To a large extent, manga readers overlap with comic book readers. The one distinguishing feature they offer is the ability to reverse the traditional order of manga pages (right to left), allowing you to read them left to right, just like you would a western comic book or novel.
Some manga readers are barebones and lack any manga management features whatsoever, while other manga readers can help you manage your collection of Japanese graphic novels. Listed below are the best open-source manga readers for Linux that you can download right now, so all you need to do is pick the one that meets your needs the best.
1. YACReader
YACReader is a multi-platform manga reader that can help you manage your entire manga collection to keep it organized. It supports virtually all popular image and container file formats used to distribute manga, including rar, zip, cbr, cbz, tar, pdf, 7z and cb7, jpeg, gif, png, tiff, and bmp.
The application has useful image improvement features that can enhance the quality of poorly scanned manga and make it more readable by adjusting everything from its brightness to contrast to gamma.
As far as YACReader’s management capabilities go, all bases are covered. You can edit metadata, keep track of your reading progress, quickly find the manga you’re looking for using the built-in search feature, and more.
It’s also worth noting that YACReader is available on iOS, and the iOS version can import manga from the desktop version, including your tags and other metadata.
2. Mcomix
Mcomix is a no-frills manga reader that can handle many popular container formats, including CBR, CBZ, CB7, CBT, LHA, and PDF. The application is actually a fork of Comix, whose last version, 4.0.4, was released in April 2009.
When using Mcomix to read manga, you can enable the dedicated manga mode for left-to-right reading. By hitting the space bar a few times, you can activate the Smart Scrolling feature to make Mcomix follow your reading flow.
3. Komikku
Mcomix is a no-frills manga reader that can handle many popular container formats, including CBR, CBZ, CB7, CBT, LHA, and PDF. The application is actually a fork of Comix, whose last version, 4.0.4, was released in April 2009.
When using Mcomix to read manga, you can enable the dedicated manga mode for left-to-right reading. By hitting the space bar a few times, you can activate the Smart Scrolling feature to make Mcomix follow your reading flow.
4. OpenComic
OpenComic is a straightforward software application for reading manga and comic books. Its list of features isn’t the longest, but it does everything you expect of a basic manga reader. For example, you can bookmark interesting pages, enable a floating magnifying glass to easily read small text, or view two pages side-by-side.
What you may not like is the fact that OpenComic is written with Node.js using Electron, so you can expect it to consume significantly more RAM compared with many other manga readers featured in this article.
5. Lector
Lactor is a general-purpose reader application created using the Qt widget toolkit. You can use it to read all kinds of graphical novels as well as prose. Lector can display your manga collection as thumbnails that show the cover page, or you can switch to the table view to see the name, author, year of release, tags, and other information for each manga.
The built-in metadata editor makes it easy to edit metadata without leaving the application. You can edit all supported formats, including epub, djvu, fb2, mobi, azw/azw3/azw4, cbr/cbz, md, and pdf. Packages for several major distributions are available, and you can easily build Lector yourself by following the steps provided on its official website.
6. Ahoviewer
Ahoviewer is a manga reader with a distinct personality. The application is based around keyboard navigation, for starters, so it can take a while to get used to. But when you reach the top of the steep learning curve, you’ll find yourself performing all basic actions, such as opening manga or adjusting how pages are displayed, without any effort.
You can extend the capabilities of Ahoviewer using plugins, but, unfortunately, there’s nothing to choose from at the moment. Hopefully, the application will become more popular over time and attract contributors from around the world.
Peruse is a graphic novel reader created by the people behind KDE. While it’s not the most polished or attractive manga reader in the world, it runs well and gets the job done without any issues.
One noteworthy feature that very few manga readers have is the ability to add translated text on pages. The text can even include external links, which can be used to reference the original manga creator or point readers toward the website of the translator.
