Most of the comic books available on the internet are in the form of images compressed and packed inside archives (the CBR, CBZ, CBA, CB7 file formats). To view and read these files, you need a comic book reader such a GonVisor. GonVisor is a free Windows application that can be used to read and create all kinds of comic book formats (all the CB family of formats), view images and other e-books. GonVisor is available both as a full installable edition and as a portable application.
It is a multiple-format viewer for Windows systems which supports pictures, comics, manga, magazines and books in electronic format. It is designed for comfortable viewing of image sequences and to easily create, open and manage files as CBR, CBZ, CBA, CB7, ZIP, RAR, ACE or 7-Zip. GonVisor allows you to join in one unique file an unlimited number of images as an album. These files can be protected using an access password. Here are some of the key features of GonVisor :
- View CBR, CBZ, CBA, CB7, PDF and image files.
- Open compresses archives packed using ZIP, RAR, ACE, 7-Zip formats.
- Extract image files contained inside any file formats (CBR, CBZ, CBA, CB7).
- Create and manage your own CBR, CBZ, CBA, CB7 files.
- Enhance the viewing quality of images contained inside comic book files.
- Supports multiple languages.
You can download GonVisor from the its website. It is available both as a standalone portable application and also as an installable application. I personally chose the portable edition (around 1.6 megabytes) as it does not require any installation. If you download the portable edition, then all you have to do is to extract the contents of the Zip archive and run the GonVisor.exe application. The main interface of GonVisor is very easy to use. You can choose to open any kind of file by selecting an appropriate command from the file menu. You can also just drag-and-drop any supported file on to the GonVisor window and it would open it.
If you open the comic book files in GonVisor, then you would be able to see the list of pages on the right-side listbox. You can click on any of the pages to jump to them. In addition, you can use the F4 and F3 function keys to go to the next or previous pages in the comic book. GonVisor also allows you to zoom in and out, use a magnifier, set the image transition, rotate the picture, fit its width and height and more. If your comic book is very old and has pale pages, then you can improve its colors and make it more readable by choosing Image → Improve Image → Color Improvement as shown.
If you want to create a comic book from some images, then just load all those images in the GonVisor (open all the images in GonVisor). Then select File → Create cbr/cbz with images loaded. Alternatively, you can also press the hotkey Ctrl + Q on your keyboard. It would ask you to save the file where you can choose the name of the file and its format type – CBZ or CBR.
It would ask you, if you want to password protect your file. If you want to password protect it, then just type in your password and click OK. Though, in most cases, you would not want to password protect your comic book files. After this you would be asked to insert comic book description, author name, date, type etc. By default, GonVisor adds its own banner to all the created comic files. You have to check Do not add GonVisor banner in this window (Unfortunately, this feature is available only in the premium (paid) version of GonVisor).
All in all, GonVisor is the most impressive comic book reader I have come across so far. It is fast, free and can open almost all kinds of comic book files available. GonVisor is available as a portable application, so you can carry it in your USB stick. Not only it allows you to view supported files, but it also allows you to create comic books and print them on paper if needed. You can download GonVisor from http://www.gonvisor.com/.