A comic in a PDF is a comic in the wrong container. A reader built for comics keeps your place across devices, fits a page to the screen without pinching, walks straight into the next issue of the series and, for manga, opens at the back and turns pages right to left. A document viewer does none of that. What those readers want is a .cbz: the page pictures in one archive, numbered so every reader sorts them identically, with an optional ComicInfo.xml carrying the series, the issue number and the reading direction. Pages are drawn at the resolution you choose — tablet width, or a print-grade 300 dpi — and the archive is assembled here in the page.
Features
JPEG with a quality slider, or PNG for flat-colour line art and lettering
100, 150, 200 or 300 dpi, or a 1600 px width sized for a tablet screen
The whole book, or a page list such as 1-20, 25 for one chapter per archive
ComicInfo.xml with title, series, issue number, writer and year
Manga tag, right-to-left included, for readers that honour it
Title taken from the PDF's own metadata or its file name, and editable
Pages named 001, 002 and up, so every reader orders them correctly
Thumbnails of the first pages and the finished XML, shown before you save
How to use the PDF to CBZ
Drop the PDF onto the page
Choose JPEG or PNG and the resolution you want to read at
Fill in the series and issue number, and set the manga tag for right-to-left reading
Build the archive and download the .cbz
Example
Input
volume-03.pdf — 196 pages, JPEG at 85%, 1600 px wide, manga right to left
Output
volume-03.cbz — 001.jpg … 196.jpg plus ComicInfo.xml, 62 MB
The reader files it under the series and opens the book at the right-hand page.
Common errors & troubleshooting
The words in the archive can no longer be selected or searched. — A .cbz holds pictures of pages rather than text, and no comic reader expects otherwise. Keep the PDF alongside it when you need to search or quote from the words.
The pages open in the wrong order. — They should not: files are named 001, 002 and up, which every reader sorts correctly. If you have renamed anything inside the archive, keep the leading zeros — "10" sorts before "2".
My reader ignores the right-to-left setting. — Not every reader reads ComicInfo.xml. Most carry their own per-series reading direction in the book's settings; set it there once and it stays set.
The archive came out enormous. — PNG at 300 dpi can be ten times a JPEG at 150. For reading rather than printing, JPEG at 85% with the tablet width is usually indistinguishable on screen.
Frequently asked questions
Is a .cbz just a renamed ZIP file?
Essentially, yes: it is an archive of page images read in file-name order, and renaming it .zip opens it in any archive tool. The extension is what tells a comic reader to treat the contents as a book rather than as loose files.
What does the manga right-to-left tag actually change?
It is a line in ComicInfo.xml that readers act on. A reader honouring it starts the book at what a western reader would call the last page, turns pages the other way, and puts the left half of a spread second — so the artwork reads in the order it was drawn.
Why are the images stored rather than compressed inside the archive?
Because JPEG and PNG are already compressed, and squeezing them again saves almost nothing while making every page slower to open. Comic readers expect stored entries for exactly that reason: a page appears the moment you turn to it.
Does a double-page spread stay as one wide image?
Yes. Each PDF page becomes exactly one picture, so a spread laid out as a single wide page stays wide, and readers that detect wide pages will show it as a spread. Splitting a spread into two pages is a job for the other direction, CBZ to PDF.
Can I build one archive per chapter from a single PDF?
Yes — put 1-24 in the page list, build that archive, then come back for 25-48. Set the Number field for each one and the reader will shelve them in order under the same series.
Related tools
CBZ to PDF — Turn a CBZ comic archive into a PDF with pages in reading order.
PDF to Images — Render PDF pages to PNG or JPG images you can download.
PDF to ZIP — Export every page as its own file inside one archive.
Image to PDF — Combine images into a single PDF (auto / portrait / landscape).
PDF Metadata Editor — View, edit or strip a PDF’s title, author, subject, keywords and producer.
Split PDF — Extract pages or ranges (e.g. 1-3,5,7-9) into a new PDF.
Compress PDF — Shrink a PDF by re-rendering each page to a JPEG at a chosen quality and resolution.
More PDF tools
Image to PDF — Combine images into a single PDF (auto / portrait / landscape).
PDF to Images — Render PDF pages to PNG or JPG images you can download.
Merge PDFs — Combine multiple PDFs into one, with reordering.
Split PDF — Extract pages or ranges (e.g. 1-3,5,7-9) into a new PDF.
Rotate PDF — Rotate all pages or a selection by 90/180/270°.
Organize PDF — Reorder, rotate and delete pages from thumbnails, then export.
Add Page Numbers — Stamp page numbers onto a PDF (position, format, start).
Watermark PDF — Add a diagonal text watermark to every page.
Crop PDF — Trim margins from every page via the crop box.
PDF to Text — Extract selectable text from a PDF as plain text or Markdown.
Compare PDFs — Diff the extracted text of two PDFs line-by-line.
Encrypt PDF — Password-protect a PDF with AES-256 or RC4 encryption.
Decrypt PDF — Remove password protection from an encrypted PDF.
Compress PDF — Shrink a PDF by re-rendering each page to a JPEG at a chosen quality and resolution.
PDF Metadata Editor — View, edit or strip a PDF’s title, author, subject, keywords and producer.
Resize PDF — Rescale every PDF page to A4, Letter or another standard size, content centred.
Flatten PDF — Lock filled form fields into the page so a PDF looks the same everywhere.
PDF N-up — Print 2, 4, 9 or 16 pages per sheet, with a booklet option for folding.
Interleave PDF Pages — Merge odd and even scan passes back into one document, reversing if needed.
PDF to Single Long Page — Stack every page onto one continuous sheet you scroll instead of paging.
PDF Form Data Extractor — Pull the answers out of a filled PDF form as JSON or CSV, field by field.
Blank Page Remover — Find and delete blank pages from a scan, with a tolerance you control.
Text to PDF — Turn typed or pasted text into a paginated, downloadable PDF.
Markdown to PDF — Render Markdown — headings, lists, tables and code — as a PDF.