Do any of you reformat your comic? Do you think it's worth it?

[smokesalty]

It's undeniable that scroll comics are super popular (especially with sites like webtoon) so it's not surprising a lot of people who typically do page will reformat to scroll.

This was the case for me as I wanted to find people on webtoon, and I think it's worth it based on my experiences. I actually quite like to see what my comic looks like in scroll, and I know that people who read on their phones will have an enjoyable experience.

Tbh I reformat after finishing a batch of pages so it kind of feels congratulatory to be like "hey I finished this week's work, now I can see what it looks like on webtoon." I've come to not mind reformatting for the most part, even with some scenes being difficult to transfer at times. It's also quite nice to be able to repeat panels with minimal changes and being able to control pacing easier.

I still post pages on tapas since a)I think my comic looks the best in that format and b) people on tapas seem to enjoy the format. But yeah. Formatting to vertical scroll for webtoon is worth it in my opinion.

What are your thoughts?

[BoomerZ]

Why create an extra set. If you are doing a webcomic on Webtoons or Tapas you might as well start with a scrolling comic. There are advantages (and disadvantages) to scrolling and I don't think one translates to each other well.

[smokesalty]

I plan to print one day and I enjoy page comics so tbh I'd rather just reformat them. Typically, it's easier to format from page to scroll since scroll is less restrictive with how you lay out your panels. There are times where they don't translate as well but for the most part it works out just fine.

[Kaydreamer]

I reformatted from page to scroll when I first started, and was still working in page format. It wasn't until I started reformatting that my comic started really growing, through staff picks and such.

It's really unusual for a page-format comic to be selected for front-page features on Webtoon, regardless of quality, as readers just don't take to them. (It happens rarely, but it sure ain't the norm.) So yeah, IMO, it's DEFINITELY worth reformatting for Webtoon.

[darthmongoose]

Honestly I don't really have a way to gauge whether my comic would be less popular if I didn't make the effort to reformat my pages.

I was encouraged to reformat my pages when I was planning my comic and asked Shazleen Khan for advice. Shazleen draws pages in print page format and then spaces them out significantly into a long scroll format:

Read BUUZA!! | Tapas Web Comics

Obviously, Buuza!! Is a very successful comic on Tapas!

But on the other hand, I know people who work in page without re-formatting at all who do well on Tapas...

Read Alien Heart | Tapas Web Comics

Read Charity Case | Tapas Web Comics

Like a lot of things on Tapas, you kind of have to decide for yourself if a thing that is commonly known to generally get you a larger audience, like making a comic in colour, making a comic in long scroll etc. is worth doing, because there will always be comics that go against common wisdom and still find a big audience (like how Moonshine is one of the most popular comics on the site while being black and white).
If I could suggest one simple guideline it'd be: The further your comic strays from the most popular genres, themes, tropes or visual style on Tapas, the more comfortable and familiar you should probably make the reading experience. Readers can put up with familiar themes but a less familiar format, or they can deal with something different from what they usually read but it's very easy to read in a way they're familiar with, but expecting them to go out of their comfort zone on both the type of comic AND the way they read it may be a bridge too far.

[zeitybitey]

I know what you mean by the increasing popularity of webscrolling on webtoon, since I believe most readers do use mobile over PC. I think if you've started off with the traditional format, it's fine for it to be presented that way especially since pages can still be enjoyed in their full glory on Tapas as-is.

That's something I thought about as well, since my (now on indefinite hiatus) comic started off traditional, but I realised that later on I wanted to shift to the scrolling format to make it easier for my readers to read text that's too difficult to read through my traditional format.

I think it definitely is a preference thing, but yeah, I think since most readers are mobile users its just a matter of convenience. If people like your story, they won't mind either format, I'd like to think!

[rumpenstiltzkin]

I honestly am not a big fan of scrolling format, as I guess theyre more ment to be read on mobile, when I read them on desktop its always to big and to much "in your face" for me.

