WeebCentral Downloader

Download manga from weebcentral.com as CBZ, PDF or EPUB — from a modern CLI or a minimalist desktop GUI.

Project landing page (GitHub Pages, served from docs/)

Highlights

One command, one CBZ. By default the CLI downloads every chapter and packs them into a single .cbz — no flags needed.
Flexible bundling. Choose one file for everything, one file per chapter, or one file per every N chapters (--per 10).
Organized output. Everything is sorted into a per-manga folder inside your output directory. Raw page images live in a raw/ subfolder and are cleaned up automatically after packaging (unless you keep them).
Three formats. CBZ, PDF (pages sized exactly to each image), and EPUB (chapter table of contents included). Produce several at once with --also.
Three interfaces. A rich-powered CLI, a full-screen terminal UI (TUI) built with Textual, and a minimalist pywebview desktop GUI.
Minimalist GUI. A pywebview desktop app with a pastel-dark ambient interface: circular gradient orbs, an animated dot-matrix backdrop, 6 themes and 6 accent colors, smooth animations. Google Material Symbols only — zero emojis.
Library and bookmarks. Every downloaded chapter is recorded in ~/.weebcentral/library.json; already-downloaded chapters are highlighted green in the chapter list, with a "New only" selector for incremental updates. Bookmark manga you want to come back to.
Open in Readest. Point Settings at your reader executable (Readest or any other) and open finished books straight from the Library — multi-part downloads list every part with its size and a Read button.
Custom file naming. Templates with {title}, {chapter}, {start}, {end} placeholders control output filenames, in Settings and via CLI flags.
Full-featured TUI. Search, manga details, chapter multi-select with quick ranges, format/bundling pickers, live per-chapter progress and settings — entirely in your terminal (works over SSH).
Modern CLI. Built on rich: download plan summary, live progress bars per chapter, search and info commands.
Fast and polite. Parallel chapter and image downloads with configurable workers, adaptive backoff on rate limits.
Crash-proof resume. Verified checkpoints, atomic image writes and a job journal: after a crash or outage, hit Resume in the GUI (or run weebcentral resume) and it continues exactly where it left off — completed chapters skipped, partial chapters finish their missing pages only.
File logging. Rotating log at ~/.weebcentral/logs/weebcentral.log, exportable from Settings.
Cloudflare-ready. Falls back to FlareSolverr automatically if the site puts up a challenge.

See FEATURES.md for the complete feature reference and CHANGELOG.md for the history of every update.

Installation

Requires Python 3.9+.

git clone https://github.com/Yui007/weebcentral_downloader.git
cd weebcentral_downloader

# install with the GUI and TUI
pip install -e ".[all]"

# or pick: CLI only / +GUI / +TUI
pip install -e .
pip install -e ".[gui]"
pip install -e ".[tui]"

Or without installing the package, just grab the dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Linux GUI note: pywebview needs a webview engine. On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-webkit2-4.1 (or install pywebview[qt]). Windows and macOS work out of the box.

CLI usage

If installed with pip you get a weebcentral command; otherwise use python -m weebcentral.

Download (the default action)

# Default: ALL chapters -> ONE .cbz, sorted into downloads/<Manga Title>/
weebcentral https://weebcentral.com/series/XXXX/some-manga

# One CBZ per 10 chapters
weebcentral <url> --per 10

# One CBZ per chapter
weebcentral <url> --per 1

# Chapters 1-50 as a single PDF
weebcentral <url> -c 1-50 -f pdf

# Latest chapter only, EPUB, custom output dir
weebcentral <url> -c latest -f epub -o ~/Manga

# CBZ volumes of 25 chapters AND a PDF of everything, keep raw images
weebcentral <url> --per 25 --also pdf --keep-images

Chapter selection (`-c / --chapters`)

Selector	Meaning
`all`	every chapter (default)
`5` / `23.5`	a single chapter (decimals supported)
`1-20`	inclusive range
`1,5,10-20`	any combination
`50-`	chapter 50 to the end
`-10`	start through chapter 10
`latest`	newest chapter
`first`	oldest chapter

Search and info

weebcentral search "one piece"     # find series and their URLs
weebcentral info <url>             # title, author, status, tags, chapter count
weebcentral resume                 # resume an interrupted/crashed download
weebcentral tui                    # launch the full-screen terminal UI
weebcentral gui                    # launch the desktop GUI

All options

-c, --chapters SEL     chapter selection (default: all)
-o, --output DIR       output directory (default: downloads)
-f, --format FMT       cbz | pdf | epub | images (default: cbz)
    --per N            chapters per file: 0 = one file for everything (default),
                       1 = per chapter, N = every N chapters
    --also FMT         produce an additional format (repeatable)
    --keep-images      keep raw page images after packaging
-w, --workers N        concurrent chapter downloads, 1-8 (default: 3)
    --image-workers N  concurrent images per chapter, 1-10 (default: 6)
    --delay S          delay between chapters in seconds (default: 0.5)
    --name-single TPL  filename template for single-file bundles (default: {title})
    --name-chapter TPL template for per-chapter files (default: {title} - Chapter {chapter})
    --name-range TPL   template for range bundles (default: {title} - Chapters {start}-{end})
-y, --yes              skip the confirmation prompt
    --plain            plain log output (for scripts / CI)

Output structure

downloads/
└── One Piece/
    ├── cover.jpg
    ├── One Piece - Chapters 001-010.cbz
    ├── One Piece - Chapters 011-020.cbz
    ├── ...
    └── raw/                     # only if --keep-images / format=images
        ├── Chapter 1/
        │   ├── 001.jpg
        │   └── ...
        └── ...

