cbxv is a native, desktop application for viewing comic book and manga (.cbz and .cbr) files. It stays lean and fast by eschewing any sort of extraneous web technologies or library management features. It distinguishes itself by focusing on features for manipulating the layout, so that the art and story can be appreciated closer to the original intent.
Take for example the beautiful two page spread shown in cbxv below. It's a complete scene with two spaceships converging for an epic battle on the left, and our hero, victorious, exiting the scene in the lower right. In a basic viewer, even with a cover-to-cover scan, the first two page spread would show the cover and inside cover, so that by the time you got to these pages they would be misaligned and not shown at the same time, ruining the scene.
- Auto-joining and manual joining of pages
- Auto-layout "reflow"
- Bi-directional layout (Left-To-Right and Right-To-Left reading)
- Layout Persistence
- 2-Page, 1-Page and Strip Layouts
- Page hiding
- Bookmarks
- Page Export
- Fullscreen View
- Unique HUD Interface
- Drag and Drop File Opening
- Never alters original files
- Supports most common formats; .cbz, .cbr, .cb7, .cbt, .pdf
- Native performance
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Linux - You must have Gtk3 installed. This is very common on Linux. If you don't have it already you must install the appropriate package for your distro.
- Arch and Fedora - gtk3
- Debian and Ubuntu - libgtk-3-0
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Mac - Like Linux you must have Gtk3 installed. This is less common than Linux but faily straightforward. Install Homebrew and run:
brew install pkg-config gtk+3 adwaita-icon-theme
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Windows - Everything that you need is in the archive available under the releases section.
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Linux - Download the Linux build from the release area and unarchive it. On Linux cbxv is a single executable, put it wherever you like and run it. For your convenience a simple script is provided to put a desktop file and icon in the appropriate places for your user.
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Arch - cbxv is also available from the AUR, so if you're on Arch you could install cbxv from there if you prefer. Below is an example using the yay AUR helper:
yay -S libunarr-git cbxv-git
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Windows - Download the Windows build from the release area and unarchive it. Copy the resulting directory to program files or wherever you like and run it.
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Mac - Download the Mac build from the release area and unarchive it. Copy the cbxv.app directory to Applications and double-click on it.
cbxv has an unusual interface, like a game or media player. It is
largely keyboard driven, but many functions are also available
with the mouse:
|Command |Key |Mouse |
|-------------------|---------------|--------------------|
|quit |q |Window Close Button |
|openFile |o |Title Button |
|closeFile |c |NA |
|rightPage |d|l|RightArrow |Right Side |
|leftPage |a|h|LeftArrow |Left Side |
|firstPage |w|k|UpArrow |NA |
|lastPage |s|j|DownArrow |NA |
|nextFile |n |NA |
|previousFile |p |NA |
|toggleBookmark |[Space] |Bookmark Buttons |
|lastBookmark |L |NA |
|help |?|[F1] |Question Mark Button|
|toggleDirection |[BackTick] |Direction Toggle |
|1-Page Layout |1 |NA |
|2-Page Layout |2 |NA |
|stripLayout |3 |NA |
|hidePage |- |NA |
|toggleJoin |r |Join Toggle |
|toggleFullscreen |f|[F11] |Fullscreen Toggle |
|selectPage |[Tab] |Page Index Buttons |
|exportPage |e |NA |