Best Comic Book Reading Apps for Linux

This article will list comic book reading applications available for Linux. Some of these applications are specially designed for reading comic books while others are e-book readers and general purpose document readers that support multiple digital comic book file formats.

Calibre

Calibre is an ebook and document management application suite packed with numerous features like a library manager, document converter and a built-in reader for reading books. Besides common document and ebook formats, Calibre reader also supports many popular comic book formats like “cbz” and “cbr”.

You can open a comic book in Calibre by clicking on the “Add Books” option visible in the top toolbar. You can also right click on a supported file and open it with “Ebook Viewer” application.

Run the command below to install Calibre in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install calibre

Calibre for other Linux distributions can be downloaded from here.

GNOME Books

GNOME Books is an ebook and comic book reading app included in the official GNOME 3 application stack. It features a simple and clutter free user interface, and a handful of options to customize the reading experience. Apart from “epub” file format, GNOME Books supports popular comic book file formats like “cbz”.

Run the following command to install GNOME Books in Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt install gnome-books

GNOME Books can be installed from the default package manager shipped in other Linux distributions. Alternatively, you can download it from its FlatHub Page.

Okular

Okular is a document viewer application shipped in all Linux distributions having KDE as the default desktop environment. It supports numerous file formats, including comic book archives like “cbz” and “cbr”.

To install Okular in Ubuntu, run the command below:

$ sudo apt install okular

Okular can be installed in other Linux distributions from package manager. Alternatively, you can download it from the FlatHub store.

Evince

Evince, similar to Okular in KDE, is the default document reader application shipped in GNOME based Linux distributions. It supports all widely used comic book file formats.

To install Evince in Ubuntu, run the command below:

$ sudo apt install evince

You can install Evince in other Linux distributions from the package manager. Evince is also available on FlatHub store.

Mcomix

Mcomix is a comic book viewer written in GTK3 and Python. Unlike other document viewers, Mcomix doesn’t support all types of file formats. Mcomix is mainly intended for reading comic books and its feature set is specially designed to provide a user friendly comic book reading experience in Linux.

To install Mcomix in Ubuntu, run the following command:

$ sudo apt install mcomix

Mcomix can be installed in other Linux distributions from the package manager or it can be installed by running “setup.py” file, as explained here.

QComicBook

QComicBook is a comic book viewer written in Qt. It supports all major comic book formats and can be used as a standalone image viewer as well. Some of its unique features include an automatic slideshow mode and a special mode for reading Manga.

To install QComicBook in Ubuntu, use the command below:

$ sudo apt install qcomicbook

QComicBook can be installed in other Linux distributions from the package manager. In case it is not available in official repositories of your Linux distribution, you can follow instructions available here and compile it from source code.

Zathura-cb

Zathura-cb is a comic book viewer plugin available for Zathura document reader. Zathura is mainly a keyboard driven document viewer that uses Vim like keybindings.

To install Zathura and Zathura-cb in Ubuntu, run the command below:

$ sudo apt install zathura zathura-cb

To read a comic book using Zathura-cb, use the following command:

$ zathura <comic_book_file.cbz>

Zathura and Zathura-cb packages are available in repositories of many Linux distributions, you can install them from the package manager. Alternatively, you can compile them from source code following instructions available here.

Foliate

Foliate is a modern ebook and comic book reader featuring a beautiful interface designed in GTK3. You can customize it to change background colors, brightness and scroll mode to optimize comic book reading experience.

To install Foliate in Ubuntu, run the following command in a terminal:

$ sudo snap install foliate

Foliate can also be installed from FlatHub store. Further installation instructions for other Linux distributions are available here (scroll down).

Conclusion

These are some of the most popular comic book, document and ebook reading applications available for Linux. Most of these readers feature full screen and automatic slideshow modes, providing a better comic book reading experience on Linux desktops.

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