Comic Viewers

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A list of programs specifically geared to reading digital comics, excluding generic image viewers. Mostly ripped from: http://www.geocities.jp/comicview7/

The most popular comic viewer on Windows is CDisplay.

There are quite a lot of comic viewers out there with a non-English interface. Some of them are way superior to their English counterparts, so there is merit in listing them, even if the interface is puzzling.


Contents

[edit] Windows

Comparison of Windows comic viewers
name archive formats image formats
bdzExplorer folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE, PDF JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF & others
BDViewer ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF  ?
CBViewer ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)  ?
CDisplay (up to 1.8) folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT) JPEG, GIF, PNG
CDisplay (1.8+) folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT) JPEG, GIF, PNG
CDisplayEx folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT), 7Z, LZH, ARJ, CAB, GZ, BZ2 JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Comical folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR) JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF
ComicRack ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), TAR (CBT), 7z (CB7), PDF JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP
GonVisor ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), PDF JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP
Hamana folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF, 7Z, CAB, ARJ, LZH JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
Jomic ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
MangaMeeya ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ARC (CBA), PDF JPEG
NDisplay ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)  ?
pixelComic  ?  ?
PyComicsViewer folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)  ?


Comparison by features of a select few
name dual page support colour correction handle wrong filetype read issues sequentially
display two pages at once navigate two pages at once first page separate suppress for spreads
CDisplay yes yes no yes yes yes yes
CDisplayEx yes no no no yes yes yes
Comical yes no no yes no no no
ComicRack yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Hamana yes yes no yes perhaps no yes


[edit] bdzExplorer

"Scanned Comic Management. Include two parts : the Management and the Viewer. Rar, ace, zip, cbz and cbr archives are supported. You can see your pictures without uncompress them if you want ! Can be used too for displaying pictures ! Supports the Jpeg format for numerical pictures reading ! Very simple and fast. Includes a recursive search of comics."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE, PDF
Image formats  
BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, PCX, PCC, PBM, PDD, PGM, PSP, PSD, TIFF
Last version  
3.1.2, 2004-03-12
License  
freeware
Language  
English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portugese, Spanish

http://english.fbsoft.org/


[edit] BDViewer

"BDViewer is a software for reading comic strips. It is composed of two interfaces : an interface of selection of comic strips and an interface of reading."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
0.07b, 2006-01-20
Requires  
Java JRE 5.0
License  
freeware
Language  
English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

http://www.titous.com/bdviewer/ (dead link)
http://www.download.com/BDViewer/3000-2193_4-10493799.html

[edit] CBViewer

"CBViewer is a program for browsing comic book archives on your computer. It can handle .zip, .cbz, .cbr, and .rar files. To be able to view .rar and .cbr archives you will need to get the unrar executable for your OS."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
0.7, 2006-11-21
Requires  
Java, unrar
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://www.renuncln.com/programs/cbviewer/cbviewer.php http://sourceforge.net/projects/cbviewer/

[edit] CDisplay

There are three versions of CDisplay floating around these days. The last official release was 1.8.0.1, which was released back in 2004. Since then two new, unofficial, continuing branches have emerged.


[edit] CDisplay (up to 1.8)

"The Windows Image Viewer 'CDisplay' was written to ease the viewing of images in JPEG, PNG and static GIF format. This was partly down to the existing programs currently available being too general purpose and thus awkward to use when simply wanting to view images sequentially."
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG
Latest version  
1.8.0.1, 2004-04-20
License  
freeware

http://www.geocities.com/davidayton/CDisplay


[edit] CDisplay (Unofficial update 1.8+)

"David Ayton, the original author of everyone's favourite comic book viewing program CDisplay, disappeared from the web sometime last year. Since then, users have been left wanting new features and bug fixes with no way to implement them."
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG
Latest version  
1.8.5.1, 2006-08-19
License  
freeware

Download links: @Mediafire @Filedropper
Torrent: @Thepiratebay

[edit] CDisplayEx

"CDisplayEx is a Comic reader based on CDisplay. It use the popular 7-zip plugins to read many archives types like cbr cbz cbt rar zip tar 7z lzh arj cab tar.gz tar.bz2. It supports jpeg png gif and bmp images."
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT), 7Z, LZH, ARJ, CAB, GZ, BZ2
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Latest version  
1.4, 2006-09-02
License  
freeware (MPL)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/cdisplayex/


[edit] Comical

"If you're looking for a CBR and CBZ reader for your favorite OS, look no farther. Comical is an easy-to-use, featureful GUI comic book viewer, written in C++ using wxWidgets. It's open-source, so feel Free to contribute!"
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF
Latest version  
0.8, 2006-03-06
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://comical.sourceforge.net/


[edit] ComicRack

It is an all in one solution to read your eComics and also manage your library. You can think of it as a kind of ITunes for eComics with lots of the same functionality.

