CBZ to ZIP and CBR to RAR: Don't Convert — Just Rename the File
A CBZ already is a ZIP and a CBR already is a RAR. How to rename safely on Windows, macOS and Linux, and when an actual conversion is worth doing.
You don't need a converter for this one, and any site selling you a
"CBZ to ZIP conversion" is converting nothing: a CBZ file is a ZIP
archive, byte for byte, and a CBR is a RAR. The extension is the only
difference. Rename Comic.cbz to Comic.zip and every archive tool opens
it; rename it back and every comic reader accepts it again. The same goes
for .cbr ↔ .rar. Here's how to do the rename on each platform, the
one Windows trap to avoid, and the conversions in this family that
actually do change something.
Short version
CBZ = ZIP, CBR = RAR — renaming is the whole "conversion". Windows users: turn on File name extensions first or the rename silently does nothing. The conversions that genuinely transform your comic are CBR → CBZ (repack into the open format) and comic → EPUB for e-readers, free at mangaconverter.com.
Why this works
The comic-book archive "formats" are a naming convention, not a file format: someone zips page images and renames the archive so comic readers recognize it (CB + the archive type: Z for ZIP, R for RAR, 7 for 7-Zip). No header changes, no comic-specific structure — full background in What is a CBZ file. So the transformation both directions is a rename:
Manga v01.cbz→Manga v01.zip: extract pages with any archive tool.pages.zip→pages.cbz: open in any comic reader — this is also how you make a CBZ in the first place.Comic.cbr↔Comic.rar: identical story with RAR.
How to rename, per platform
Windows: Explorer hides extensions by default, so renaming
Comic.cbz to Comic.zip often just produces Comic.zip.cbz. Open
Explorer's View menu, tick File name extensions, then rename and
confirm the change-of-type warning. (7-Zip users can skip all this:
right-click → Open archive works on a .cbz directly.)
macOS: click the name, edit the extension, choose "Use .zip" in the confirmation dialog. Finder's Get Info panel also works.
Linux: mv Comic.cbz Comic.zip — or nothing at all, since unzip and
file managers ignore the extension anyway.
Work on a copy if the file matters; the rename is harmless, but the point of extracting is usually to modify things.
The conversions that actually do something
CBR → CBZ is a real repack with a real benefit: out of the
proprietary RAR container into open ZIP, which every tool on every
platform can create and read. Extract the CBR (free archivers can extract
RAR, just not create it), zip the images, rename to .cbz. Lossless —
the page images are never re-encoded. Why bother:
CBR vs CBZ.
Comic → EPUB is the big one. Renaming and repacking still leave you with a file no Kindle, Kobo or reMarkable will open — e-readers don't support comic archives at all. Getting comics onto e-ink means converting to an EPUB with pages sized for your exact screen, manga kept right-to-left, spreads handled. That's the job of the open-source Kindle Comic Converter engine (github.com/ciromattia/kcc), which MangaConverter runs free in your browser with a live preview — CBZ, CBR, CB7, ZIP, RAR, 7Z and PDF all accepted as input, precisely because they're all just containers around page images.
Direct routes: ZIP to EPUB, RAR to EPUB, CBZ to EPUB, CBZ to Kindle.
Quick answers
- Will renaming lose quality? No. Not a single byte changes.
- Why do readers want .cbz if it's the same file? Association and intent: the extension tells comic apps "this archive is a book, pages in filename order".
- My renamed ZIP won't extract. The file was probably RAR inside
(a mislabeled CBR) — try renaming to
.raror open with 7-Zip, which detects the real type. - Do I ever need a paid tool for any of this? No. Renames are free, CBR extraction is free, and the e-reader conversion is free too.