TUI (terminal UI)

A full-screen terminal app built with Textual — all the GUI's features without leaving the terminal. Works over SSH.

weebcentral tui        # or: weebcentral-tui / python -m weebcentral tui



Manga tab — options + chapter multi-select	Downloads tab — live per-chapter bars

Search tab — find series, Enter to open	Settings tab — persisted defaults

TUI features

Four tabs: Search / Manga / Downloads / Settings (F1–F4 to jump)
Search WeebCentral by name or paste a URL straight into the search box
Manga panel with title, author, status, tags and description
Chapter list with checkbox multi-select (space toggles), All / None / Latest buttons and a quick-range box (1-20, 25, 30-40)
Format (CBZ / PDF / EPUB / images) and bundling (single file / per chapter / every N) selectors
Live download queue: overall progress bar, per-chapter image counters, colored activity log, stop button
Settings shared with the GUI (~/.weebcentral/settings.json)

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
`Ctrl+S`	jump to search
`Ctrl+D`	start download
`Ctrl+X`	stop download
`F1`–`F4`	switch tabs
`Tab` / arrows	move focus
`q`	quit

GUI

weebcentral gui        # or: python gui.py



Manga — downloaded chapters glow green	Queue — live overall + per-chapter progress

Library — everything you've downloaded	Settings — themes, accents, behavior

Search — find manga with cover thumbnails	Themes — 6 pastel-dark bases + light

GUI features

Animated hero: stylized title (gradient shine + outline), floating icon, search bar centered on screen that glides to the top when you search
Search filters: sort (Best Match / Popularity / Subscribers / Recently Added / Latest Updates / Alphabet) with asc/desc order, status, type (Manga / Manhwa / Manhua / OEL) and official-only — changes re-run the search live
Search WeebCentral with cover thumbnails, or paste a series URL directly
Full manga page: cover, author, status, tags, description, bookmark button
Chapter list with click-to-select, downloaded chapters highlighted green, All / None / New only / Latest shortcuts and a quick-range box (1-20, 25, 30-40)
Format picker (CBZ / PDF / EPUB / raw images) and bundling picker (single file / per chapter / every N chapters)
Live download queue: overall progress, per-chapter image counters, activity log, stop button, "open folder" when done
Bookmarks tab — save manga for later (~/.weebcentral/bookmarks.json)
Library tab — every downloaded manga with chapter/page counts, last download time; multi-part downloads expand to show each part with its file size, a Read button (opens your configured reader, e.g. Readest) and missing-file detection
Appearance settings — 6 themes (Midnight, Mocha, Forest, Plum, Ocean, Light), 6 accent colors, animation and dot-matrix toggles
Behavior settings — output directory, default format, keep raw images, open-folder-when-done, confirm-large-downloads guard with threshold, worker counts, delays, retries per image
File naming settings — templates for single-file / per-chapter / range bundles with {title} {chapter} {start} {end} placeholders and a live preview
Reader settings — path to the Readest executable (or any reader); empty uses your system's default app
Ambient design: solid pastel-dark backgrounds with drifting circular gradients and an animated dot matrix; Google Material Symbols throughout, no emojis anywhere

Python API

The engine is usable as a library:

from weebcentral.downloader import DownloadEngine, DownloadOptions

options = DownloadOptions(
    url="https://weebcentral.com/series/XXXX/some-manga",
    selection="1-50",     # same syntax as the CLI
    output_dir="downloads",
    format="cbz",         # cbz | pdf | epub | images
    bundle=10,            # 0 = single file, N = N chapters per file
)

def on_event(event):      # structured progress events
    print(event["type"], event)

result = DownloadEngine(options, on_event).run()
print(result["outputs"])

Cloudflare / FlareSolverr

Direct requests work most of the time. If WeebCentral raises a Cloudflare challenge, the downloader automatically falls back to a local FlareSolverr instance.

# easiest: docker
docker run -d -p 8191:8191 ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest

# or use the bundled helper (downloads and starts FlareSolverr)
python start_flaresolverr.py

You only need this if downloads start failing with Cloudflare errors.

Google Colab

Run in the browser with no local setup — see colab/WeebCentral_Downloader.ipynb.

