View Full Version : Help - eReading CBR/CBZ files and zooming

06-20-2011, 09:09 AM
I've been cataloging and converting my CBR/CBZ files to EPUB using Calibre (to use with my rooted Nook Color) because the resulting file is significantly smaller than the original. I assume this is because Calibre is downsizing the images to fit my ereader when it does the conversion. The only problem is that none of the EPUB apps for Android seem to support zooming images, so sometimes the text is just too small to read well. There are several good comic readers out, however, that DO zoom.

So what I'm looking for is an application that will allow me to select a CBZ/CBR file and reduce the resolution of it WITHOUT having to unzip it, reduce each page separately (or even by batch), then rezip it into a new native CBR/CBZ (not EPUB) - preferably something that would do batch processing of multiple CBZ/CBR files. That way I can use the comic reader app rather than an EPUB reader app, and benefit from the zooming they provide.

Alternately, does anyone know of an Android EPUB reader that supports zooming images?


06-20-2011, 08:41 PM
Wouldn't it be better to get an Android app the reads CBR/CBZ files that allows zooming. That would be a better way to go than converting a bunch of images to ePub. A CBZ file is just a bunch of images zipped up and viewed like an album in alphabetical order one image at a time. CBR is the same only compressed with rar instead of zip. You can still reduce the image sizes if you wish but if you go too low no amount of zoom would let you read the blocky picture.

On a PC you can use IrfanView (a free application) to batch convert a whole folder full of images to smaller sizes.


06-25-2011, 01:09 PM
Yeah, I ended up going that route, and got a 32GB SDHC card for the Nook so I don't have to reduce the size of the files. I was trying to have just a single app for reading books AND comics, but decided against it. Now if I could just figure out the BEST comic reader app and ebook reader app I'd be in business. I don't want to have to import each and every item into an app's database (as many of them do) - I just want to read them from my file tree...


11-01-2011, 02:13 PM
I've been looking for a good ePub reader app that has zooming as well, and so far the only one I've found is fbreader, which let's you long-press an image to enlarge it. It isn't as nice as just tapping like the iPad, but it helps. The problem imho is finding an app that follows the ePub's CSS stylesheet so things format as intended, and has zooming. I mean why not get it all. But fbreader does the zoom, but seems to ignore the CSS for indentation, centering, etc. A few others do the stylesheet perfectly, but it's as if they don't realize the zoom capability is important to readers.
The first developer who does an Android ePub reader that does it all well will probably shutdown the competition. I'd pay for one that matches the iPad book reader app.

11-01-2011, 04:25 PM
I've tried to convince Bookeen to add this to their readers, unsuccessfully so far. They have an epub reader and they have an image viewer that allows zooming, but they don't see that they could allow any image inside an ePub to be "opened" with the image viewer too...

11-03-2011, 05:50 AM
I can't say for the hardware vendors but Mantano have said that they are looking into CBR/CBZ support in the future.