QManga Editor's Review

Everyday we encounter questionable applications, with limited or useless functionality. Some of them are based on great ideas but are not enough supported by the developer in order to become the desired software. I hope Qmanga won't be such an example.

Started as a free project by a single person, Qmanga was meant to become a simple comic reader for Windows. Its simplicity puts the Qmanga's functionality into question. Is it worth to be considered a true comic reader? Partially, I would say yes.

While the title suggests a comic reader specialized on manga, the truth is that with Qmanga you can read any comics which may be in the JPG, ZIP, RAR, PNG, GIF, even CBZ and CBR format. With a single toolbar on top of the main window providing the basic tools for scrolling through pages, rotating the image and getting into fullscreen mode, Qmanga provides the perfect medium for viewing comics. But it still lacks of some important features that are common for most of the e-book readers. It has no Page Thumbnails list that gives you the ability to jump to any desired page from a single glimpse. It features no pagination, or zoom option.

Although it is still in beta, Qmanga runs flawless. It really stands out from the crowd because of its fast loading and browsing operation. Whether compressed or not, any digital comic file will be opened at the same speed. An interesting addition to the latest version is the scroll sensitivity option making the mouse an important tool for Qmanga. In case you are used to work in an old fashion way, there are a couple of commands that can be performed directly from the keyboard.

Pluses: free, simple to use, fast reader, supports all kinds of comic files;

Drawbacks/flaws: still in beta which gives the user the impression of an incomplete product;

In conclusion: Qmanga is a proper comic reader but lacks of some important features that may be implemented into the first stable version.

version reviewed: 0.3b