YACReader (Yet Another Comic Reader) for Windows

YACReader stands for Yet Another Comic Reader. It's a free cross-platform, Qt4-based comic book reader. Comic book readers are e-book readers for comic book archive files. Like Kindle and other readers, comic book readers let users enjoy their electronic comic books in a familiar, easy-to-use format that replicates the experience of reading actual comics, but with zoom, rotation, and other effects. Since we believe that you can't have too many comic book readers, we choose not to acknowledge the implication: YACReader can more than hold its own against the competition, some of which is getting long in the tooth. It handles the usual CBR and CBZ files, but it also offers smooth transitions and an up-to-date interface.

To open a saved comic archive, we just pressed O for open, and YACReader opened in our designated archive. You can download all kinds of free e-comics online and open them automatically from your browser in YACReader. The program displays an extensive list of keyboard shortcuts as well as options for configuring transition effects, setting the archive folder, and other settings on the toolbar. The toolbar also offers icons for rotating, zooming, and fitting images, saving files, and other controls. You can have multiple instances of YACReader open at the same time, which is very handy for comparing editions and artwork, reading serial stories, and spazzing out in general. And why not? YACReader's the best comic reader we've tried, with crisp page transitions, zooming, rotation, and other effects, not to mention an excellent presentation of the material, even scanned images of ancient comics. We especially like the two-page mode, which displays two open pages side by side, just like a paper edition. We could save and bookmark pages, jump to pages, and more. The magnifier tool worked just fine, smoothly magnifying a rectangular area that we could drag anywhere with the cursor and toggle on and off at the toolbar.

Too many comic book readers? Isn't that like saying, "Too many comic books?" The problem isn't the comics or the readers; it's finding enough time to read them all. YACReader more than holds up its end; the rest is up to you.