MangaBinder

Download manga chapters, convert them to PDF, bind them into volumes and export CBZ,
from a friendly browser interface or a single command.

Features

• Parallel downloads. Finds every chapter on a series page and downloads many chapters at once.
• Resume anywhere. Progress is saved, so an interrupted download picks up where it stopped.
• Chapter PDFs. Each chapter becomes one PDF. Re-runs only rebuild chapters that changed.
• Volume PDFs. Chapters are bound into volumes using real volume data from MangaDex / AniList, with a bookmark for every chapter.
• CBZ export. For e-readers and comic apps. Two-page spreads are split in right-to-left order.
• Browser interface. Run everything, watch live progress, and read your volumes in the browser.
• Nothing extra to install. A standalone Windows .exe, or pip install on Windows, macOS and Linux. No Poppler, no Ghostscript.

Install

Pick whichever you already use. Every option gives you the same mangabinder command.

winget, Chocolatey and conda-forge review new packages by hand. If one of those commands can't find mangabinder yet, its review is still in progress; use another option meanwhile.

Then run mangabinder web for the browser interface, or use the command line.

Using the .exe directly: double-click it and the web interface opens, with downloads going to Documents\MangaBinder. Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unrecognised app because the .exe isn't code-signed. Click More info → Run anyway.

Docker

Run the web interface on a server or NAS and open it from any device on your network:

docker run -d --name mangabinder -p 8765:8765 -v ~/Manga:/library ghcr.io/preygle/mangabinder

Then browse to http://<server-ip>:8765. The page has no login, so don't expose that port to the internet. CLI commands work too:

docker run --rm -v ~/Manga:/library -w /library ghcr.io/preygle/mangabinder download URL --volumes

Using the web interface

mangabinder web                          # opens http://127.0.0.1:8765
mangabinder web --library D:\Manga       # keep downloads somewhere else
mangabinder web --host 0.0.0.0           # also reachable from other devices (no login!)

1. Download

Paste the series page, the page on the site that links to every chapter. Then press Download + convert to PDF.

Chapter links like …/chapter-12 are detected automatically. Fill in Chapter link pattern only if a site names its chapters differently (see Supported sites).

2. Watch it run

The Activity panel streams the output of every job live. Stop cancels the current job. Resume is on by default, so pressing the button again later continues from where it stopped.

3. Read, merge and export

Everything you've downloaded appears in the Library:

Click a volume to read it in your browser's PDF viewer. Each chapter is bookmarked:

Dark mode follows your system setting

Command line

One command runs the whole pipeline: download, then chapter PDFs, then volumes.

mangabinder download https://example.com/manga/series-name/ --volumes

Or run each step on its own:

Useful options (run mangabinder <command> --help for all of them):

# download
mangabinder download URL --pattern title-chapter-   # only follow links containing this text
mangabinder download URL --start 120                # skip chapters before 120
mangabinder download URL --threads 8                # gentler on the site (default 16)
mangabinder download URL --fresh                    # ignore saved progress
mangabinder download URL --convert                  # also make chapter PDFs

# volumes
mangabinder merge example.com_pdf --dry-run         # print the volume plan only
mangabinder merge example.com_pdf --title "Monster"  # when the guessed title is wrong
mangabinder merge example.com_pdf --series-id <id> --source mangadex

# cbz
mangabinder cbz example.com_pdf_volumes --dpi 200 --no-split

How it works

Output layout

Documents/MangaBinder/                 (or the folder you ran the command in)
├── example.com/                       downloaded images, one folder per chapter
│   ├── series-chapter-1/1.jpg, 2.jpg, …
│   └── download_state.txt             finished chapters, used to resume
├── example.com_pdf/                   one PDF per chapter
├── example.com_pdf_volumes/           one PDF per volume + volume_map.json
└── example.com_pdf_volumes_cbz/       CBZ files

Supported sites

MangaBinder works with the common "online reader" layout:

• The series page links to each chapter with a normal link (<a href="…/chapter-12/">).
• Each chapter page shows its pages as images (<img src>, or lazy-loaded data-src).

If no chapters are found, open any chapter, look at its address, and pass the part every chapter link shares as the pattern. For example, for https://site.com/manga/monster-chapter-162/ use --pattern monster-chapter-. Sites that load pages with JavaScript only, or that need a login, aren't supported.

Git Bash users: a pattern starting with / gets rewritten into a Windows path by Git Bash. Leave off the leading slash (monster-chapter-) or run the command from PowerShell / cmd.

Volume mapping

The series title is guessed from the chapter names (monster-chapter-1 → Monster) and looked up on MangaDex and AniList. No API key is needed.

1. MangaDex per-chapter volume data is used when it covers at least 70% of the chapters. This is the accurate path.
2. Even split across the published volume count is the fallback when no per-chapter data exists. This is approximate, and the run prints a warning.

Each run writes volume_map.json into the volumes folder. Edit the mapping (chapter → volume) and re-run. A map file always wins over a new lookup, so your corrections stick. Lookups are cached in your user cache folder.

Troubleshooting

Development

git clone https://github.com/Preygle/manga-downloader.git
cd manga-downloader
python -m venv .venv && .venv/Scripts/activate      # macOS/Linux: source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

Build the Windows executable locally:

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller --onefile --console --name mangabinder --icon packaging/icon.ico \
  --collect-all pypdfium2 --collect-all pypdfium2_raw packaging/entry.py

Releasing

1. Bump __version__ in src/mangabinder/__init__.py and merge to master.
2. gh release create vX.Y.Z --generate-notes

Publishing the release runs release.yml, which ships it everywhere:

A channel whose secret is missing is still built and tested, just not published.

Responsible use

MangaBinder is a general-purpose tool. Only download content you have the right to download, respect each site's terms of service, and support the creators by buying official releases where they're available.

License

MIT © Mohammad Owais