I will most likely never format my comic into scrolling, i just cant see what would ever make me change my mind, its just my own preference

I have been adjusting my font to work better for those on mobile tho but thats reasonable things to fix, but going full scroll - most likely never

[igneriss]

I'm in a process of reformatting my pages (...and fighting the urge to redraw first chapters while I'm at it) as I want to upload my serie on webtoons. I guess 6,75 is already in a not-webtoon-friendly form for being black and white, so reformatting it is the least I can do Not sure if it's going to be worth it in the end, but is anything worth something in the end anyway? cx
I'll still continue to upload in page format on tapas, as I don't want to suddenly change it in the middle of the story and I personally like it better this way.

[Llyrel]

I do make a vertical scroll version of my comic for both Webtoon and Tapas. A friend commented that the vertical version was more readable and I did get one staff pick here in September (when I was already using the vertical format), but other than that, can't say that I've noticed any big change. My comic actually has way more views on ComicFury, where I'm posting it in page format didn't notice any difference on WT at all.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I tried to reformat my pages into scroll for a while. And I didn't like doing it. It felt like I was chopping up my hard work into scraps, just because people don't like to zoom in a little bit.
I get why people would do it, as scroll is the dominant format for online reading. But my comic here on Tapas has so many problems anyways at the beginning, that converting to scroll was just extra work, for no gains.

So personally for me, I wouldn't do it again.

[iHateFridays]

Well the way my pages are, they'd be pretty hard to view on webtoon if they weren't in scroll format lollll

[rajillustration]

It kind of depends on how much work it would be. Like I had a comic where it just wasn't working because it was drawn in px and not vector, with the intention to print in black and white. So, it was just really fuzzy, took a long time to redraw a lot of things after they were sized up for scroll, and in the end it was like--I'm spending as much time making this vertical as it was to make the pages in the first place. So, I scrapped the vertical version and decided that I'll do vertical with other comics meant to be vertical. For me that was a really good choice, because I like to get more abstract with my paneling, and I can do looooong long shots with vertical that breathe so nicely, because they were meant to be vertical from the beginning.

Also, it meant I could finish one project and move onto the next because I wasn't spending altogether like 50+ hours making my comic vertical. Unless your project is taking off, or unless you really are attached to it, and unless you personally want to see it in vertical format, I don't see a reason to devote the time. It would just be another reason you're not finishing your comic.

BUT, and this is a big but--if it doesn't take that long to do, then go for it. Some people just put down panels in vertical so it stacks one panel by one and that's...it...and that works for their audience. Probably only takes like 40 minutes an episode that way because at that point you're just setting font.

[GumshoeComix]

I just finished reformatting my comic from Landscape to Portrait, it took months.
pls I don't want to reformat again, ill cry That shit had me going on hiatus I was scared
I guess a lesson not to make comics in Landscape format unless you're already a well-established artist.

[smokesalty]

Understandable! I think it just takes me less time since I don't tend to do anything fancy for scroll, I just plop panels and speech bubbles down for the most part. But yeah, if someone hates reformatting it and doesn't see it as worth their time I wouldn't recommend it.

[Lady_T_Musings]

So this was something that was on my mind when I started my comic... not saying I never will switch MagicalMashup! to scroll, but my comic is niche a-f anyway and I like the way my comic looks as pages. It's also what I'm comfortable with, so I stick with it.

I don't publish my comic on Webtoon since it's in a weird middle ground where mature things happen, but it's not the premise of the story (Everyone's a new adult so like you know shiz happens and I draw it :V). I know I need to just have my own site to not be bothered with the censorship, but that's a battle for another time,

I think If I start to translate any of my shorter stories into comics I might do the scroll format since the funny part about all this is that when I do preliminary sketches for my comic I tend to make all of the scenes as stand-alone illustrations that I fit on to a page buh-dum-dum-tsk. So you know XD.

[TroyVSTheWorld]

I get that the vertical format works better for mobile phones, but I don't like it as the standard. I suppose the horizontal style of classic syndicated strips always gave your peripherals a glimpse of the overall activity in the strip, as opposed to the forced-focus to single panels. It kind of forces linearity, I guess? I still reformat after finishing a strip into vertical format anyway, but personally I think it affects my art, integrally.

[system]

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