How to Make a CBR File (and Why You Should Make a CBZ Instead)

Creating a CBR requires WinRAR or the rar tool — RAR is proprietary. The steps, the honest recommendation to use CBZ, and the e-reader conversion route.

15 August 2026cbrhow-tocomicsformats

A CBR file is a RAR archive of page images renamed to .cbr — so making one means making a RAR archive, and that's the catch: RAR compression is proprietary. You need WinRAR on Windows or the command-line rar tool elsewhere; free archivers like 7-Zip can extract RAR but not create it. The steps are below, but the honest recommendation up front: unless something specifically demands CBR, make a CBZ instead — identical result, no licensed software, one fewer dependency for future-you.

Short version

CBR = RAR of images, renamed. Creating one requires WinRAR/rar (proprietary). Steps: name pages 001.jpg, 002.jpg, ...; add to a RAR archive; rename .rar → .cbr. Better plan: make a CBZ — free tools, same pages, better support. Either way, e-readers open neither; for Kindle/Kobo convert at mangaconverter.com.

The steps, if you need a CBR

Name the page images in reading order, zero-padded: 001.jpg, 002.jpg, ... 120.jpg. Readers sort pages by filename, and 10 sorting before 2 is the classic scrambled-comic bug.
Create the RAR. In WinRAR: select the images → Add to archive → RAR format. Command line:
```
rar a MyComic.rar ./pages/*.jpg
```
Rename MyComic.rar to MyComic.cbr. On Windows, turn on File name extensions in Explorer first so the rename actually takes.

Archive the images flat rather than nesting folders, use "store" or the fastest compression level (the images are already compressed JPEGs — higher RAR compression buys almost nothing), and keep your source images.

Why CBZ is the better make

Every reason to create comics as CBR evaporated years ago:

Tooling. ZIP creation is built into Windows, macOS and every Linux distro. RAR creation needs one specific licensed program.
Compatibility. All comic readers open CBZ; some open-source tools and servers need extra libraries for RAR.
No size win. Comic pages are pre-compressed images; RAR's better general-purpose compression gains roughly nothing here.
Longevity. ZIP is an open, documented standard. For an archive format — the thing you pick precisely because you'll open it years later — open beats proprietary.

CBR remains common only because lots of existing files were packaged that way. Reading them is fine; creating new ones is the part with no upside. Full comparison: CBR vs CBZ.

Already have CBRs? Converting is lossless

Going CBR → CBZ is a repack: extract the RAR, zip the contents, rename. The images are never re-encoded, so quality is untouched. Free archivers handle the extraction even though they can't create RARs.

The e-reader step both formats need

Whichever you make, note what a CBR/CBZ can't do: open on a Kindle, Kobo or reMarkable. E-readers don't support comic archives, and even formats they do support render badly when pages aren't sized for the screen. The finished pipeline for e-ink reading is comic archive → EPUB (or KEPUB for Kobo) with pages built for your exact device.

That's the job of the open-source Kindle Comic Converter engine (github.com/ciromattia/kcc), which MangaConverter runs in the browser: drop in your CBR or CBZ, pick your device, preview the converted pages live, and download a file Send to Kindle accepts directly (EPUB — MOBI email support ended in 2022, checked August 2026).

Convert your comic CBR or CBZ in, Kindle/Kobo-ready file out

Direct routes: CBR to EPUB, CBR to Kindle, CBR to Kobo.

Bottom line

You can make a CBR — WinRAR, rename, done. You should make a CBZ: same comic, free tools, wider support. And if the pages are headed for an e-reader, the archive is just the intermediate step; the conversion to a device-fit EPUB is what makes them readable.