Project layout

weebcentral/
├── cli.py              # rich-powered CLI (download / search / info / gui / tui)
├── tui.py              # full-screen Textual terminal UI
├── downloader.py       # DownloadEngine: orchestration, bundling, events
├── library.py          # JSON library + bookmarks (~/.weebcentral/*.json)
├── scraper.py          # weebcentral.com scraping + search
├── packager.py         # CBZ / PDF / EPUB creation
├── flaresolverr.py     # optional Cloudflare bypass client
├── utils.py            # chapter parsing, natural sort, sanitising
└── gui/
    ├── __init__.py     # pywebview app + JS API bridge
    └── web/            # index.html, style.css, app.js (Material Symbols)

Standalone executable

Build an all-inclusive exe (GUI + TUI + CLI in one binary, no Python needed) with PyInstaller and the provided WeebCentral.spec:

pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller WeebCentral.spec            # one-folder -> dist/WeebCentral/
pyinstaller WeebCentral.spec -- --onefile   # single file

Double-clicking the exe opens the GUI; WeebCentral tui, WeebCentral <url>, WeebCentral search ... and WeebCentral resume all work from a terminal. Full per-platform instructions: PACKAGING.md.

Landing page (GitHub Pages)

docs/index.html is a ready-made landing page with the same ambient design as the app (gradient orbs, dot matrix, feature grid, GUI/TUI screenshot tabs, CLI demo terminal). To publish it:

GitHub repo → Settings → Pages
Source: Deploy from a branch, branch main, folder /docs
Your page appears at https://<user>.github.io/weebcentral_downloader/

Data files

Everything lives in ~/.weebcentral/:

File	Purpose
`settings.json`	GUI/TUI settings (theme, accent, workers, output dir, ...)
`library.json`	every downloaded chapter per manga: name, pages, date, output files
`bookmarks.json`	bookmarked manga (title, URL, cover)
`job.json`	journal of the current download; enables crash resume
`logs/weebcentral.log`	rotating application log (exportable from Settings)

The library is what powers the green "downloaded" highlighting in the GUI's chapter list and the New only selection shortcut — re-open a manga later and instantly see what you're missing.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
`429 Too Many Requests`	Raise `--delay`, lower `--workers`. The engine also backs off automatically.
Cloudflare "Just a moment..."	Start FlareSolverr (see above).
GUI window doesn't open on Linux	Install a webview backend: `sudo apt install gir1.2-webkit2-4.1` or `pip install pywebview[qt]`.
GUI crashes or closes immediately on open	Since v2.6.3 the app retries alternative browser backends and shows the real error instead of dying. Check `~/.weebcentral/logs/weebcentral.log` and `crash.log`. On Windows, install/update the WebView2 Runtime and make sure `pip install -U pywebview pythonnet` are current.
Console spam: `Error while processing window.native...` / `maximum recursion depth exceeded` (Windows)	Harmless pywebview/WebView2 bridge noise — fixed in v2.6.1 (the `window.native` bridge is removed at load and the messages are filtered from logs). Seeing `E_NOINTERFACE` / `ICoreWebView2Controller4` too? Your WebView2 Runtime is outdated — update it from Microsoft or via Windows Update.
Interrupted download	Re-run the same command — completed chapters are skipped via the verified `.checkpoint` and already-downloaded images are not re-fetched.
Crash / power outage	Launch the GUI (a Resume banner appears) or run `weebcentral resume` — the job journal restarts the download where it left off.
Diagnosing problems	Export the log from Settings → Logs, or read `~/.weebcentral/logs/weebcentral.log`.
A few chapters failed	The summary lists them; re-run with `-c <numbers>` to fetch just those.
`ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package`	You ran a package file directly (e.g. `python weebcentral/tui.py` or PyCharm's "Run file"). Fixed in v2.6.2 — files now self-bootstrap. Preferred launches: `weebcentral tui`, `python -m weebcentral tui`, or the root `python tui.py` / `python gui.py`. In PyCharm, set the run configuration to module `weebcentral` with parameter `tui`.

Legal

This tool is for personal archival of content you have the right to access. Support the official releases of the manga you enjoy.

License

MIT

Navigation Menu

Repository files navigation

WeebCentral Downloader

Highlights

Installation

CLI usage

Download (the default action)

Chapter selection (`-c / --chapters`)

Search and info

All options

Output structure

TUI (terminal UI)

GUI

Python API

Cloudflare / FlareSolverr

Google Colab

Project layout

Standalone executable

Landing page (GitHub Pages)

Data files

Troubleshooting

Legal

License

About

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 6 Commits
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
docs		docs
weebcentral		weebcentral
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
FEATURES.md		FEATURES.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
PACKAGING.md		PACKAGING.md
README.md		README.md
WeebCentral.spec		WeebCentral.spec
gui.py		gui.py
launcher.py		launcher.py
pyproject.toml		pyproject.toml
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
start_flaresolverr.py		start_flaresolverr.py
tui.py		tui.py

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

WeebCentral Downloader

Highlights

Installation

CLI usage

Download (the default action)

Chapter selection (-c / --chapters)

Search and info

All options

Output structure

TUI (terminal UI)

GUI

Python API

Cloudflare / FlareSolverr

Google Colab

Project layout

Standalone executable

Landing page (GitHub Pages)

Data files

Troubleshooting

Legal

License

About

Resources

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Packages

Contributors

Languages

Chapter selection (`-c / --chapters`)