Books, Comics, eBooks & Audiobooks

When a watched root has Books enabled, the scanner handles three distinct kinds of files:

• Comic archives — .cbz and .zip — whose pages and chapters live as image files inside the archive.
• Single-file books (eBooks) — .epub and .pdf — where the whole book is one self-contained file.
• Audiobooks — .m4b, .m4a, and .mp3 — where one file or an ordered set of files becomes the listening rendition of a Book.

Comic archives:   .cbz  .zip
Single-file books: .epub  .pdf
Audiobooks:         .m4b  .m4a  .mp3

Enable Books on the watched root for all three formats. Prose books and audiobooks share a Book item; serialized comics have their own series, optional volumes, and readable installments. A comic issue or released chapter is an installment, distinct from a prose book's internal chapter markers.

For a complete starting layout and root settings, see Organize Your Media Folders.

Comic archives (.cbz / .zip)

A comic archive is opened and its image members become pages. Recognized page images inside the archive:

.jpg  .jpeg  .png  .gif  .webp  .bmp  .tiff  .tif

Folder layout → entity

Folders below the root provide the comic series and optional volume. Each archive becomes one readable installment:

/media/comics/                           ← watched root, Books enabled
├── One Shot.cbz                        → Series "One Shot" › one installment
├── Example Comic/
│   ├── Issue 001.cbz                   → Series "Example Comic" › installment
│   └── Issue 002.cbz                   → Series "Example Comic" › installment
└── Example Manga/
    ├── Volume 01/
    │   ├── Chapter 001.cbz             → Series › Volume 01 › installment
    │   └── Chapter 002.cbz             → Series › Volume 01 › installment
    └── Volume 02/
        └── Chapter 003.cbz             → Series › Volume 02 › installment

Layout	Becomes
One Shot.cbz at the root	A comic series with one readable installment.
Series/Issue.cbz	A series with each archive as a direct installment.
Series/Volume NN/Chapter.cbz	A series with a volume containing installments.

These examples assume no metadata overrides. ComicInfo.xml can supply the series name and volume number; a volume number can group installments even without a volume folder. Root-level archives with the same metadata series name can group together.

Pages are stored as an ordered manifest inside the installment, not as separate library items. Archives without safe readable pages are skipped. Explicitly bounded loose-page comic folders can also generate managed CBZ copies; Prismedia preserves their original page files. For a predictable starting layout, use one CBZ per issue or released chapter.

ComicInfo.xml

A ComicInfo.xml at the root of the archive enriches the entity:

Element(s)	Used for
Title, Series	Installment title and series grouping (Series can override the folder name).
Number, Count, Volume	Issue/chapter number, total, and volume.
Summary	Description.
Year / Month / Day	Normalized date.
Publisher / Imprint	Studio/publisher.
Web	Links.
PageCount	Page count.
LanguageISO	Language.
Writer, Penciller, Inker, Colorist, Letterer, CoverArtist, Editor, Translator	People/creators (split on ;/,).
Genre, Tags, Characters, SeriesGroup, StoryArc, Manga, AgeRating	Tags.
AgeRating	Marks the comic restricted when it reads as adult/mature/explicit/18+/etc.

Single-file books (.epub / .pdf)

Each .epub or .pdf scans into one book entity — there are no separate chapter or page entities, because the structure lives inside the file. Title, author, and description are read straight from the file:

Format	Metadata source	Cover
EPUB	VersOne.Epub (title, authors, description)	Embedded cover image.
PDF	PdfPig (title, author, subject)	Rendered from the first page.

Folder layout → entity

/media/books/                            ← watched root, Books enabled
├── Example Book.epub                   → Standalone book
└── Example Author/                     → Author grouping
    ├── First Book/
    │   └── First Book.epub             → Book under that author
    └── Second Book/
        └── Second Book.pdf             → Book under that author

• A root-level .epub/.pdf is a standalone book.
• For files in subfolders, the first folder beneath the watched root provides an author grouping. The displayed author name prefers embedded creator metadata and otherwise uses the folder name.
• A folder is not automatically a prose book series. Prefer Author/Title/Book.epub so the fallback names are meaningful, and use metadata to describe series relationships.

Audiobooks (.m4b / .m4a / .mp3)

Audiobooks are discovered by the Books scanner, not by enabling the music-oriented Audio scanner. Add them anywhere beneath an enabled, recursive Books root such as /media/books. This is the path inside the container; if the host folder is mounted as /srv/media:/media, /media/books corresponds to /srv/media/books on the host.

Use a Books-only watched root for audiobook folders. If Audio is also enabled on the same root, the same files are eligible for music album/track classification.

Recommended manual layout

Keep every multipart audiobook in its own title folder. To give one Book both readable and listening renditions, put the EPUB/PDF and audiobook parts in the same folder:

/media/books/
└── Frank Herbert/
    └── Dune/
        ├── Dune.epub
        ├── 01 - Arrakis.m4b
        ├── 02 - Muad'Dib.mp3
        └── 03 - The Desert.m4a

An audio-only title uses the same one-folder-per-book rule:

/media/books/
└── Project Hail Mary/
    └── Project Hail Mary.m4b

Folder layout → entity

Layout	Becomes
Book Title.m4b at the root	A standalone audio-only Book.
Book Title/*.m4b (or .m4a/.mp3)	One audio-only Book named after the folder; every audio file in that folder is one ordered part.
Book Title/Book Title.epub plus audio files	One Book with both reading and listening renditions.

Audio parts are ordered naturally by their full paths, so zero-padded names such as 01, 02, and 03 give predictable playback order. Do not put multipart files from several books in one folder: every unmatched audio file in a subfolder is grouped by that containing folder.

An M4B file with embedded chapter markers can expose multiple ordered chapter windows from that single file. Prismedia keeps the source intact and can align those windows with readable chapters. Files without embedded chapters retain the file-based part structure.

When audio and readable files share a folder, the scanner attaches audio to the readable Book using these rules:

1. Prefer an EPUB/PDF with the same filename stem, such as Dune.epub and Dune.m4b.
2. Otherwise, attach to the readable Book when that folder contains exactly one EPUB/PDF.
3. If the folder contains multiple readable books and no filename matches, keep the audio as a separate audio-only Book rather than guessing.

A single audiobook file may live directly at the watched root, but every root-level audio file is treated as a separate Book. Put multipart audiobooks in a title folder.

After copying files outside Prismedia, run a scan from Settings → Watched Libraries, Files, or Jobs. The Book detail page shows the discovered parts in its Listening section.

Reading

Books open in a focused, full-page reader route:

Format	Reader	Modes
Comic archive	Comic reader	Paged (tap zones, swipe, arrows) and vertical webtoon scroll; single or two-page spreads with cover handling.
EPUB	foliate-js reflowable reader	Paged or scrolled, adjustable text size, comic-style tap zones; resumes by CFI.
PDF	pdf.js reader	Continuous scroll with selectable text, zoom (fit-width / fit-page / +/- / pinch), gapless toggle, in-document search, working links, download, outline popup; plus a paged mode. Resumes by page.

Every book remembers where you left off, shows a reading-progress panel (status, percentage, position, Resume / Start Over, read/unread toggle), and a progress bar along its cover in grids. See Playback & Reading.

Books with an audiobook also show Listen or Resume listening. Multipart audio plays in filename order and stores listening progress independently from EPUB/PDF reading progress.

For the playback workflow, see Read and Listen to the Same Book and Native Reader Settings.