Comic Resolution?

[punkarsenic]

Paint Tool Sai is EXTREMELY lightweight, and so you can handle very large file sizes on it without a problem

iiiiii dunno, either im using crazy crazy massive files or it does cause a problem. i work with 2500x3750px (was wrong earlier, jus checked) pages at 320dpi, and each page has... 30 layers? at this size the program will refuse to perform functions halfway through finishing a batch of four pages, and i cant work with a batch larger than that.

is that just crazy big dimensions or?

[NanettesClouds]

According to my calculations you're canvas is 7.8x11.7' so yeah that's a lot smaller than my canvases, so I guess maybe I'm wrong? I mean your mileage will vary depending on how beefy your computer is. So that's a factor.

But also you're using 30 layers, I tend to use about 20 maybe? (if we're talking about comics, for illustrations/paintings I use about 3-5 layers.)

Like I said I've never used PTS, so I was just talking based on what I had heard, so its very possible that I was wrong.

[punkarsenic]

my computers pretty beefy, SAI has an issue with its internal memory(?) from what my research shows, mine is 207MB. it reserves space for making a new canvas, meaning once it hits like 80% (its never below like 50%) it wont let you select, make new layers, make particularly large brush strokes... stuff like that. i have no idea how to make the internal memory larger neither.

tho youre right, it may well be the amount of layers. (i was convinced i had really big pages :'0 feeling like a nitwit)

[NanettesClouds]

No worries :V DPI is confusing.

For reference the calculation is

1 inch = your DPI value. (and technically when talking about computer screens it's PPI but whatever)

so 11x17 inches at 350dpi would be 3850x5950px.

[punkarsenic]

thanks for that, i'll remember to use those settings next chapter

[teacup_creations]

Wow that was very detailed- I was asking more out of curiosity than anything but thank you so much for taking your time to answer c:

I'll definitely be needing to check out the podcast if I ever decide to move out of the world of webcomics c:

it must be tough drawing at such high resolution with such a clunky program like Clip studio @o@

[NanettesClouds]

I'll definitely be needing to check out the podcast if I ever decide to move out of the world of webcomics c:

I'd say its a great podcast for webcomic people too, 2/3 of the hosts do webcomics and the third host started her (very successful) career by doing webcomics. Also I'd recommend working at 300+dpi regardless of if you want to print, as there are other benefits to working at that high resolution. I mentioned earlier that it gives me a bit of wiggle-room when resizing drawings, but in addition to that scaling down your artwork also smooths out wobbly linework, gets rid of little nics that you missed while coloring, and probably some other handy stuff that I can't think of right now cuz I just woke up. I feel like the only exception is if you're doing a comic with animated gifs, something like Saint for Rent, or to a lesser extent, Colorless, but even then you would want to work at a higher resolution than what you export at.

it must be tough drawing at such high resolution with such a clunky program like Clip studio @o@

I made it sound a worse than it actually is. CSP isn't very clunky at all actually, and working at high resolutions gives you a bit of freedom for doing detail work, and also working at large sizes has some interesting interactions with the specific brushes that I use but that's probably too nitty gritty to get into here. I only really notice it choking when I use really large brushes with a lot of detail in them, and usually when I'm doing that I don't care about precision and the lagginess doesn't get in the way of anything. So yeah.

[beta1042]

Are we talking size or resolution?

Size I just limit it to the webtoon rules since I post there, I think it's 800x1280 or something like that.
I do a long format comic, and keep in mind I am pretty new to this and probably have no idea what I'm doing, but so far it has been working for me, but I typically draw pictures at 350dpi, and then copy paste them into a super long strip that is 72dpi, and arrange them into the panels. Then cut that sucker up with image magick(a program... probably using the same code that these comic websites use to piece the art back together).

I tested out doing the actual comic at a higher resolution, but since I upload on webtoon and webtoon makes you convert to jpg, the quality declines regardless. And working at a lower resolution on a large strip(I'm talking 800x25,000 long) is just faster and easier on my machine. I could probably cut the comic up more when I work on it, but i like having as much as I can on one picture because it helps me when I finish it up.

[LordVincent]

I do 300 dpi for everything, and usually follow the size guidelines of whatever tool i intend to print with or publish on. So for Bloodroot and Ghost Play I've made an A5 template suitable for printing through Lulu with bleed (and assumingly most other companies as well). I personally prefer smaller books and honestly the A5 is a bit too large for my taste so for future independent series I will probably make a new template that suits the print guidelines for pocketbook size.

