A comic book link is a comic published at an address, so pages appear at the size of the reader's screen with no app to install and no archive to unpack.
Comics have a delivery problem that prose does not: the page is an image, and images are heavy and fixed.
This guide covers sizing pages so they load, stopping the layout jumping, choosing between scrolling and page turns, and what happens when you split panels for narrow screens.
The formats and who they lose
| Format | Needs | Who it works for |
|---|---|---|
| CBZ / CBR | A dedicated reader app | Existing comics readers |
| A viewer, and zooming | Nobody, on a phone | |
| Individual images by message | Nothing | Works, but order gets lost |
| A link | Nothing | Everyone with a browser |
The CBZ is not a bad format. It is a bad first impression, because a reader who has to install something before seeing page one usually does not.
Size for screens, not for print
This is where comic pages online succeed or fail.
A print page at 300 dpi is around 3500 px wide and 15-25 MB. On a screen it shows no more detail than a 1600 px version at around 400 KB, because the screen cannot display the extra pixels.
Export at about 1600 px on the long edge. A twenty-page issue then weighs about 8 MB total rather than 400 MB, and the first page appears immediately.
<figure class="page">
<img src="/comic/i1/p04.webp" alt="Page 4. Maren opens the hatch and the light goes out."
width="1600" height="2462" loading="lazy" decoding="async">
<figcaption>4</figcaption>
</figure>
The width and height attributes reserve the correct space before the image arrives, so the page does not jump while reading. Background in keeping image aspect ratio.
Write the alt text as a real description of what happens. It is what a screen reader announces, and a comic with no alt text is entirely inaccessible to a blind reader.
Scroll or turn
Both are legitimate. The art decides.
Work composed as double-page spreads wants page turns, because a spread split across a scroll loses the composition. Work composed vertically, as most webtoon-style comics are, wants scrolling because that is how it was drawn.
The failure is applying the wrong one. A spread on a phone becomes either a sideways scroll or two halves, and neither reads. If the comic has spreads and the audience is on phones, consider a separate vertical cut rather than forcing it.
Splitting panels, carefully
For a phone, some creators split a page into panels shown one at a time.
It reads well when done deliberately and badly when automated. On a full page the reader follows the art to work out the order; once you split, the order is fixed by you, and a mistake sends the reader through the panels wrong.
If you split, do it by hand and check the sequence on an actual phone. Halfway measures are worse than leaving the page whole and letting the reader zoom.
Keep the first page instant
Lazy loading means the browser only fetches images as they approach the screen. For a comic that is the difference between opening instantly and waiting for the whole issue.
Load the first page eagerly and everything after it lazily. The reader sees page one while the rest arrives quietly behind them.
Credit and copying
Anything shown in a browser can be saved. Right-click blockers and transparent overlays do not change that and do annoy readers.
The practical measures are a visible credit on the page, a signature in the art, and a link back to where the work lives. If controlled distribution genuinely matters, a storefront that handles entitlements is the tool for that, not a page.
Put it at an address
Export the pages at screen size, write them into a page with dimensions set, and create a share link.
The reader taps and sees page one, at the size of the screen in their hand.