.CBR

Introduction

A CBR file is a comic book stored as a RAR archive of page images. It works exactly like CBZ, its ZIP counterpart, and both are read by the same programs. RAR is a proprietary format that only WinRAR’s makers can write, so CBZ is the more open choice for new files; CBR is still common in older collections.

Some files named .cbr are really ZIP archives, and the reverse, so good readers check the signature rather than trust the extension.

Structure

The file is a RAR archive, which starts with the signature Rar! (52 61 72 21 1A 07), holding one image per page, usually JPEG or PNG. Readers sort the files by name to find the page order, and may read a ComicInfo.xml file for the series, issue and creators.

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