View and Manage your comics and digital images with GonVisor

View and Manage your comics and digital images with GonVisor:

GonVisor is a free program that will help you to not only organize and manage your electronic format comics, mangas, magazines and books, but also print, read or modify them as well. All this is done is a very clean interface that has tons of options and features. Supports CBR, CBZ, CBA comics folders as well as PDF and compressed image archives (ZIP, RAR, 7Zip, etc.)

Recently I began collecting digital versions of some of my favorite old comic books as well as mangas. There are a ton of them out there that are no longer in print or never were in print. Finding them may not be much of a struggle, but finding a comprehensive solution for interacting with them has been tough. There are more programs out there that can do one thing or another than there are people in the world, it seems. But each program, while it would do one or two things quite well, seemed to lack in other areas. So I kept looking. Then, I was introduced to GonVisor, and I am very grateful for that because it has done everything I wanted and more.

It offers you tons of ways to view, manipulate or interact with your cbr, cbz, cba, cb7, zip, rar, ace or 7zip files. Anyone who has been collecting these types of images and/or books in digital format can tell you, these are the common formats so it’s nice to find a program like GonVisor that supports all of them. GonVisor is one of the first solutions I have seen that has as much power as the retail programs without the price tag. That being said, there are far too many features and options to cover in a single article so I will go over the few that I found most useful and interesting.

First, GonVisor will open files like .cbr or .cbz that contain a series of images in a specific order. This is an ideal format for things like comics and mangas because the order is important, as opposed to a collection of standalone pictures that don’t need to be in any specific order. So, in addition to opening these kinds of files, it will also let you create them. You can take any series of images and put them in any order, save them as a cb* file so the order is preserved. This all sounds kind of simple, at first, until you go out there and try to accomplish this sort of thing without a program like GonVisor. As an example, I have had a certain collection of free comics on my system for quite some time, but the way they are labeled and tagged means that I have to line them up one by one in a tedious manner to be able to view them in the proper order. Otherwise I will click ‘next’ on my picture viewer and might wind up in the middle of the story instead of page 2. GonVisor eliminates any issue like that.

Second, GonVisor has tons of viewing features for your files. If you open a cbr file that contains say, 100 pages, you’ll be able to view them on the computer in any way you choose. You can see each page singly, switch to a ‘book’ double view of two pages per screen (ideal for widescreen monitors or laptops) and you can even use a magnifier to zoom in on certain portions if you so desire. Every different method of viewing is customizable, as well. For example, you can change the magnification rate and size of the magnifier tool itself. Many of these types of options are available in things like Adobe PDF but those programs usually cost money, and hardly ever have good support for cb* files either. You also have the option to string multiple files together, which is nice if you’re viewing a series. That means you can read book 1, and seamlessly move on to book 2 without having to open the file again. Whatever your needs or desires for viewing your cb* files, GonVisor has an option for it.

(Note the difference in color and contrast between these screenshots. This is the color improvement system.)

Finally, GonVisor also offers a suite of tools that can help you get the most out of your collection. Many images that are put through a digital scanner can lose their luster and can also lose some of the original coloring that the artists had worked so hard on. One of the neat tools GonVisor has is an automatic color improvement system, which will try to return the image to its original color glory. You also have the option rotate images, zoom in or out of course, set bookmarks and other navigation points. There is also a nice transitions tool that, while not ‘needed’ per se, is a great addition to the program, in my opinion. Thus, when you’re reading a comic and you click to the next page, you get a nice, smooth page turn animation or whatever other transition you chose. This helps bring life to the images, and offsets the lack of a physical item in your hands.

GonVisor can do so much, and it costs absolutely nothing, so if you’re in need of a viewer or manager for your cbz, cbz, etc. etc. files, this is a great program to try out. At worst, it won’t be the one you’re looking for, but at best it might end your search and let you finally get to reading those mangas! Until next time, my friends!

Get GonVisor here.