PDF, CBZ, or EPUB — Which Comic Export Format Should You Use?
Three buttons, three different readers on the other end. Here's what each file actually contains, who can open it, and how to pick without guessing.
First: All Three Start From the Same Page
Before any format question matters, your panels have to become pages. That step is the one that decides how your comic reads, and it happens identically no matter which export you click.
In WildComiks, panels are composited onto a 1654 × 2339 px canvas — roughly A4 at 200 DPI — with a 70 px page margin and a 36 px gutter between panels. Western and manga pages pack two columns by three rows; webtoon pages run one column, four tall cells deep. Manga format reverses each row so the page reads right-to-left. A panel flagged as a page break starts a new page instead of filling the current one, and a panel set to span two columns takes double the width.
The preview button runs that exact same assembly code. What you see in preview is what lands in the file — not an approximation of it. Fix layout problems there, before you export, because every format below inherits the same page images.
PDF — The Safe Default
A PDF is a fixed document: your assembled pages, embedded in order, at a locked A4 portrait size. Nothing reflows, nothing re-crops, and every device made in the last twenty years opens it without installing anything.
Use PDF when:
- You're sending the comic to a person rather than a platform — a collaborator, a beta reader, an editor, a client.
- You need one file that opens on a laptop, a phone, and a browser with zero explanation attached.
- You're uploading somewhere that accepts PDF for digital distribution.
The tradeoff is that a PDF is a document, not a comic-reading experience. Page-turn gestures, two-page spreads, and fit-to-width behavior all depend on whichever PDF app the reader happens to have. It works everywhere and feels special nowhere.
CBZ — What Comic Readers Actually Want
A .cbzfile is the least mysterious format on this list once you know the trick: it is a ZIP archive full of images, renamed. That's the whole specification. Rename it to .zip and you can open it in Finder or Explorer and see your pages sitting there as ordinary files.
The pages are numbered 001.jpg, 002.jpg, and so on, zero-padded so alphabetical sorting and reading order stay the same thing. That naming convention isthe page order — comic readers sort the archive filenames and show you the result. It's why page 10 must be 010 and not 10, which would sort right after page 1.
Use CBZ when:
- Your reader uses a dedicated comic app — the format is the long-standing standard those apps are built around.
- You want real comic navigation: swipe-per-page, double-page spreads, right-to-left mode for manga, continuous scroll for webtoon.
- You want the pages recoverable as plain images later. A CBZ is the closest thing to an archive of your work.
The catch: someone who has never opened a comic file won't know what to do with it. If you're unsure whether the recipient has a comic reader installed, send the PDF.
EPUB — For E-Readers, and It's Not the Kind You Think
Most EPUBs are reflowable: the text rewraps to fit whatever screen and font size the reader picked. That is exactly wrong for comics. A comic page is a composition — reflow it and the panels come apart.
So comic EPUBs use a different mode: fixed-layout EPUB3, marked pre-paginatedin the package metadata. One image per page, each page sized to the image's own dimensions via a viewport declaration. The e-reader is told, in the file itself, not to touch the layout. WildComiks exports this variant, pulling the viewport size from your first assembled page.
Use EPUB when:
- Your reader lives on an e-reader or a general ebook app rather than a comic app.
- You're preparing a submission for a store or platform whose ingest pipeline expects EPUB.
- You want the comic to sit in someone's library alongside their books, with a proper title attached.
The Quick Version
- Sending it to a human? PDF.
- Sending it to a comic reader? CBZ.
- Sending it to an e-reader or an ebook store? EPUB.
- Archiving your own work? CBZ — plain images, recoverable forever.
Exporting all three costs you nothing but three clicks. They're built from the same assembled pages, so there is no version drift between them.
What None of These Are Yet: Print-Ready
Worth being direct about this. All three exports are RGB, screen-targeted files. A commercial print run generally wants CMYK color separation, bleed past the trim edge, and 300 DPI at the final trim size — and 1654 × 2339 px is roughly 200 DPI at A4, not 300.
CMYK print export is on the roadmap; it is not shipped. If you're taking a book to a professional printer today, plan on a prepress step in dedicated software between the export and the press. For digital distribution, reader apps, review copies, portfolio pieces, and print-on-demand services that accept RGB, the exports are ready as-is.
Before You Export: A Short Checklist
- Preview first. It runs the same assembly code as the export, so it catches layout problems for free.
- Check the reading order. Explicit panel order wins over canvas position. If a page reads wrong, the order is what to fix — not the panel.
- Confirm the format matches the story. Webtoon pages assemble one panel wide; western and manga assemble two across. Switching formats after the fact re-packs every page.
- Let every panel finish generating. Unloadable panels are skipped during assembly, which quietly shortens your book.
- Know about the watermark. Free-tier exports carry a small "Made with Wildcomiks" mark in the page corner. Creator ($19/mo) and up export watermark-free.
Try It
The free tier is 10 panels a day — enough to build a few pages, run them through preview, and export a real file in all three formats to see how each one behaves on your own devices before you commit a whole book to one.