CBZ Forge
Comic Converter · macOS
Convert your comics to CBZ. Every page copied, or explained.
CBZ Forge turns the PDF, CBZ, and CBR files you already own into clean CBZ archives, copying each page’s original image across untouched. When it can’t, it tells you which page, and why.
Built for people who keep a comic library and intend to keep it.
Coming soon See what it converts
Requires macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later · Apple silicon and Intel
Works on the comics you already own
It opens what is already on your disk and writes a new archive next to it. That is the whole job.
- Your files, your disk
- No store, no library, no browsing or search. Nothing is fetched.
- DRM-free only
- Encrypted and password-protected files are refused, not cracked. CBZ Forge does not remove DRM.
- Originals untouched
- Every conversion writes a new archive and leaves the source exactly as it was.
- Fully offline
- The app ships without the network entitlement, so it cannot make a connection at all.
Why it matters
Your library, carried across intact.
Lossless comic conversion, where the file allows it, and a plain label where it doesn’t. Most comic converters re-encode every page. Your files come out slightly softer, slightly smaller, and there is no way to tell how much you lost. CBZ Forge was built on the opposite premise: carry the original bytes across whenever that is possible, and when it isn’t, say so, page by page, with the reason. Plenty of tools convert comics. This one refuses to tell you a page is lossless when it isn’t.
-
Change the format, not the pixels
Pages are extracted byte-for-byte from the source, not re-encoded. What goes into the CBZ is the image that was already in your file. A JPEG stays that JPEG, with no generational loss.
-
Know exactly what happened
Every page gets a verdict. Anything that could not be copied cleanly is listed with the reason, so you are never guessing whether a conversion cost you quality.
-
Convert a whole shelf at once
Drop in a folder and walk away. Two conversions run at a time with live progress, and each book explains itself when you click it.
-
Optional AI cleanup, honestly labelled
Clean up or double the size of older scans with an on-device model. It stays off until you ask for it, and what it produces is labelled processed rather than lossless, because rewriting pixels isn’t.
The app
A converter that shows its work.
Under the hood
Built to be checked.
- Byte-for-byte page extraction
- Where a page’s embedded image can be carried across untouched, it is. The exact bytes already in your file go straight into the CBZ. No re-encoding, no quality slider, no guessing.
- An honest fallback, with the reason attached
- Some pages genuinely cannot be extracted cleanly. Those get rendered at their inherent DPI and labelled with the reason: CMYK print colours, page rotation, masks, painted overlays, optional content. A converter that pretends otherwise is lying to you.
- Batch CBZ conversion that skips its own work
- Drop a folder and every supported comic inside it is found, subfolders included. Two books convert at a time with live per-page progress, and books you have already converted are recognised and skipped rather than silently redone.
- Metadata that survives the trip
- An existing
ComicInfo.xmlis copied byte-for-byte and never enters an XML parser or reserializer, so unknown fields, element order, and encoding survive exactly. Tools that round-trip XML routinely drop fields they don’t recognise; this one doesn’t look. Archives without metadata get a deterministic ComicInfo 2.0 written for them — page count and nothing invented. - Optional AI cleanup, built for line art
- The bundled Real-CUGAN model was trained on illustration and line art rather than photographs: flat colour, hard ink edges, screentone. It earns its place on soft, over-compressed scans, not on clean ones. Expect roughly 20 to 105 seconds per page. That is why Compare with AI… exists, so you can judge a sample crop before committing a whole book.
- It tells you when the model couldn’t do the job
- On some razor-sharp halftone, Real-CUGAN produces unusable output. Rather than ship those pixels, CBZ Forge range-checks every tile and falls back to a clean resample: right geometry, no invented colour. Every fallback is counted, so it is never silent. Corrupt pixels in your archive are the pixel-domain twin of a false lossless label.
- CBR read through a reader-only RAR engine
- CBR and RAR archives are read directly via a pinned, source-vendored, statically linked libarchive, used strictly read-only. CBZ Forge never writes RAR. Encrypted, split, and malformed archives are refused rather than partially recovered.
