What happens when you convert CBZ to PDF
- The CBZ is converted by Calibre, the widely used open-source e-book manager, on our conversion server.
- Each page image of the comic becomes a page of the PDF, in file-name order, in full colour and without the edges being trimmed. Wide double-page spreads are split into two pages, as Calibre does by default, and the first page becomes the cover.
- Calibre scales every page to fit a typical six-inch e-reader screen, so large, detailed scans lose some resolution and very small lettering can get harder to read.
- The PDF has one page per comic page, ready for a tablet or a laptop.
- This conversion runs on our server: the file is uploaded, converted, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result has been sent back to you. Nothing is kept. Files up to 25 MB are accepted.
How to convert CBZ to PDF online
- Press "Choose CBZ files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. Files up to 25 MB each can be converted.
- There are no settings to choose: the converter keeps everything the target format can hold.
- Press "Convert to PDF". The file is uploaded to our conversion server, converted in a few seconds, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result is sent back.
- Save each PDF with its download button. Our server has already deleted both your CBZ and the PDF by then.
Why convert CBZ to PDF?
CBZ files usually come from digital comics, manga and scanned magazines. People convert them to PDF to read them in apps and on e-readers that do not open comic archives, or to open them in any PDF viewer.
How to convert CBZ to PDF on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
On Windows
Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your CBZ files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each PDF is saved to your Downloads folder.
On a Mac
Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the CBZ files from Finder onto the drop zone and the PDF files land in Downloads.
On iPhone and iPad
Open the page in Safari and tap Choose CBZ files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted PDF appears in Files, in the Downloads folder.
On Android
Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose CBZ files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The PDF is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.
Best settings for CBZ to PDF
There are no settings: pages keep their colours and edges, wide spreads are split into two pages, and the first page becomes the cover.
Name the page images so they sort in reading order (page-001.jpg, page-002.jpg), because that order is the order of the book.
CBZ vs PDF: the differences
| CBZ | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Comic Book ZIP archive | Portable Document Format |
| Type | e-book | document |
| Created by | David Ayton, for the CDisplay comic reader | Adobe |
| First released | the late 1990s | 1993 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy or lossless |
| Transparency | n/a | No |
| Animation | n/a | No |
| Vector or raster | n/a | Vector |
| Colour | n/a | any colour, pages can mix text, vectors and images |
| What it holds | page images, usually JPG or PNG, in a ZIP archive | any colour, pages can mix text, vectors and images |
| In a browser | opens in comic readers such as CDisplayEx, YACReader and Panels, and in Calibre | opens in every browser's built-in viewer |
| Common uses | digital comics, manga and scanned magazines | documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files |
| MIME type | application/vnd.comicbook+zip | application/pdf |
About CBZ and PDF files
What is a CBZ file?
A CBZ is simply a ZIP archive of page images, JPG or PNG, named in reading order. Comic readers open it as a book, and renaming it to .zip shows the pictures inside.
What is a PDF file?
A PDF fixes the layout of every page so it looks the same on any device. Converting a PDF to an image renders each page to pixels; converting an image to PDF wraps it as a page.
CBZ to PDF not working? Common problems
- "Files up to 25 MB can be converted." Server conversions have a size limit. Most of a large book is its pictures; a copy with smaller images will convert.
- "The conversion took too long and was stopped." Very long or complex files can pass the 90 second limit. Split the file and convert the parts.
- "This file is not really in CBZ format." The converter checks every file before it runs anything, so a file of another format renamed to .cbz is refused. Choose the page for its real format.
Convert CBZ to PDF from the command line
This page uses Calibre. Installed on your computer, its ebook-convert command does the same conversion:
ebook-convert input.cbz output.pdf --dont-grayscale --disable-trimConverting on your own computer keeps the file entirely local, which is worth it for very large or very sensitive documents. For everything else, the converter on this page does it without installing anything.
CBZ to PDF converter FAQ
Will I lose quality converting CBZ to PDF?
The pages keep their full colour and are not trimmed, but Calibre scales them to an e-reader screen size, so large scans lose some resolution.
Why is the PDF a different size from the CBZ?
Most of the size is the page images. Scaling to an e-reader screen makes large scans smaller, while splitting spreads and re-encoding pages can make small ones larger, so the PDF may be larger or smaller than the CBZ.
Are my CBZ files uploaded?
Yes, for this conversion. A faithful CBZ to PDF conversion needs Calibre, the open-source e-book manager, which cannot run in a browser. The file travels over an encrypted connection, is converted in a private temporary folder, and is deleted together with the PDF as soon as the result has been sent back to you. We do not keep, read or share it.
Can I convert several CBZ files to PDF at once?
Yes. Select or drop as many files as you like; they are converted one after another and each gets its own download button.
How do I open a PDF file?
PDF opens in every browser's built-in viewer. PDF is common for documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files.
Is this CBZ to PDF converter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no watermark. Because this conversion uses our server, there is a fair-use limit of 25 MB per file and a number of files per hour, which stops the service being overloaded.
Can I convert CBZ to PDF on my phone?
Yes. It works in Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome on Android. The conversion happens on our server, so it is as fast on a phone as on a computer; the PDF is saved to your Downloads folder.