TritonPanels Comic Book Reader vs Halftone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TritonPanels Comic Book Reader
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TritonPanels is a premium comic and manga reader for the files you already own, on iPhone and iPad: on your device, in your cloud storage or on your own comic server. An active subscription is required. There is no free library. Start with a 14-day free trial, then continue at the monthly or yearly price shown in the app. Prices are set by Apple and vary by region. NEW IN 2.0 Your comic server Connect Komga or Kavita to browse, search and read your libraries, with reading progress kept in step on the server. Calibre and other OPDS catalogs work too. Live libraries Read an iCloud Drive folder, a Dropbox folder (Dropbox app required), a USB drive or a network share (SMB 2 or 3; shares that require encryption are not supported) in place, refreshed when files change. Follow a Substack publication's free comic posts. Send comics from a computer with Transfer over Wi-Fi. Downloads and search One Downloads screen. Keep a comic, folder or whole library offline and see the space each uses. Search every library at once; Reading Now and Recently imported show where you are and what's new. Text on the page Select, copy and translate the text in speech bubbles. Translate pages (Experimental, iOS 18 or later) shows the translation over the bubbles as you read. Lift subject cuts a figure out of the page. It all runs on your device. Read your way Right-to-left manga. Warmth, sepia, invert and tint. A page-matched or immersive background. Reader presets, custom tap zones, Zoom Lock and new page-fit modes. Incognito reading saves no progress or history. Make it yours Folders inside folders, with colours, symbols and covers. New themes and accent colours. Reading goals by pages, minutes or comics. A passcode lock for chosen comics and collections. EVERYTHING ELSE Panel by Panel reads one panel at a time, found by an on-device detector. Single pages, two-page spreads and continuous scroll. Image filters for rough scans. Collections, reading lists, tags, ComicInfo.xml, bookmarks with notes and reading stats. Import from Dropbox and OneDrive, or from Google Drive and anywhere else through the Files app. FORMATS CBZ, CBR (RAR4), CB7, CBT and compressed TAR, PDF, and image-based EPUB, with AVIF, HEIC and JPEG XL pages. RAR5 and text-only EPUB are not supported. PRIVACY No ads and no account. Your comics and reading progress stay on your device. Server passwords are kept in the iOS Keychain and sent only to your server. We collect anonymous crash reports (Sentry) and subscription state from the App Store, not a profile of what you read. SUBSCRIPTION Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Cancel any time in your Apple ID subscription settings. Cancelling stops future charges; the period already paid for is not refunded. The interface is available in 20 languages. Terms of Use: https://tritonpanels.tritonapps.com/terms
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 • AI Upscale: low-resolution scans are sharpened on-device as you read • 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 • Bookmarks and a farthest-read marker — re-read an earlier chapter without losing your place • 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, AI Upscale, page curl, Crop Borders, spine shadow, and Match Page. Try it free for 24 hours. 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
TritonPanels Comic Book Reader and Halftone are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. TritonPanels Comic Book Reader sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per month 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.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TritonPanels Comic Book Reader | Halftone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 136 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrew O Riordan | Bony Yousuf |
In-app purchases
TritonPanels Comic Book Reader
- TritonPanels Monthly7 Days trial$0.491 Month
- TritonPanels Yearly7 Days trial$3.991 Year
Halftone
- Premium Monthly3 Days trial$1.491 Month
- Premium Yearly3 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Lifetime Unlock$19.99
Questions
Is TritonPanels Comic Book Reader free?
Is Halftone free?
Do TritonPanels Comic Book Reader or Halftone have ads?
Which is updated more often, TritonPanels Comic Book Reader or Halftone?
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