For tapas exclusive, I draw it directly into the 940x4000px that they want it published in. I know most comic creators would rip their hair out at someone who doesn't draw it at least twice the final size but I have tested and made sure it would be fine for print without having to do an ugly upsize in the template mentioned above, and I see no good reason to spend extra time and computer space just to achieve the same result.

As for promotional images, I would much rather make images specifically designed for that (:

For Bloodroot and Ghost Play I downsize to 800px wide so it can be published smoothly on both webtoon and tapas.

[agentfink]

I use Clip Studio and I like the different export features it has.

Comic pages at actual print size (before trim), 6.875 x 10.5 inches or 4128 x 6300px at 600 dpi. Working digital, I don't see the use to draw at a larger size than that. I tried that with my first chapter, and for some reason, scaling down to print was a cumbersome process. I work to scale now and find that it takes away some of the headache.

When I export to web, I export PNGs at 25 or 20% (there is an option to enter %) and 720x1099px is that % that works for me.

When I export to print, I export pngs at full size and then bring it into Photoshop to convert to 300 dpi.

[IdiotWithPencil]

I usually start with a 1500x2000 with 300 dpi in Photoshop/Krita(for inking), then I down scale it to 940x1253 with 72 dpi for the web (still keep the 300 dpi one )

tapas is pushing more to phones than desktop sadly =I

Do you ever find that resizing your images for tapas and webtoons messes up some of the detail in your work?

yep that happens when ever you compress and image, sometimes it's good since if you keep it in mind you can save some work on detailing small things =P

[SpavVy]

For my comic Soul Ascendance I work on a page at 5197 x 7323 in px and 600dpi (I know this is huge.) Then I save it and make a copy of the page and shrink the copy down to 800x1127 px which is the version I upload online. The bigger versions I keep for printing. I use a big canvas and high resolution because I use Clip Studio for my pages, I don't have anything fancy like photoshop that can easily help with sound effects, so I need to do a little more work like rasterize the text and mesh transformation like stretch it, make it wavy, etc. If I do this at a lower res like 300dpi it will look blurry @_@

[fuyudust]

Original file: A4 350ppi (2894x4093px) (Default size of Manga Studio. because I'm too lazy to fill the number in myself )
Upload file:resize width to 800px

[arushiangelica]

If it is vertical, I draw and upload 720*1280.
For horizontal, I draw 1280*720 and upload 940*528

[Louistrations]

I still work at 600dpi despite having a very underpowered computer (a mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13" lolol). If you're finding your computer's struggling at that size, make sure you have all anti-aliasing turned off in Clip Studio Paint (a monochrome canvas). You won't need anti-aliasing at that resolution, it'll happen naturally when you scale the comic down when exporting. #thriftyTips

[eloquent]

Hi! I understand this is a very, very old conversation. But I'm a newbie who's found your thoughts helpful so far! I'm not sure if you're working with Clip Studio still, but do you worry at all about bleed/trim/actual working area? I'm a total newbie and those things/their significance if I would ever want to print are a bit scary.

[NanettesClouds]

Hi there sorry for the slow response - I don't pay super close attention to the forums these days. The margin settings on CSP are a little bit finicky but here's a screencap of how I have mine currently set up for 11X17 pages.

Welcome to the community - and to comic-making in general!

[DiscountedArtist]

I have different sizes for different panel layouts. I'm pretty sure most people upload their panels individually, but I don't. My three panel layout is 940 x 3000, and I think I use three panels the most.

[eloquent]

Thank you so much for taking the time to share and respond!

[DireKingLeon114]

I do my comics in Clip Studio Paint as well! I do them in a big canvas 800WidthX6000Height pixels approx (350 Dpi) Although I have tried other layouts. Please not that it's always better to go too big! Rather than to go too small! You can always shrink a big canvas, but you can't enlarge a small one without pixelate it... unless you do high res? Although there is the option of drawing with vector images, but while it might look alright. I don't exactly recommend it... Although it's a option.
Also there are lots of tutorials on youtube for this stuff! I might reccomend some if you want me to?

Also FYI I can also recommend a good cropping website service!