Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/fossdroid/comments/1u28wrr/chika_an_opensource_comic_reader_that_autozooms/

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The original was posted on /r/fossdroid by /u/batunii on 2026-06-10 17:29:27+00:00.

Reading comics on a phone usually means pinch-zooming around a full page. I wanted something that just walks me panel by panel, so I built Chika (Chitra Katha).

You open a CBZ/CBR, and it detects the panels on each page with an on-device ML model, then guides you through them one tap at a time: page → panel 1 → panel 2 → … → zoom back out → next page.

Features

• CBZ and CBR (including RAR5)

• On-device panel detection (a small Manga109-trained model) fully offline, nothing leaves your phone

• Smart grouping: tiny panels merge into one comfortable zoom; oversized panels get split

• Tap to step panels, swipe to turn pages, pinch + drag to pan, page scrubber, LTR/RTL toggle

• Library with cover thumbnails and resume (remembers page and panel)

• No ads, no trackers, no accounts, no network permission

• Open source (MPL-2.0)

Download: APK on the Releases page → https://github.com/batunii/chika/releases

Source / repo: https://github.com/batunii/chika

Sideload it (Android 8.0+; you'll need to allow installing from your browser/file manager). ~44 MB. I'm planning to get it onto IzzyOnDroid/F-Droid too.

Honesty bit: This is an early release (v0.1.x). The panel detection is ML-based, so it isn't perfect and it can miss or mis-split on busy/borderless pages. Feedback and issues are very welcome.

Disclosure: The app itself was built with heavy AI assistance, but every change was reviewed and tested on a real device by me (a human) before release, and the whole thing is open source so you can read exactly what it does. I used AI because even though I have experience with Web development and system software, app dev was still new to me, and learning and implementation would have taken a long time for me to get it working. I only built it for my self, before I realized even my friends wanted this, so I started working more on it and open sourced it for everyone.

Thank You.