DrawnStrips Reader - The Best Comic Reader App Reviews

very smooth and simple app…looking forward to see updates

It would be better if there was a manual but as it is this applications opens up the comics in both cbz and cbr fine. It is very fast and does have a full screen mode. The screen rendering is fine and moving up and down through the comic is really fast. In looking an online comics one can think of many features that would be nice to have but for such a low price this one it works fine. Dont know if the more expensive ones have ways to organize your comics and show you which ones you have read. This one has a simple open file which if you have your files organized better then I do would not be a feature that you would need. Also can open multiple comics which is nice. So far zero crashs and fast.

This is the best comic reader out there in a huge field of comic book readers. I set my mac to open comics default with drawstrips reader and now it’s perfect. I can use the arrow keys, I can set it for one or two page views. it’s perfect at doing a simple thing.

I bought this app only for the gestures support and what I find? it lacks the fastest one, the two fingers double tap for fast zoom in-zoom out (safari like). Its very important to have a quick look to details without loosing the attention to the global behavior. The pinch to zoom is too slow and uncomfortable, and doesnt zoom automatically on a pre-defined zone. I suggest to improve that in a way that zooms on the tapped page (in the case you use the two page visualization in landscape mode, very often), with a preferred zoom factor chosen by a slider, or in the options. And obviously that zooms out in the same posiotion as originally wanted. Ill put 5 stars if you do that, and suggest this app to my friends.

Very solid app. Does what it says, and does it well. There are, however, a couple things that I would like to see implemented: the first is the possibility of moving the page when it’s seen at the actual size (much like the “hand” seen in the Preview app). The second is the possibility to “cmd-click” on the bar on top of the comic to see where the file actually is on the computer. With these two simple adds, the app would be perfect.

Looks like I found a comic book reader. Works great and you have many options like export or change direction of comic. I tried to open a troublesome file (.rar), but it didn’t work. I also couldn’t open it in most of the other readers I have, but the other cbrs and cbz were fine. Nice professional feel. I’ll write more of a review once I use it more often.

I’ve tried all the readers - there used to be some very good ones, but they haven’t been updated in years. Right now, DrawnStrips and YACReader are the only decent ones I can find, and DrawnStrips is SO much more polished that it just isn’t funny. Definitely worth a few bucks to encourage continued development.

The application is well written and works well but it has a large missing feature in that it doesn’t support auto-opening of .zip and .rar files that most manga is distributed in. No one uses .cbz or .cbr files and the fact that this viewer doesn’t support the most common method of distribution of manga is a glaring flaw.

I like this app, but it’s very slow to turn pages on a 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. I’m temped to go back to SimpleComic just for the speed.

Interface seems fine, but I’ve tried it across multiple CBZ files and changes pages is totally random, and involves pressing forward 1-2 times and back once, and then it might skip a page. Still needs work.

I feel like theres a need for a "touch" interface, like using horisontal scroll to turn pages. Overal its a very nice app and I am looking forward to the next updates.

Well on its way to becoming a five star app, it still needs a little work. A "zoom to fit" option, insteading having to choose whether to fit horizontally or vertically is essential, as is remembering the position in each comic. An option to customize the page turning keys would be nice (right now theyre consistant with the Lion "natural" scrolling, which is to say opposite of every other application more than a few months old) along with added mouse behavior (being able to turn pages with the scroll wheel). Finally, optimizing comic-load time would be worth the effort. Still, its already my favorite Mac comic viewer, and well worth a buck.

Id been a long time CDisplay user (PC), and since switching over to the Mac Ive been pining for an app thats as good as that, to no avail. Today I decided to look for a reader in the AppStore and stumbled upon this one. What a surprise! While its true that the comics take a bit to load, and I wish that it would cache the next and previous pages so that you would always see them high quality (hint,hint), everything else is great. Full screen is well implemented, and the page flipping with the trackpad feels natural. It also handles dual page display gracefully, and even supports manga style page ordering! This is the best no-frills comic reader app Ive used by far!

Finally a comic book reader that I can recommend for Mac. Easily a 4 star app, if they add keyboard controls and a better library it is five star. Either way, buy this if you are interested in reading your comic collection on your Mac.

maybe double-tap for zooming in/out of screen width, or something like that? otherwise a great piece of software! Many thanks!

Well I think this app is much more integrated with Lion then any other out there. I usually use COMIX to read manga...but compiling it is a pain. Definitly COMIX is a much better app on the whole than this app but I like the multitoch in this app. I hope the future versions get better and incorporate some more features like... 1. Better multitoch....right now to be frank it is a hit or miss using multitouch 2. jumping to next file in the folder/Folder browsing... 3. Library 4. Customizing the hotkeys...I do not like to use aroow key for browsing...I use space and shift+space for it...I hope I can customize in future versions... Developer(s) can look at BOOKMAN for ipad...if features like that are included ...I do not mind to pay money for the upgrade.... Right now it is 3/5....But i hope this app will improve.

The best comic reader on OSX but not working on Mountain Lion (with a Retina MPB). Will not display the comic at all. That said, the interface is very nice and the multi-touch controls are good. Update: I have received word that an update with 10.8 support is coming, hence the revised rating.

After working with the Drawnstrips support team, I can honestly say that this is the best comics reading app out there. After the Mountain Lion and Retina Display upgrade work, I am happy to recommend this app. 99 cents is a steal. Thanks Drawnstrips!

This is a very nice little app for reading CBR and CBZ files on your mac. It really shines if you have lion and the trackpad, swiping left and right to turn the pages feels very natural and it loads super fast. About the only negative is that it does not remember my custom viewing size when I change from comic book to comic book but other than that it is a much used and appreciate app. This new version fixes a loading issue I had after upgrading to Mountain Lion, it is all good now!

This does what it says, but I was looking for an improvement over the freeware out there, and this isnt it.