Comic and comic printing please help me lmao I have no idea what im doing

[atina1255]

I use Clipstudio, and it had multiple formats for illustrations and multiple comic settings.

The pre-set settings include things like trimming, bleed and all of that good comic stuff.

I desire to work and print in American/Canadain standard size, and make a custom formatted comic. The dimensions I was told to use was 6.625 x 10.25 at 350dpi

When I input this into Clipstudio, I wasn't able to use bleed or even really get a guide anymore on my my comic dimensions. I might want to print one day. I'm new to digital art and I'm just worried I'll spend all this time and effort and then be told its all wrong and have to start over or resize. A lot of artists online who have printed use their own custom dimensions from what I'm seeing (ex: marsoids long exposure) and I would like to do that too, but it would be nice to be able to create the guide so I can see what I am doing.

Does anyone have any tips or know clipstudio and knows how to set the border on custom,

thank you!

[Cavechan]

It depends on how you want your comic to look. Are you looking to make the larger size single issues or a graphic novel? A graphic novel has much more pages and is a smaller size and perfect bound. Also depends if you want your comic to be in color or black and white. For color, 350DPI is good, but for black and white it should be 600DPI.

You should be able to set the border even in custom. Do you have the crop marks on? Maybe they aren't on so they aren't showing up?

Here's what mine looks like for reference if it helps:

This can be found it Edit --> Canvas Properties

[atina1255]

A graphic novel I think? Multi chaptered, definitely color, I don't think I understand the size dimensions? How do I get the square in the middle to be bigger? What are the differences in B4 B5 and A4 A5 and stuff like that……..

[Cavechan]

A and B size papers are one big sheet that is cut into smaller size paper. Here's a breakdown: https://www.papersizes.org/

The box in the middle is the default border (inner) size part. To make it bigger, you would lower the values so they're that far away from the outside edges.

I would recommend looking up the printer you want to use and seeing what their recommendations are. Typically, I think the standard is 0.125" bleed on all edges (so the page will be 0.25" wider and taller than actual size). You will also need the safe area to consider since even with the bleed, artwork around the edges can get cut off and you have to take into account the spine as well. If it's perfect bound, you will need more room since it will be difficult to see artwork that goes up to the binding.

[IVA]

I don't think I understand the size dimensions? How do I get the square in the middle to be bigger? What are the differences in B4 B5 and A4 A5 and stuff like that……..

Here's some tutorials from csp. These are all from TIPS, csp's official site for tutorials, so all tutorials are used with CSP.

• Basic terms on comic borders and setting up your Manuscript

• Creating multi-page files

• Multi-page management and printing

When you understand these terms first, then the settings showed to you by Cavechan would all make sense. I've added some other tutorials as additional info. Hope this helps.

Edit: added another link

[CosmicLeon]

Typically when making a comic for print, you should work twice the size you want to print. This mainly applies to traditional art, but I do it anyways to always have clear print when it hits the publishers.

Here a little something to look at. I got this from a publisher called kablam. I know this is for a manga page, but what ever size you set your page to be at, include the bleed and trim area to your document size. You can always save the cropped image later for posting as a web comic. Even if you can't find guides in clip studio, you can make yourself one to overlay while you are working. I make my own template that divides that pages with labels (so I don't put any vital info where something is going to be cut), but you can also download ones off the internet too. also keep your rulers on.

when sending things for print, make sure you can package your comic as a pdf doc as pages. Don't do spreads, they wont print it if it's spreads, or will charge you to reformat it.

[IVA]

Just a disclaimer: I'm not replying in vindication, I'm replying to add info from a perspective of a csp user so that op would know the options they have within the program. csp is great to have when making comics, would highly recommend

Typically when making a comic for print, you should work twice the size you want to print.

definitely

Here a little something to look at. I got this from a publisher called kablam. [see image they attached]

in csp you can modify the crop border settings or manga draft settings to make any kind of comic format; be it western standard or japanese manga standard & etc.

I know this is for a manga page, but what ever size you set your page to be at, include the bleed and trim area to your document size. You can always save the cropped image later for posting as a web comic.

in csp, they give you 4 borders: the bleed, crop (aka. trim), inner (aka. live area), and safety margin borders (all explained here). The safety margin is optional among the 4, but the the other 3 are definitely needed and luckily csp has default presets for it. The crop/ binding/ finish border size is the size in which your manga/comic shall be printed. And if you started out twice as big as expected, you could always resize in the export window. But bear in mind that you must always know your crop border/binding/finish size (these terms are interchangeable within CSP).

And yeah you can save your crop/manga border settings as a preset in csp. There are tons of free assets too in csp's asset store (https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us)

Also: (since I've seen this from a lot of wet-behind-the-ears artists using csp) when you use csp's preset sizes for these borders, don't make the mistake of (as an example) setting the inner border as A4 and the finish/binding size as A5. No. That's not how it works. with that logic, your inner border--the border you put the panels within--will be half as small as the whole comic size that'll be printed. So no, please don't do this.

when sending things for print, make sure you can package your comic as a pdf doc as pages. Don't do spreads, they wont print it if it's spreads, or will charge you to reformat it.

it's okay to make spread pages (two pages are combined) in csp. cuz when you batch export them, csp will ask if you want the spreads to be exported individually like all the other single pages, which you can just tick on or off if needed. iirc, ipads & iphones have a plugin that can export your cmc file into pdf.

but if you have to export them, ask your publisher what formats they require for printing. Usually the format .tif is better, imho.
For coloured pages, you can export them as CYMK and adjust the colours before exporting or saving as JPG or TIF. cuz csp by default only works with RGB profile.

I hope these clarifications helps you in setting up your multi-page comic in csp, @atina1255. If you have any questions about CSP, you can ask me.