As a reader ComicRack supports all the state of the art features you can expect: different display modes, full screen, information overlays, magnifier, color adjustments, automatic backcolor matching and a multi tab interface to quickly switch between eComics.

As a manager you can browse and search your eComics in the library, create folders and lists to organize them. You can customize the lists to show just the information you need and use advanced tools to tag and edit the information for your eComics. Or create Smart lists to display dynamic lists based on eComic info (never read, author, series etc.)

Like with iTunes you can share your library across your home network and read your eComics on your Tablet/Notebook via wireless.

ComicRack is multilingual: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and other language packs are available.


  • Native 32 bit & 64 bit versions
  • Supports reading cbz/zip/cbr/rar/cbt/tar/cb7/7z/pdf comics.
  • Database management (extended info storage, thumbnails, quick search, smart searches, custom lists, etc.)
  • Full screen reading mode with two page display, various zoom modes, auto rotation (for tablet pcs), etc.
  • Smart parsing of file names for good initial values (series, number, volume, year etc.)
  • Exporting Comic List into CSV Format
  • Comic Library Network Sharing with optional password protection
  • Custom display grouping, sorting, stacking and filtering
  • Multiple views formats
  • User definable Keyboard shortcuts
  • Thumbnail generation with customization
  • In-viewer extended info editing
  • Batch conversion to cbz/cb7/cbt of all supported import formats


Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), TAR (CBT), CB7 (7z), PDF
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP
Latest version  
0.9.93, 2008-08-04
License  
freeware

http://comicrack.cyolito.com/

[edit] Fiew

"Fiew Image Viewer is a sequential image viewer designed to be used with big collections of images of various types, including those archived in zip and rar files."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP
Requirements  
Microsoft Windows XP or newer (or Windows with GDI+)
Latest version  
2.0.0.1, 2006-12-26
License  
freeware

[edit] GonVisor

"Viewer of pictures, comics, magazines, books, images in electronic format. Created to view image sequences, fitting them to the proper size, and create and open container files of images (cbr, cbz, cba, rar, ace or zip). Managing these kinds of files, GonVisor allows the user to group in only one file an unlimited amount of sorted pictures, as an album, access of which can be protected with a password.. You can create cb* files (with detailed file info), search and preview them and also extract images from them"
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF, GIF, BMP
Latest version  
1.73, 2007-04-18
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://es.geocities.com/gonvisor

[edit] Hamana

Japanese reader, sporting an English interface. Uses DirectX to render the display, meaning that it can lock up certain machines when it doesn't like your drivers.

Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF, 7Z, CAB, ARJ, LZH
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
Latest version  
1.48, 2006-06-19
License  
freeware
Requires  
DirectX 9.0c, Ghostscript (for PDF)
Language  
Japanese, Chinese, Portugese, English

http://miyano.s53.xrea.com/ (Japanese site)


[edit] Jomic

"Jomic is a viewer for comic books stored in CBZ, CBR, and PDF files. Features include a two page mode, caching and support for several image formats (PNG, JFIF/JPEG, TIFF, and GIF). It is Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
Latest version  
0.9.30, 2008-04-20
Requires  
Java 1.4+, Java Advanced Imaging and unrar (3.50+)
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://jomic.sourceforge.net/

[edit] MangaMeeya

Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface. You wouldn't tell it from the site, but this baby is blindingly fast. A Japanese reviewer called the interface "puzzling", so imagine how puzzling it can be if you can't read Japanese.

Sadly, it was discontinued over some license issues.

Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ARC (CBA), PDF
Image formats  
JPEG
Latest version  
7.4 beta, 2006-06-04
License  
freeware

http://db23c.dnsalias.com/MangaMeeya/ (dead)

http://aaa-www.net/~mangameeya/cgi-bin/ (wiki, Japanese)


[edit] NDisplay

Z-Cult resident CPN threw this one together. Appears abandoned.

Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
 ?
Last verstion  
alpha, 2005-09-11
License  
freeware

http://zcultfm.com/~comic/viewtopic.php?t=38965


[edit] pixelComic

"pixelComic is a skinnable comic books viewer filled with nice features like fullscreen support to make your reading much more fun and enjoyable."
Archive formats 
 ?
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
1.26, 2003-09-15
License  
freeware

http://futureprojects.free.fr/pixelcomic/ (mirror)


[edit] PyComicsViewer

"A Comic Viewer in Python"
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)
Image formats  
 ?
Requires  
Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.4, GTK
Latest version  
0.9.12, 2005-02-28
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://developer.berlios.de/projects/pcv/

[edit] Mac

Comparison of Mac comic viewers
name archive formats image formats
Comical folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR) JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF
ComicBookLover folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR) JPEG
cooViewer folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), LZH, LHA, 7Z, SIT, PDF PEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
FFView folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF  ?
Jomic ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP & others
PyComicsViewer folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)  ?


