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Quick Start

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Install comic-dl, download a gallery, and read the archive it produces.

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Install

Download a binary from GitHub Releases, or build from source:

$ git clone https://github.com/fallen020/comic-dl
$ cd comic-dl
$ uv sync

The commands below assume comic-dl is on your PATH. From a source checkout, replace comic-dl with uv run python -m comic_dl. See Installation for platform-specific details.

$ comic-dl -u <gallery-url>

Replace <gallery-url> with a gallery or series page from a supported site.

Find the output

Output lands in <Downloads>/comic-dl/:

Platform Default output
Linux ~/Downloads/comic-dl/
macOS ~/Downloads/comic-dl/
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\comic-dl\

On Windows this follows the real Shell Folders value, so a OneDrive-redirected home still resolves correctly. Run comic-dl config show to print the exact directory for your machine.

Inside the output directory, each series gets its own folder:

<Downloads>/comic-dl/
  <Series Title>/
    ComicInfo.xml       # series metadata
    cover.jpg           # series cover
    <Chapter>.cbz       # chapter archive with embedded ComicInfo.xml

Override the output directory with --output:

$ comic-dl -u <gallery-url> -o ~/Comics

Other ways to provide URLs

From a file

Create a text file with one URL per line:

# My weekend batch
https://e-hentai.org/g/<gid>/<token>/
https://pawchive.pw/patreon/user/<id>/post/<id>/
$ comic-dl -f urls.txt

Blank lines, # comments, and inline # comments after URLs are supported. Duplicate URLs are downloaded once.

Interactive mode

Run without arguments to be prompted for input:

$ comic-dl

What happens during a download

  1. Resolve — match the URL to a scraper and fetch metadata
  2. Download — fetch page images concurrently, 5 at a time by default
  3. Verify — check that each downloaded response is actually an image
  4. Archive — pack the images into a CBZ with a ComicInfo.xml
  5. Record — save the download in the library so future runs can skip it

After your first download