Do You Follow Webtoon's Panel Spacing Guidelines?

[gabriellabalagna]

Do you personally follow Webtoon's panel spacing guidelines?

"Panel to panel scenes should have a minimum distance of 200px per panel."

"If there is a location or scene transition, allow for 600px to 1000px of space to convey a sense of time passing."

Obviously, there's a balance, but do you lean towards adequate breathing room or less endless scrolling?

[darthmongoose]

I don't personally. I just make my pages in comic page format and then for the web version I space them out by... I dunno, something like 30 pixels? (I hold shift and press down three times with them selected in Photoshop. I think that's 30 pixels...). I'm not sure I'd even use their guidelines if I made a long-scroll comic. I always feel like when the panels are too spaced out the whole comic just drags.

[RedLenai]

I'll be honest, I've never heard of this thing.
I decided to indulge into the white space after reading a few webcomics and noticed that sometimes there could be an entire white image before another panel or even two

[alliascompany]

Been experimenting with spacing lately, but generally I only really use endless scrolling when the story really calls for it.

Recently I made a template from a screenshot on my phone to try to use as a guide. Though orginally I made it because sometimes on webtoons my phone's camera lense will cover part of the top panel.

[Kelheor]

I think quite a lot of comics on WT have too much space between panels (sometimes you scroll...and scroll...), but with time and more comics published I eventually made my spacing bigger. Why? Well, it reads better like this. I never followed this particular guideline, but I guess it's not too far from that?
Another reason is that I find it really easy to scroll down faster and not pay a lot of attention to panels if they are too close to each other (unless it's an action scene that's calling for that), and since most of the readers are not too attentive and are used to scroll their 60 panels episodes in second, small spacing can hurt the reading experience.

[hakei]

Earlier in my series I did experiment with having bigger white space between panels but I hated how it looked and felt. Even with a lot of white space, speed-reading readers will still speed scroll anyway so I don't think it's much of an issue.

As a reader I generally exit out of comics that have too much white space for my tastes (unless those white spaces are to denote time passing). My fingers get tired from having to scroll so much just to read five panels and I get distracted/lose interest by the long white space. I personally loooove the scroll-format-but-the-panels-are-close-together-like-print-format-comics that some Chinese webtoons have.

But I know some readers prefer having a lot of white space since they find it easier to focus on reading that way. It's all up to the matter of personal taste.

[bronte448]

I was not aware this was a thing. I've never had anyone complain that my panels were too close or far apart, though. I use different panel border and page colors to try and get my ideas across. For example, in this page we're transitioning out of a dream sequence.

Read A Fresh Friend - an Undertale Hopetale AU :: Chapter Four Page 9 | Tapas...

[gabriellabalagna]

Okay, thank you for the replies! Imma summarize all the feedback:

• Too much spacing can make the comic drag.
• There are many comics out there following these guidelines.
• Add extra margin at top so panels don't get cut off on certain phones.
• Useful for slower pacing.
• Too little spacing causes readers to zoom through too quickly.
• Too much spacing causes scrolling fatigue.
• Breathing room important for readability.

I will add, I think it's a matter of personal taste/style. Also, too much spacing makes me tired of scrolling and causes me to scroll super fast to get through it.

[AxemanRifflord]

While I didn’t realize they had a publicly available guideline until now, I kinda figured that Webtoon had a formula.

I kinda have conflicting feelings on it. The rebellious, punk rock side of me wants to say “maybe doing what the ‘literature’s side hustle’ people tell you to do won’t necessarily result in better artistic expression.”

On the other, more practically minded hand, I don’t blame Webtoon for trying to give the formula to creators who won’t learn the basics on their own before uploading.

I can tell when a comic uploaded to Webtoon was made by someone who doesn’t actually read vertically scrolling webcomics. I still say some would be surprised by what can fit on a phone screen. But if you’re going to try to make webcomics for phones, or reformat yours for vertical scrolling, READ AND RESPECT OTHER WEBCOMICS MADE FOR PHONES. The vertical scrolling format isn’t “the only way to get popular on Webtoon.” It’s a artform. It’s a language. If you’re going to use it, learn it.

(I had Scott Mccloud fresh on my mind when I starting making vertically scrolling webcomics. It’s a pet peeve.)

[XiuLyn_12]

I don't follow any of their guidelines, haha.
But I constantly re-read to check if the whole page is readable (although it's only from my point of view).

[smokesalty]

I base my spacing on the pacing of the scene, not necessarily these guidelines.

Usually I have 1 panel on screen at a time for normal pacing I guess. But if the panel is smaller, the dialogue flows through to the next panel or it's a fast paced scene, I have less spacing. If it's supposed to be slower, I tend to have bigger panels and or more spacing. It's very useful for dictating how fast you want readers to get through the scene.

It took me a bit to get the hang of reformatting to webtoon, but I find keeping it clear and simple without too many panels on screen makes the reading experience smoother.

[rajillustration]

For me my font is so freakin big with scroll format that I have to follow these guidelines. Like 200 px on your phone really isn't that big. It's this big

And so if you are worried about pages of endless scroll--it just won't happen from 200 px gutters. Obviously, doing the most intense thing you can do to a rule will be a bad choice, let it be no gutters, or gutters that are infinitely long. but a 200 px gutter is perfectly reasonable for a scroll format webtoon. In fact I'd argue it could be a little larger, Personally I'd never be able to fit a speech bubble in this gutter, and scroll format speech bubbles tend to be in the gutters (not completely, but a lot of the time) but it depends on the context of the panel. Occasionally for looks I will overlap panels, or I will have one inside of another panel. But most of the time it's stacked with gutter space in between.

Also, it doesn't need to be white space. It's very common for it to be textured, either with handy CSP brushes that deposit little flowers or stars (whatever goes with your story) or to be colored with solid black if you're worried about the phone blinding your audience.

[Iris-Grimoire]

I honestly dislike it for the transitions? 200px is fine as Rajiillustration demonstrated, but 1000px is just too much. My hand hurts scrolling through some works and it's even worse on browser. Also, it's blank white on my face, do use textures or little effects to break it up please.

As a mostly page format artist, I wouldn't really mess a whole lot with this even if/when I adapt mine to scroll. Effects, cut up panels, all sound much better.

[gabriellabalagna]

@AxemanRifflord Yeah, they actually make it quite hard to find that handbook, so not surprised many people never heard of it.

@XiuLyn_12 Yeah, readability is important, especially when we're dealing with people reading on tiny devices.

@smokesalty Yeah, I feel like I read somewhere Webtoon recommends only 1-2 panels on screen at a time. When reading on desktop though, this is super annoying. I zoom way out so I don't scroll as much.

@rajillustration My font is on the smaller end so it doesn't take up as much room. Yeah, I agree 200px isn't that big on a phone. It still just seems so big cause I'm used to page format with tiny gutters. Also, yeah, filling in the gutters with FX makes them seem less empty. Good tip!

@Iris-Grimoire Yeah, 1000px is just too big for me too. Also, 1000px of white space just make me think the images aren't loading!

[system]

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