Comix

We all remember how hard it was to get your hands on an original comic back when Internet wasn't as evolved as now. There weren't so many specialized stores from where you could buy them and even if there were a few, the books were expensive. Nowadays, the Internet is filled with diverse online stores from where this kind of items can be acquired at a decent price. But when it comes to enjoy reading them, you are faced with the question what program should be used to view them?

Comix is a feature-rich yet user-friendly application designed for Windows 10, 8.1 and 8 to help provide a simple method to browse your comics from the computer and it also comes with a large library of classical records. The supported file formats are CBZ, CBR, CB7, ZIP, RAR, and 7Z. Plus, you can use your OneDrive and Dropbox account folders to add items to the library for faster access.

It provides an intuitive and approachable layout with a main screen from where you can access the ComixPub and library, and open files. In reading mode, right-clicking on the image brings up a double-sided toolbar with the navigational and view elements. To add a book just browse its location on the PC and it's automatically loaded into the panel. Unfortunately, the tool doesn't support the drag-and-drop method nor provides an option to go to the original screen.

Once the comic is opened, you can use the next and back arrows to navigate between pages or other handy techniques, like slide the mouse left and right, use the keyboard keys or the mouse wheel. The app lets you toggle the page to full screen, join the next sheet in a two-sided style, change the reading direction, as well as mark the comic as read, rotate it to different angles and skip to the next item in the folder.

It would've been a great addition if the program offered a bookmark feature to remember where you left off, incorporate a dictionary to easily translate words from other languages, in case the only version you found what in another dialect. Despite all the basic functions, you can't zoom in and out or use a magnifier to check small details, nor the ability to adjust the brightness and contrast if it happens for the book to be poorly scanned.

The bottom line is that Comix is a useful and user-friendly utility that offers standard features to efficiently read and browse between pages and records, and comes with file import from Dropbox and OneDrive.