[edit] Comical

"If you're looking for a CBR and CBZ reader for your favorite OS, look no farther. Comical is an easy-to-use, featureful GUI comic book viewer, written in C++ using wxWidgets. It's open-source, so feel Free to contribute!"
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF
Latest version  
0.8, 2006-03-06
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://comical.sourceforge.net/


[edit] ComicBookLover

"ComicBookLover is an easy to use digital comic viewer, collector and organiser.
  • Find comics by browsing cover art.
  • View comics in full-screen mode, with external display support.
  • Edit comic information quickly and easily.
  • Supports popular comic archive formats CBR and CBZ."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF, folder
Image formats  
JPEG (perhaps more)
License  
shareware ($24.95)
Requires  
Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Supports Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Latest version  
1.3 build 810 (date unknown)

http://www.bitcartel.com/comicbooklover/

[edit] cooViewer

Japanese comic viewer with an English interface.

Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), LZH, LHA, 7Z, SIT, PDF
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
License  
freeware
Latest version  
1.2 beta 18, 2008-03-02
Language  
Japanese | English

http://www.geocities.jp/coo_ona/viewer_en.html (English) http://www.geocities.jp/coo_ona/viewer.html (Japanese)

[edit] FFView

"FFView is a fast OpenGL-powered picture viewer a la ACDsee (2.x). It is aimed at letting you read manga or other comics onscreen (windowed & fullscreen mode). Features include fast prefetching, smooth panning, voice commands, 2-page mode, a magnifying lens, the ability to browse pictures inside archives (.rar/.cbr, .zip/.cbz/, .pdf) and sticky per-picture options. It reads EXIF tags and is scriptable."
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
0.9.9, 2007-08-26
License  
freeware
Language  
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Swedish

http://www.feedface.com/projects/ffview.html

[edit] Jomic

"Jomic is a viewer for comic books stored in CBZ, CBR, and PDF files. Features include a two page mode, caching and support for several image formats (PNG, JFIF/JPEG, TIFF, and GIF). It is Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
Latest version  
0.9.30, 2008-04-20
Requires  
Java 1.4+, Java Advanced Imaging and unrar (3.50+)
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://jomic.sourceforge.net/

[edit] PyComicsViewer

"A Comic Viewer in Python"
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)
Image formats  
 ?
Requires  
Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.4, GTK
Latest version  
0.9.12, 2005-02-28
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://borco.net/html/PyComicsViewer/

[edit] *nix

Comparison of *nix comic viewers
name archive formats image formats
Asparagino's Comic Viewer ZIP (CBZ)  ?
cbrPager ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR) JPEG, GIF, PNG
CBView ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)  ?
CBViewer ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)  ?
Comical folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR) JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF
ComicMaster ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)  ?
Comix folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), TAR, GZ, BZ2 JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP, ICO, XPM, XBM
Jomic ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP & others
PyComicsViewer folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)  ?
QComicBook ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT) JPEG, PNG


[edit] Asparagino's Comic Viewer

"A minimal java-gnome application thrown together for viewing the contents of scanned comic archive files (.cbz, .zip etc.) on Linux."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ)
Image formats  
 ?
Last version  
0.1 (2005-11-15?)
Requires  
Java, Java Gnome (2.6.0+)
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://home.asparagine.net/software/comicviewer/


[edit] cbrPager

"A no-nonsense, simple to use, small viewer for cbr and cbz (comic book archive) files. As it is written in C, the executable is small and fast. It views jpg (or jpeg), gif and png images, and you can zoom in and out."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image fornats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG
Latest version  
0.9.19, 2008-05-23
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://www.jcoppens.com/soft/cbrpager/index.en.php

[edit] CBView

"CBView is a viewer/converter for CBR/CBZ comic book archives, written with gtk2-perl."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
0.06, 2004-04-06
License  
freeware

http://elvine.org/code/cbview/


[edit] CBViewer

"CBViewer is a program for browsing comic book archives on your computer. It can handle .zip, .cbz, .cbr, and .rar files. To be able to view .rar and .cbr archives you will need to get the unrar executable for your OS."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
0.7, 2006-11-21
Requires  
Java, unrar
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://www.renuncln.com/programs/cbviewer/cbviewer.php

[edit] Comical

"If you're looking for a CBR and CBZ reader for your favorite OS, look no farther. Comical is an easy-to-use, featureful GUI comic book viewer, written in C++ using wxWidgets. It's open-source, so feel Free to contribute!"
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF
Latest version  
0.8, 2006-03-06
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://comical.sourceforge.net/


[edit] ComicMaster

Comic viewer by Z-Culter Tanuki.

Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
0038, 2006-06-25
Requires  
Qt 4.1
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://zcultfm.com/~comic/viewtopic.php?t=36580


[edit] Comix

"Comix is a user-friendly, customizable image viewer. It is specifically designed to handle comic books, but also serves as a generic viewer. It reads images in ZIP, RAR or tar archives (also gzip or bzip2 compressed) as well as plain image files. It is written in Python and uses GTK+ through the PyGTK bindings."
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), TAR, GZ, BZ2
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP, ICO, XPM, XBM
Latest version  
3.6.5, 2008-07-07
Requires  
Python, GTK+, unrar
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://comix.sourceforge.net/

[edit] Jomic

"Jomic is a viewer for comic books stored in CBZ, CBR, and PDF files. Features include a two page mode, caching and support for several image formats (PNG, JFIF/JPEG, TIFF, and GIF). It is Open Source software distributed under the GNU General Public License."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), PDF
Image formats  
JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP & others
Latest version  
0.9.30, 2008-04-20
Requires  
Java 1.4+, Java Advanced Imaging and unrar (3.50+)
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://jomic.sourceforge.net/

[edit] PyComicsViewer

"A Comic Viewer in Python"
Archive formats 
folder, ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA)
Image formats  
 ?
Requires  
Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.4, GTK
Latest version  
0.9.12, 2005-02-28
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://developer.berlios.de/projects/pcv/

[edit] QComicBook

"QComicBook is a viewer for comic book archives containing jpeg/png images, which aims at convenience and simplicity."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR), ACE (CBA), TAR (CBT)
Image formats  
JPEG, PNG
Requires  
Qt4 and the various archive programs.
Latest version  
0.4, 2007-11-06
License  
freeware (GPL)

http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=19509

[edit] Other platforms

[edit] Palm

[edit] ComicGURU

"ComicGURU is the most stunning solution for changing your PDA into an electronic ComicBook."
Archive formats 
proprietary
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
2.0.2, 2003-02-21
License  
shareware

http://www.comicguru.net/


[edit] ComiX

"ComiX PalmOS is a comicbook reader for PalmOS handhelds. It comes with a converter (Windows .NET) that opens .cbr and .cbz files, scales the images for better viewing on mobile devices."
Archive formats 
ZIP (CBZ), RAR (CBR)
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
1.2, 2006-09-18
License  
commercial

http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&prodid=125399


[edit] PocketPC

[edit] ComicGURU

"ComicGURU is the most stunning solution for changing your PDA into an electronic ComicBook."
Archive formats 
proprietary
Image formats  
 ?
Latest version  
2.0.2, 2003-02-21
License  
shareware

http://www.comicguru.net/




[edit] some other Japanese (plus one Chinese) viewers

These still need to be properly formatted.


[edit] BkView

Japanese comic viewer. Interface looks pretty Japanese too.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: zip, rar, lha

Status: dead (last version: 0.3.0 beta, 2004-12)

License: freeware

http://k-min.hp.infoseek.co.jp/bkview.html

[edit] comicoon

Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: zip, rar, lha

Status: dead (last version: 1.3, 2005-04-2)

License: freeware

http://homepage.mac.com/jackyravo256/paso17.html

[edit] ComicsViewer

Chinese comic viewer. English translation available.

"A picture viewer with some enhanced features to view scanned comics.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: zip, rar

Status: unknown (last version: 1.21)

License: freeware

http://www.comicer.com/stronghorse/software/index.htm#ComicsViewer

http://www.comicer.com/stronghorse/software/html/ComicsViewer.htm

[edit] ComicViewer

Japanese comic viewer. No idea if the interface is English or Japanese.

Platform: MacOSX

Supported formats: zip (cbz), rar (cbr), lha

Status: unknown (latest version: 1.57)

License: freeware

http://cathand.org/soft.html#comicviewer

[edit] Leeyes

Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface. Like most Japanese viewers, extensible through Susie plugins.

Platform: Windows (2000+)

Supported formats: zip, rar, lzh, cab

Status: active (latest version: 2.5.3, 2006-03-31)

License: freeware

http://www3.tokai.or.jp/boxes/leeyes/


[edit] ZeeD

Japanese comic viewer with Japanese interface. Extensible through Susie plugins, but not bundled with them, so it can't handle much out of the box.

Platform: Windows

Supported formats: whatever Susie plugins can provide

Status: dead (last version: 0.814, 2003-02-23)

License: freeware

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA032995/

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