Lenticule vs Halftone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lenticule
This app offers an advanced comic and manga reading experience with features like guided panel reading, right-to-left mode, and customizable color options. It integrates with cloud storage for library management and can even scan physical comics.
- Guided panel reading
- Right-to-left manga mode
- Customizable color modes
- Cloud library integration (Dropbox, OneDrive)
- Physical comic scanning
- Spatial 3D depth effect
- TV & Glasses Mode
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Lenticule is the most advanced comic book reader for iPhone and iPad. CBR, CBZ, and PDF with on-device translation, guided panel reading, Right-to-Left manga, 3D depth, color modes, pro HDR, TV & Glasses Mode, and your whole cloud collection — in a stunning Liquid Glass library. TRANSLATE ANY COMIC, RIGHT ON THE PAGE Found a series that never got translated? Tap the globe. Lenticule reads the lettering and paints the translation back into the bubbles - same colors, same style, same energy. Not subtitles at the bottom. The actual page, in your language. Translate one page or the whole issue in the background while you read, flip between original and translated instantly, and fix any line you'd word differently. PRIVATE, OFFLINE, AND YOURS TO KEEP Text recognition, translation, and an optional Apple Intelligence pass that keeps names and tone consistent all run on your device. Nothing is ever uploaded. Works in airplane mode, and you can export the result as a fresh CBZ. The app itself speaks English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Macedonian. GUIDED PANEL READING Lenticule maps every panel and guides you through the action one beat at a time. No manual scrolling, no lost place - just the story, flowing as the artist intended. TRUE RIGHT-TO-LEFT MANGA MODE Read manga the authentic way. RTL mode flips page order, navigation, and double-page spreads so gestures, panel guidance, and transitions flow naturally. COLOR MODES True Hue for artist-accurate color, Noir for black-and-white contrast, and Accent to spotlight one color while the rest fades to grayscale - per comic, and they combine with HDR. YOUR CLOUD LIBRARY Connect Dropbox and OneDrive, or add any folder through the Files app - iCloud Drive, network shares, USB drives. Lenticule catalogs covers and metadata without downloading everything, so you can browse thousands of issues and pull down only what you'll read. Already run your own comic server? Give Lenticule your Komga, Kavita, or OPDS address and your library arrives with its covers, series, and metadata intact. Lenticule reads the server you host - it doesn't provide comics or help you find any. SCAN YOUR PHYSICAL COMICS Scan straight from your camera and Lenticule turns the pages into clean CBZ files - automatic edge detection, perspective correction, and optional AI enhancement that sharpens and upscales. SPATIAL 3D DEPTH The Spatial Engine separates foreground subjects from background layers, giving flat art a subtle parallax that makes characters feel alive. TV & GLASSES MODE Plug in USB-C display glasses - XREAL, VITURE, RayNeo, Rokid - or AirPlay to your TV, and your comic fills the screen. Your phone becomes the remote: turn pages, zoom, and pan without looking down. Side-by-side glasses get true stereoscopic depth. PRO-GRADE HDR RENDERING Extended Dynamic Range pushes your screen's full brightness and gamut - vibrant inks, deep blacks, highlights that shine. SILKY SMOOTH PERFORMANCE A tiled-rendering pipeline keeps even huge PDFs and CBZ archives scrolling without a hint of lag. Zoom in and catch every detail. INTELLIGENT LIBRARY Automatic metadata, covers, and thousands of issues organized effortlessly - inside a premium Liquid Glass interface built for iOS 26. Export any comic as the untouched original or an optimized copy. DEVICE COMPATIBILITY - Guided Panel Reading: 4 GB RAM+ (iPhone 11 or newer; M-series iPads). - Ultra-Detail Mode: 6 GB RAM+. - HDR / EDR: Super Retina XDR or Liquid Retina XDR display. - TV & Glasses Mode: any AirPlay screen or USB-C glasses; stereoscopic 3D needs side-by-side (SBS) glasses. - Comic Translation: iOS 18 or later; language packs download once, then run offline. The Apple Intelligence pass needs a supported device - translation works great without it. NOTE: Lenticule does NOT contain or distribute comics. All comics shown in previews are for demonstration purposes only.
Halftone
This app provides a seamless reading experience for comics and manga from various sources like Komga, Kavita, and cloud storage. It features unique zoom controls for comfortable one-handed reading and supports multiple file formats.
