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).
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.
How to open 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. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see how to open a .cbt file.
Windows
- CDisplayEx
- YACReader
- 7-Zip (to extract)
macOS
- YACReader
- Simple Comic
- The Unarchiver
Linux
- YACReader
- MComix
- tar
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.
.cbt file signature (magic bytes)
Programs recognise a .cbt file by the bytes at the start of the file, not by its name. These are the signatures for CBT. For a full breakdown, see the CBT file signature page.
| Hex signature | Offset | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 75 73 74 61 72 | 257 | '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
Sources
Details on this page were checked against authoritative references: