MediaWiki to CBZ Converter
FileFlip converts MediaWiki to CBZ entirely inside your browser, using Pandoc and MuPDF compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a MediaWiki file to CBZ?#
- Drop your MediaWiki file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to CBZ and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 65.8 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs Pandoc and MuPDF on your own machine.
- Save the CBZ file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting MediaWiki to CBZ lose quality?#
Not in the sense of pixels or samples. Converting MediaWiki to CBZ rebuilds the file in CBZ's own model rather than re-encoding it, so everything CBZ can represent comes through exactly and anything it cannot has to be dropped. Expect the words to come through exactly and the page breaks to move.
Is it safe to convert MediaWiki files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts MediaWiki files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What MediaWiki to CBZ actually does to the file#
Converting MediaWiki to CBZ runs on Pandoc and MuPDF, downloads 65.8 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, rebuilds the file in the target's own model, keeps selectable text, and drops page layout.
| Engine | Pandoc and MuPDF |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 2 steps: MediaWiki → HTML → CBZ |
| Downloaded to your browser | 65.8 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Rebuilt in the target's model |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Selectable text | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Page layout | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- reflowable input is laid out on a fixed 595x842pt page at 11pt before anything else happens
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is a MediaWiki file?#
A MEDIAWIKI file holds wikitext, the plain-text markup that MediaWiki software turns into a wiki page, using double square brackets for links and double curly braces to transclude templates.
Keep content as MediaWiki markup while it lives on Wikipedia or another MediaWiki install, since that's the only place templates and transclusion actually render.
Convert MediaWiki markup to another format when moving an article out of a wiki for good, such as into a document or a static site, and accept that any templates it used will not expand.
What is a CBZ file?#
A CBZ file is a ZIP archive of page images, usually JPEG or PNG, named so they sort into reading order, with nothing else defining it as a comic beyond that convention.
Use CBZ to distribute a scanned or digital comic as sequential page images that any comic reader opens without conversion.
Convert CBZ to PDF when a comic needs to move into software that expects a page-based document instead of a folder of images.
MediaWiki to CBZ questions people ask#
What is a .mediawiki file?
A .mediawiki file holds wikitext, the plain-text markup language behind Wikipedia and any other site running MediaWiki software. It's the same syntax you'd see by clicking Edit source on a Wikipedia page: double brackets for links, equals signs for headings, and curly braces for templates.
Can I open a MediaWiki file in Word?
Word doesn't understand MediaWiki markup, so opening the raw file just shows the wikitext characters instead of formatted text. Converting it to a .docx first renders the headings, links, and tables Word does understand, though anything built from a template comes through as whatever text was left in the source rather than the rendered result.
What happens to Wikipedia templates when I convert wikitext?
MediaWiki markup expresses a template as a name inside double curly braces, and the actual content only appears once MediaWiki's own template engine expands it on its servers. A converter working from raw wikitext never sees that expansion, so infoboxes, citation templates, and navigation boxes come through as their unexpanded template calls, or get dropped entirely.
Is MediaWiki markup the same as Markdown?
No. MediaWiki markup and Markdown both use plain-text symbols for formatting, but the syntax differs in almost every detail, from how links are written to how tables and templates work, and MediaWiki markup has no direct Markdown equivalent for transclusion. A file written as one won't render correctly if opened as the other.