a printed book; left-aligned avoids wide gaps between words on small screens.
A5 is close to a paperback and reads well on tablets. Match device sizes the page to the reading device chosen above.
Keep the book's cover, use the first image as the cover (comics and photo books), or leave the book without one.
JPEG quality for pictures and comic pages. 85 looks identical on e-ink; lower it to shrink large comics.
Leave empty to keep the title stored in the file. This is the name shown in the reader's library.
Leave empty to keep the existing author.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the comic PDF
Add one or more PDFs, up to 20 files of 95 MB each. Every page is rendered, including covers, credits and back matter.
- 2
Set the page quality
Convert to is CBZ. Under Advanced settings, Image quality sets the JPEG compression of each page and Grayscale images suits black-and-white manga on e-ink.
- 3
Convert and open
Press Convert to CBZ, then open the archive in your comic app or copy it to the reader. Uploads are deleted after 30 minutes.
A CBZ is a ZIP file of page images whose names set the reading order. Turning a PDF into one trades searchable text and vector sharpness for speed: the reader only has to show a picture, not lay out a page.
What a CBZ comic archive contains
Comic book archives grew out of the comic-scanning scene and were popularized by CDisplay, a Windows viewer from around 2000 that read pages straight out of ZIP and RAR files. The convention stuck: .cbz is a ZIP, .cbr a RAR, .cb7 a 7-Zip archive, and every page inside is an ordinary JPG or PNG. Apps sort the pages by file name, which is why the converter numbers them with leading zeros.
Series, issue and writer details can live in an optional ComicInfo.xml file at the root of the archive, a convention started by ComicRack and read today by self-hosted servers such as Komga and Kavita. A CBZ without it still opens everywhere.
Kobo e-readers open CBZ natively, as do comic apps like YACReader, Panels and Chunky. Most of them read PDF too, but a PDF page has to be drawn from vectors and fonts before it appears, which is slow on e-ink screens and on large scanned files. A CBZ page is already a finished picture.
Choosing image quality for PDF to CBZ pages
- 30
Smallest archive; blocky edges appear around lettering
- 60
Enough for grayscale manga on a 6 in e-ink screen
- 85
Default; color pages look unchanged on a tablet
- 100
Largest files; for archiving detailed line art
CBZ or PDF for reading comics
Why CBZ
- Pages open as plain images, so paging is quick
- Comic apps track reading progress per issue
- Pages can be removed or reordered by renaming files
- Kobo readers and comic servers open it without plugins
What you give up
- Text in the PDF becomes pixels and can no longer be searched
- Vector line art is fixed at one resolution
- Links, bookmarks and form fields are dropped
- A high-quality CBZ can outweigh a vector PDF
Portable Document Format
PDF was created by Adobe in 1993 and became the open ISO 32000 standard in 2008. It fixes text, fonts, images and layout so a document looks the same on every screen and printer. PDFs can contain forms, signatures, links, attachments and searchable text, and the PDF/A variant is used for long-term archiving. The fixed layout makes PDFs hard to edit, and scanned PDFs contain only images unless OCR is applied. Every browser and operating system can open them.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1993 · Adobe
CBZ
Comic Book ZIP archive
CBZ is a ZIP archive containing a comic's pages as numbered image files, usually JPEG or PNG. The format has no formal specification; the .cbz extension simply tells comic readers to show the images as pages in order. It is popular for digital comics, manga and scanned graphic novels because it is simple and lossless. Comic apps open it directly, and renaming it to .zip reveals the images.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- –
PDF to CBZ turns a comic PDF into page images that comic apps and Kobo readers flip through quickly; CBZ to PDF goes the other way, for printing or PDF-only readers.
PDF to CBZ questions
What resolution are the CBZ pages?
Pages are rendered to suit the Reading device you pick: Tablet gives large pages for iPad and Android screens, while the Kindle and Kobo choices fit e-ink displays. Tablet is the safe pick when unsure, since a large page scales down cleanly.
Can I turn the CBZ back into a PDF?
Yes. CBZ to PDF packs the page images back into a PDF for printing or for readers that only take PDF. Text that became pixels stays pixels.
Does a two-page spread stay together?
A spread stored as one wide PDF page becomes one wide image, which most comic apps show in landscape or let you zoom. A spread stored as two PDF pages stays two separate images.
Why is my CBZ bigger than the original PDF?
Digitally drawn comics are often stored in the PDF as vector art or compact images, and rendering them to JPEG at high quality can add size. Lower Image quality to about 70, or turn on Grayscale images for black-and-white pages.
Can I build a CBZ from loose image files instead of a PDF?
Yes. Upload the images with Combine images into one book on and choose CBZ under Convert to; they are joined in file name order. For a picture-book EPUB from the same images, see PNG to EPUB.
Is a CBZ really just a renamed ZIP?
Yes. Rename it to .zip and any archive tool lists the page images inside; rename it back to .cbz and comic apps recognize it again.
- CBZ to PDF ConverterConvert CBZ comic archives to PDF sized for a tablet screen, so issues open in Apple Books, Google Play Books or Send to Kindle. Page order and cover kept.
- CBR to PDF ConverterConvert CBR comic book archives to PDF: pages kept in order, edge to edge with no margins, cover first. Reads RAR-based CBR files without installing WinRAR.
- PNG to EPUB ConverterJoin PNG pages, scans or comic panels into one EPUB in file name order, with the first image as the cover. Up to 20 images per batch, no account.
- PDF to EPUB ConverterConvert a PDF into a reflowable EPUB that adjusts to Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books and phone screens. Font size becomes adjustable, images stay in.