How to read Japanese Manga on Linux

Are you a Japanese Manga fan? Do you wish you had a way to read your favorite ones on the Linux desktop? If so, follow along with this guide to learn how to read Japanese Manga on Linux!

Installing Komikku on Linux

Kommiku is the easiest way to read Japanese Manga comics on the Linux desktop. It has an easy to use interface, is lightweight, and available on most Linux distributions via the Flatpak universal packaging format, the Arch Linux AUR, and as a compilable source-code on GitLab.

Before we go over how to read Japanese Manga comics on your Linux PC, we must go over how to install this app. To start the installation, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, follow the command-line instructions outlined below that corresponds with your operating system.

Arch Linux

Arch Linux users have an easy way to get Komikku installed: the Arch Linux AUR. If you’re ready to get the app working, start by using the Pacman command to install the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages from the official repositories.

sudo pacman -S git base-devel

Following the installation of the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages, it is time to download and set up the Trizen app. This tool will make compiling apps from the source-code in the Arch Linux User Repository much more approachable.

To get the latest version of Trizen, use the git clone command below.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

Move the terminal into the “trizen” directory with the CD command and set up the Trizen AUR helper with the makepkg command.

cd trizen

makepkg -sri

After installing the Trizen tool, you can use it to install the Komikku program with the command below.

trizen -S komikku

Flatpak

If you’re not an Arch Linux user and have no interest in compiling the source code of the app by hand, the only way you’ll be able to read your favorite Japanese Manga comics is by using Flatpak.

To start the installation of Komikku via Flatpak, you must have the Flatpak runtime set up on your system. To set it up, install the “flatpak” package via the terminal. Or, if you’re having some issues getting Flatpak set up, follow this guide on the subject.

Once the Flatpak runtime is working on your Linux PC, use the command below to subscribe to the Flathub app store.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

After your Flatpak installation has Flathub as a source, you’ll be able to install Komikku with the command below.

flatpak install flathub info.febvre.Komikku

Source-code

The source code for Komikku is available via GitLab if you’re not an Arch Linux user or a fan of Flatpak. To compile the app from source, follow the detailed instructions on this page.

Reading Japanese Manga in Komikku

To read Japanese manga in Komikku, launch the app. To launch the app, press Win on the keyboard, type in “Komikku” in the search box, and launch the app with the yellow circular icon. Then, with the app open, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Inside of the Komikku app, locate the app menu button next to the magnifying glass and click on it with the mouse.

Step 2: In the app menu, click on the “Preferences” option to access the app’s “Preferences” area.

Step 3: Inside of “Preferences,” locate the “Server Languages” option and click on it with the mouse.

Step 4: Look through the “Server Languages” section, and scroll through to locate the language you speak. It is important to make this selection; otherwise, you might find yourself sifting through many different Mangas in languages you do not speak.

Step 5: After making your language selection, click the “X” button to close the “Preferences” window. Then, click on the “+” sign at the top-right to select a Manga server.

Step 6: Once you’ve selected a server, you’ll be able to browse through their collection of Mangas. Select one on the list to add to your library.

If you can’t immediately find your favorite Manga, the Komikku app has a per-server search function. Feel free to use it to find what you want to read.

Step 7: When you’ve found the Manga you’d like to read, close the server browser by pressing the Esc button on the keyboard.

Note: you will need to repeat steps 5-7 to add multiple Mangas to your Komikku library.

After you’ve finished adding all the Mangas you’d like to read to your Komikku library, simply click on one to start reading. To access a specific chapter, click on the “Chapters” button.