- Connects to Komga, Kavita, and other OPDS catalogs
- Hold Zoom for one-handed reading
- Page-level progress sync
- Supports various file formats (CBZ, CBR, PDF)
- Webtoon mode for long-strip scrolling
- Privacy features like Incognito reading
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The reader your comic and manga server deserves — and the comfiest way to read on a phone. Halftone connects straight to the places you already keep comics: Komga and Kavita (native, not just OPDS), Audiobookshelf, any OPDS catalog, SMB shares on your NAS, WebDAV, Dropbox, OneDrive, and the files on your device. No account with us. No middleman server. No ads. PANEL VIEW Read one panel at a time, in the right order — manga's right-to-left included. Tap or swipe to step through the page, hold to peek at the whole thing, and pick Overlay or Fade to dim everything but the panel you're on. HOLD ZOOM Press and hold anywhere and the page magnifies; pan with the same finger — one-handed, made for dense pages and small lettering. Rest your thumb at a screen edge and the page keeps moving. Free for everyone — no unlock, no trial, no asterisk. YOUR SERVER, FIRST-CLASS • Komga and Kavita: native API clients — series, collections, page-by-page streaming • Audiobookshelf: your server's comics, with its covers and progress • Two-way, page-level progress sync — stop on your iPhone, and the server's web reader opens on the same page • OPDS for everything else: Codex, Ubooquity, Calibre-Web, Stump, and more • SMB and WebDAV — your NAS, found automatically • Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, and any Files-app folder • Stream page by page without importing (CBZ and most CBR/RAR), or pin chapters for offline with one tap • Synced folders: point Halftone at a folder on your NAS or cloud drive and it mirrors the whole tree, subfolders and all • iCloud sync carries your place to your other devices through your own iCloud — for imported comics and every source with no sync of its own A READER BUILT FOR COMICS • Apple Books–style page curl that folds at the spine — or a classic slide • Double-page spreads with one-tap pairing fixes, spine shadow, and paper margins • True right-to-left for manga: page order, tap zones, curl, and scrubber all follow • A proper webtoon mode: smooth long-strip scrolling, detected automatically • Crop Borders trims scanned margins so the art fills the screen, and can drop credit strips • Tap zones your way: Left-Right, L-Shaped, Top-Bottom, or off • Match Page backgrounds: margins take the page's own color — or Backdrop, a soft blur of the page itself A LIBRARY THAT KEEPS UP • Built for thousands of files: search down to the single comic, collections, merge and move • Folders for loose comics — one-shots and odd issues, no fake series required • Reads ComicInfo.xml on import: real series names, correct chapter order, right-to-left detected • Wi-Fi transfer from any computer's browser • One-tap backup to a folder you pick; export as standard CBZ with ComicInfo.xml • Privacy tools: Incognito reading, Face ID app lock, hidden comics READS EVERYTHING CBZ/ZIP, CBR/RAR, CB7/7z, PDF, image-based ePub (DRM-free), and plain folders of images. FAIR PRICING, NO DARK PATTERNS Free is genuinely free: your whole local library, no series limit, full quality, spreads, right-to-left, webtoon scrolling, Hold Zoom, and the Panel View preview — and it never expires. Premium adds the connected half — servers, cloud drives, streaming, synced folders, iCloud sync, backup, privacy tools — plus the full reader: Panel View, page curl, Crop Borders, spine shadow, and Match Page. Lifetime unlock, or a small subscription. Nothing you imported or downloaded is ever deleted if you stop paying. SAMPLE ARTWORK IN SCREENSHOTS "Pepper&Carrot" by David Revoy (CC-BY 4.0, peppercarrot.com) · "Give My Regards to Black Jack" by Shuho Sato (author's free-use declaration) · US public-domain Golden Age comics. Privacy Policy: https://halftonereader.app/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://halftonereader.app/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Lenticule at weekly against Halftone's every 3 weeks. Halftone's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Lenticule sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Halftone sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Lenticule against 5.0 for Halftone. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.
Lenticule ships an update weekly, Halftone every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lenticule | Halftone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 116 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zdravko Nikolovski | Bony Yousuf |
Customer experience
Lenticule
Halftone
In-app purchases
Lenticule
- Full Version$1.99
Halftone
- Premium Monthly3 Days trial$1.491 Month
- Premium Yearly3 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Lifetime Unlock$19.99








