WhatFileType
.cbt

What is a .cbt file?

Comic Book TAR Archive · eBook · Comic reader community · 2000s

A .cbt file is a comic book archive: a TAR archive of image files, one per page, renamed so a comic reader recognises it. It is the TAR cousin of the more common CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR).

Category
eBook
MIME type
application/x-cbt
Type
Binary
Is a .cbt file safe to open? Safe. A .cbt is a TAR of images. Extract with a trusted tool; the images themselves are harmless.

What is a .cbt file used for?

Rename a .cbt to .tar and it extracts to a folder of numbered images. Comic readers open the pages in order. CBT is less common than CBZ because TAR does not compress on its own.

Any comic reader (or a TAR tool plus an image viewer) opens it. Convert to CBZ for the most compatible sharing.

What opens a .cbt file?

The .cbt format opens in the following apps, grouped by operating system. If one app does not work, try another from the same list.

Windows

  • CDisplayEx
  • YACReader
  • 7-Zip (to extract)

macOS

  • YACReader
  • Simple Comic
  • The Unarchiver

Linux

  • YACReader
  • MComix
  • tar

Open a .cbt file step by step

  1. Confirm the file really is a .cbt. Drop it into the WhatFileType identifier, which reads its signature in your browser without uploading anything.
  2. On Windows, open it with CDisplayEx or YACReader.
  3. On Mac, use YACReader or Simple Comic.
  4. On Linux, try YACReader or MComix.
  5. Still stuck? Convert the .cbt to cbz, which opens more widely.

Why can't I open my .cbt file?

Almost always because no installed app understands CBT. Install one of the apps above, or convert the file to a format your existing software already reads. If double-clicking opens the wrong program instead of nothing at all, the file association is set to the wrong app rather than the file being broken.

The other possibility is that the file is not really a .cbt at all. Drop it into the file identifier to check it by its bytes instead of its name. Nothing is uploaded.

How to convert a .cbt file

You can convert a .cbt file to cbz, pdf using a conversion tool or the export menu of an app that opens it.

What is the .cbt file signature (magic bytes)?

A .cbt file carries the hex bytes 75 73 74 61 72 at offset 257, which read as ustar in ASCII. Programs identify CBT by those bytes, not by the filename, so a renamed file still gives itself away.

These are the documented signatures for CBT. For a full breakdown, see the TAR (ustar) file signature page.

Documented magic-byte signatures for the .cbt format
Hex signatureOffsetASCIINote
75 73 74 61 72257ustar'ustar' (CBT is a TAR archive)

See the full magic-numbers reference for every format.

Frequently asked questions

What is a .cbt file?

A .cbt file is a comic book archive: a TAR archive of image files, one per page, renamed so a comic reader recognises it. It is the TAR cousin of the more common CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR).

How do I open a .cbt file?

Use a comic reader like YACReader or CDisplayEx, or rename it to .tar and extract the images with 7-Zip.

What is the difference between CBT, CBZ and CBR?

They are the same idea, a folder of comic pages in an archive, using different archive types: CBT is TAR, CBZ is ZIP, CBR is RAR.

How do I convert CBT to CBZ?

Extract the images from the .cbt (rename to .tar), then zip them and rename the .zip to .cbz. Comic managers can also convert directly.

Related formats

.cbz CBZ.cbr CBR.tar TAR.pdf PDFAll ebook formats

Sources

Details on this page were checked against authoritative references. How sources are ranked and what is deliberately left out is set out in the methodology.