People read comics on their iPhone because it is always in their pocket: on the train, in a waiting room, in the evening when the iPad stayed downstairs. The album opens, the whole page fits on the screen... and the balloons can't be read. That is not your comic reader's fault, it is a matter of inches. Here is why, what other apps offer, and how panel-by-panel reading in Pagira solves it.
A comic page on a phone screen, in numbers
A European album page is about 24 x 32 cm (9.4 x 12.6 in), an American comic book page about 17 x 26 cm (6.6 x 10.2 in). The screen of a 6.1-inch iPhone is roughly 6.5 cm (2.6 in) wide. Held upright, it shows an album page at a little over a quarter of its printed size, and a comic book page at well under half: about the size of a business card.
The artwork survives, the lettering doesn't. Letters around 3 mm tall on paper drop to about a millimetre. On a phone, a full page is something you look at, not something you read.
Zooming by hand: pinch, drag, repeat
The usual workaround is the pinch. You enlarge the first panel, read it, drag the image to find the next one, zoom out to see where it is, zoom back in. A page often holds six to ten panels; a 46-page album means several hundred pinches. And every drag risks losing the reading order, especially when the panels are not lined up.
Turning the iPhone sideways doesn't help: the page is taller than it is wide, so it shows even smaller, or has to be scrolled.
The publishers' answer: guided reading
The big platforms solved this long ago with panel-by-panel reading, where one tap moves the screen from one panel to the next. Comixology called it Guided View, and it now lives in the Kindle app. It works well, with one big limit: the panels are cut out by the publisher, album by album. So it only works for comics bought on the platform, never for the CBZ or CBR files you already have.
What about your own files?
Nobody has cut out the panels of a CBZ or CBR file in advance: the reader has to find them itself, page by page. Apple Books doesn't read these formats at all, and the Files app only offers to decompress the archive (see our guide to reading comics on iPhone and iPad). A few comic readers have tried:
| App | Reads your CBZ and CBR files | Panel by panel | On what terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Books | No | No | - |
| Kindle (Guided View) | No, Kindle purchases only | Yes, cut out by the publisher | On supported titles |
| Panels | Yes, imported into its library | Yes, labelled experimental | Panels Premium |
| Pagira | Yes, read where they are | Yes | Included in the one-time purchase |
Other readers, such as YACReader, also advertise a panel-by-panel mode. This table was put together in October 2026 from the App Store listings and the developers' guides; apps change, so check before you choose.
How Pagira reads panel by panel
In a comic, tap Aa › Panel by Panel. The page first shows whole, so you see the layout, then a tap anywhere opens the first panel, and each tap after that the next one. A swipe goes back to the previous panel. After the last panel comes the next page.
- The page doesn't move. The panel grows over its own place, and the others stay visible behind a veil. You always know where you are on the page, which a full-screen zoom loses. The enlargement goes from 1x to Max; on iPhone, Max is the default.
- A balloon is never cut. Pagira cuts the page along its gutters, the spaces between panels, then reads the text in the balloons: a balloon that spills over a gutter stays whole, and two panels joined by a balloon are read together. A panel may come out a little too big, never too small.
- The right order, manga included. Panels are read left to right and top to bottom, or right to left when the album is a manga.
- Large panels too. Pinch on an enlarged panel to zoom inside it; the frame and the page stay put.
- The cover and two-page spreads drawn as one picture are read whole: cutting them would mix up the two pages.
- Everything happens on the device. The panels are found by the iPhone or iPad itself, offline. No page ever leaves the device.
An album that doesn't suit it is read as pages
No automatic detection is perfect, and a bad cut is worse than no cut at all. So before starting, Pagira looks at a dozen pages of the album. If it finds too few panels, it says so ("Panel by Panel Unavailable") and the album is read as pages, as usual, rather than serving you made-up panels.
On about a hundred pages checked one by one, the panels are found exactly in nearly nine cases out of ten, and in the vast majority of cases for European albums and comic books with clear gutters. The weak spots are known: manga with open, unframed panels, very dense layouts where panels overlap, and albums drawn without any frames, which stay read as pages.
Picking up on the other device
A comic started on the iPhone on the train carries on on the iPad in the evening. For an album stored in iCloud Drive, the page follows through iCloud, and in panel-by-panel mode so does the panel: the iPad reopens the panel where you stopped. The choice of mode follows too, album by album.
Outside panel-by-panel mode, a panel is still within reach: reading page by page, a double tap or a long press on a panel enlarges it, and a pinch zooms inside it.
In practice
- Install Pagira from the App Store (iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later).
- Tap Open a folder or file and pick the folder of your comics, in Files or iCloud Drive. Nothing is imported.
- Open an album and tap Aa › Panel by Panel. To turn it on for all your albums, and choose the enlargement, go to Settings › Comics.
The trial unlocks everything, panel by panel included, for 20 document openings; opening a folder doesn't count. After that, a one-time purchase of $11.99, with no subscription and no account.
Frequently asked questions
Can you read comics panel by panel on iPhone?
Yes. Since version 3.1 (October 2026), Pagira reads comics panel by panel on iPhone and iPad: each panel grows in turn and the balloons can be read without zooming.
Does Pagira's panel-by-panel reading work with my CBZ and CBR files?
Yes. Pagira finds the panels itself in your CBZ, CBR, CB7 and CBT files, with no cut prepared by a publisher, and reads them where they are stored.
Are the panels detected automatically?
Yes, on the device and offline. Before starting, Pagira checks that the album suits it; if not, it says so and the album is read as pages.
Can a speech balloon be cut in half?
No. Pagira reads the text in the balloons before cutting the page: a balloon that spills over stays whole, and two panels joined by a balloon are read together.
Does panel-by-panel reading work with manga?
Yes. Panels are read right to left when the album is a manga. Pages with open, unframed panels may stay read whole.
Do I need a subscription to read panel by panel?
No. Panel-by-panel reading is included in Pagira's one-time purchase, and available during the free trial.
