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# Digital Manga Buyer's Guide

This guide is intended to help you decide where to purchase your digital manga depending on your needs.

# Things to consider when buying

  • Image quality varies by publisher and by platform
  • Convenience of platform apps varies, consider testing them if you plan to read without removing DRM.
  • If you're not able to back up your purchases locally you could lose them entirely if a platform closes.
  • DRM-free does not always mean "free from identifiable info".

To simplify the guide, here "resolution" essentially means "quality".Although some publishers(e.g. Yen Press) offer low resolution images with minimal JPEG compression as "high quality", we will still consider this as low quality since most readers would see it that way.

# General Platform

Store Resolution DRM Removal SFW Recommended
Amazon (Kindle) Low (x1920)1 Easy ✅ NO
Amazon (Comixology) Highest2 Hard ✅ NO
Apple Books Standard Medium ✅ NO
BookWalker Global Standard Very Easy ✅ NO3
Google Play Books Standard Very Easy ✅ YES
Humble Bundle Highest DRM-Free ✅ YES
Kobo Standard Easy ✅ YES
  1. Blurry downscales for anything that would be above that on other platforms
  2. Excluding Humble PDFs and a few publishers
  3. Unless they have exclusives or discounts, as other platforms are easier

# Publishers

Store Resolution DRM-Free SFW Highest Quality
Azuki x48007 ✅ ✅ Own Store
Dark Horse x3000+1 ❌ ✅ Comixology
DENPA Varies ❌ ✅ Own Store
FAKKU! x3200 ✅ ❌ Own Store
Glacier Bay Books Varies ❌ ✅ Own Store
Irodori Comics x3200 ✅ ❌ Own Store / Fakku
J-Novel Club x3840 ✅ ✅ Own Store
Kaiten Books ~x2400 ✅ ✅ Own Store
Kodansha USA ~x30002 ❌ ✅ Humble Bundle / Comixology
Seven Seas Entertainment x30003 ❌ ✅ Comixology
Square Enix Manga & Books ~x2230 ❌ ✅ Same Everywhere
Star Fruit Books Varies ✅ ✅ Own Store
TOKYOPOP ~x23004 ❌ ✅ Same Everywhere
VAST Visual ~x22505 ❌ ✅ Apple Books
VIZ x2100-x24756 ❌ ✅ Kobo
Yen Press x1350 ❌ ✅ Same Everywhere
  1. Standard non-CMX/Amazon HD resolution is x2048 everywhere, including their own store.
  2. Humble Bundle PDF export resolution ranges from x4500 - x4913. CMX resolution varies, older volumes were mostly between x3056 and x3684, and post-CMX Amazon HD volumes are ~x2700. Standard non-CMX/Amazon HD resolution ranges between x227x - x2400 (except for their own storefront which should be avoided, as it offers the worst quality and resolution combination at x2160 q40). K Manga simulpub chapters are x1378, CMX simulpub chapters were generally x3056.
  3. Ranges between x3206 - x3713 for Comixology volumes. Post-CMX Amazon HD volume res has been downgraded to x2565 - ~x2722 (with outlier x3072 volumes). Standard non-CMX/Amazon HD resolution is x2000 everywhere except for Bookwalker where it is x1500.
  4. ~x2300 for newer (~post mid-2021) releases, but ~x1600 for older releases. Same quality no matter where you buy (except for Kindle).
  5. Older titles are low quality, recent titles are decent quality. Apple Books has the highest quality.
  6. Upscaled at Comixology so volumes should be bought from elsewhere.
  7. Standard resolution outside of their own storefront is x2400, chapters are also x2400 - these figures are only validated for their own licenses.