Feature 07of 08 · Open format & player

Built to outlive us

Open format & player: publish with us — or yourself

Your work is a file: panelwave.json plus your assets, in an open format (CC BY 4.0) that any software may read. Publish it on PanelWave with review links, embeds and QR codes — or export the work archive and serve it from your own server with the open-source player (MIT). Same work, same reading experience, no lock-in.

Try it as a Founding Creator Publisher? Request a pilot

Pencil sketch of an exploded stack — editor screen, comic panels and the work file — read on a phone; on the right, hands lift the same layers onto a small home server and a tablet shows the same comic.

Fig. 7How it works

Fig. 7 — Open format & playerFormat CC BY 4.0, player MIT. Publish with us — or download the work archive and serve it yourself.

format: CC BY 4.0
player & SDK: MIT
the whole work: 1 zip

Parts listOpen format & player

In detail

What you get

An open, documented format

JSON Schema 2020-12, versioned, every 1.0 manifest still valid. Validate it with the open CLI, read it with the TypeScript types.

Publish on PanelWave

A public reader link, unlisted review links for editors, an embed code for your website, a QR code for print, and a link to every page and panel.

Or take it home

The work archive (zip) holds the manifest for every format and every asset variant. Unzip it on any static host and play it with the open-source player.

Move between accounts

Import an archive into another PanelWave team or installation — folders, translation state and paywall rules come along.

The same player everywhere

The CMS preview, the public reader and self-hosted sites run the same open-source player. What you preview is what readers get.

Server-side protection

On PanelWave's reader, paid panels never leave the server for readers who haven't unlocked them.

Validate any manifest with the open CLI

npx @panelwave/cli validate panelwave.json
npm install @panelwave/player

Who gainsCreators · publishers · readers

What it means for you

For creators

Your work is a file you own — not an account you rent. Even if PanelWave vanished tomorrow.

Apply as a Founding Creator

For publishers

Titles in an open standard your IT can audit, a player on your own domain, archives you control.

Request a publisher pilot

For readers

Stories that don't disappear when a platform does.

See an example

NotesQuestions & documentation

Questions

Read the docs

Every great story starts as a sketch.

Open the drawing board and start with your script, the smoothest way in, or with the art you already have: panel images, video clips or pages without lettering. Add balloons, shape the story, and see your first chapter running on a screen.

Apply as a Founding Creator Request a publisher pilot