- Native, sandboxed, and notarized
- A real comic converter for Mac rather than a web uploader: a universal macOS app for Apple silicon and Intel, around 11 MB on disk. Sandboxed, with no iCloud, Contacts, Photos, Location, or camera access and no background helper processes. Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so a direct download opens without a Gatekeeper warning.
Formats
What goes in, and what comes out.
PDF to CBZ, CBR to CBZ, or a whole folder in one pass. As comic book archive converters go this one is deliberately narrow: it reads the formats you already have and writes exactly one, because CBZ is an open ZIP container that comic readers support widely and that depends on no proprietary compression.
- Reads
-
- PDF (.pdf)
- Comic book ZIP (.cbz)
- Comic book RAR (.cbr)
- ZIP archives (.zip)
- RAR archives (.rar)
- Folders, searched recursively for supported comic files
- Writes
-
- Comic book ZIP (.cbz)
- Standard ComicInfo 2.0 metadata
- Next to the source, or into a folder you choose
- Refuses
-
- Password-protected PDFs
- Encrypted archives
- Split or multi-volume archives
- Malformed archives
- Anything requiring DRM to be removed
The difference
Most converters won’t tell you what they cost you.
The usual result
- Every page re-encoded, so each conversion quietly costs a little quality.
- Success or failure reported, and nothing in between.
- “Lossless” claimed for output that was re-encoded anyway.
- ComicInfo.xml round-tripped through a parser, dropping fields it doesn’t recognise.
- Pages uploaded to a server, or an account required before you start.
CBZ Forge
- Copy the original image across untouched wherever that is possible.
- Give every page a verdict, and name the reason when one cannot be copied.
- Never label a changed page lossless. Processed is labelled processed.
- Copy an existing ComicInfo.xml byte-for-byte, without ever reading it.
- Ships without the network entitlement, so it cannot make a connection at all.
FAQ
Questions worth asking before you buy.
- Is CBZ Forge really lossless?
- Where it can be, and it tells you when it isn’t. Pages whose images can be extracted intact are copied byte-for-byte. Pages that can’t be are rendered instead, and every one is listed with the reason. No page is ever labelled lossless unless its original bytes were preserved.
- How do I convert CBR to CBZ?
- Drop the CBR files in and press start. CBR and RAR archives are read directly and written out as CBZ, and in most cases the page images are copied across without being touched. Encrypted or split archives are refused rather than partially recovered.
- How do I convert PDF to CBZ on a Mac?
- Drag the PDFs onto CBZ Forge, or drop in a whole folder, and each one is written out as a CBZ next to the source or into a folder you choose. Where a page’s embedded image can be lifted out intact it is copied byte-for-byte; anything that can’t be is rendered and listed with the reason.
- Will it change my original files?
- No. CBZ Forge writes a new CBZ and leaves the source untouched.
- Does it need an internet connection?
- No — it has no network access whatsoever, including for the AI features. The app ships without the network entitlement, so it is structurally incapable of connecting to anything.
- Can it convert comics I bought from a store?
- Only if they’re DRM-free. Purchases wrapped in DRM are refused; CBZ Forge does not remove protection, and encrypted or password-protected files are refused rather than cracked.
- How long does the AI cleanup take?
- Roughly 20 to 105 seconds per page, depending on the page and your Mac. For a 100-page book that is somewhere between half an hour and three hours. This is careful work, not a quick filter. The app warns you up front, and Compare with AI… lets you judge a sample crop before you commit a whole book.
- Why CBZ and not CBR?
- CBZ is an open ZIP container, widely supported by comic readers and dependent on no proprietary compression format. It’s the right long-term shelf for a library you intend to keep.
- Does it work on Intel Macs?
- Yes, the app is universal. But macOS 26 itself runs on only a small number of Intel models, so check that your Mac supports it before buying.