Personally, I prefer traditional pages. Since I grew up reading books that way (and later manga). Vertical pages feel wrong for me somehow, I can see it can work in some cases like the comic (Lack of Love).
I prefer traditional just because of how people do layouts and such but I think both methods are totally valid and have different things they’re good for! I just prefer that feeling of flipping through things and seeing it all together...though that might be because I actually have a Really hard time remembering events with vertical format...something about how I process them makes me have to keep going back up to see what just happened. But that’s like, probably just me tbh XD
I leaned more towards traditional for reading level my works but as vertical have it's own advantage, I do use it and reading in appreciation if the author make use of the format good.
I prefer traditional because I'm old fashioned and the way I read comics and manga. It requires less scrolling and provides opportunities for cool compositions. Vertical is a good for mobile but I'm unfamiliar with drawing in that format.
Traditional for me too. The pacing feels better to me, I don't really like how the vertival format makes me scroll faster, if that makes sense?
Vertical comics can be done well too, if the cretor is using the composition in new and exciting ways ofc ^^
When I first joined I thought about updating with multiple pages at a time, but it was too much work. I've found there's less scrolling with traditional pages--it can all fit on your screen if you're reading on a tablet.
Traditional pages. I still read a lot in vertical format because I usually do it at my phone, but I have the feeling that I pay more attention to the details of the art on traditional pages.
Imo, vertical comics suit fast-paced stories very well, while traditional seems to be better for chill stories.
Around a year ago I would have said it wouldn't matter much.
But after some stuff happened and I ended up on very strong meds (Morphine and some other stuff), it went in and affected my brain quite a lot.
First I couldn't read/Use the computer for weeks.
But, when I finally got a bit better again, and was able to enjoy manga and webcomics, I just... Couldn't enjoy manga as much.
There was too much information crammed into too small pages, with too much text just staring me in the face at once.
Whereas the scrolling pages were less information all over, making it easy for me and my stupid brain to enjoy and read with ease.
Even now, when I'm pretty much off of the meds again, I can still feel that I simply can't enjoy the traditional way as much as I can with the scrolling pages. -I still can and do read traditional comics, as there is many I followed before all of this, and wouldn't miss. But I just don't really get in to many new ones that's traditionally made unless I like some part of it extra much.
This, ofc, is a bit of a special case, but this is why I prefer scrolling pages as the person I am today ^^
I prefer traditional pages- I use desktop tapas 90% of the time and I'm really not a fan of the sea of white space between each panel. It's less distracting on mobile but still not great for immersion imo. I really don't mind zooming in to see more if I have to.
Whenever this topic comes up, I feel like I'm the only person who enjoys reading vertical scroll format on desktop...
I don't have a preference for either of them. As long as the font is readable, doesn't matter what format the pages will be. There are some traditional pages and vertical pages that are hard for me to read that I feel like my eyes will give up.
I strongly prefer traditional pages and find them much easier to read. To me the flow often seems better and it's more immersive than in the vertical format where often you can only concentrate on one panel at the time. Not to mention I tend to get frustrated with the constant strolling and too much space. Tight panels are much easier to read for me and vertical comics that use equal sized panels with no extra space between them are something I do read at times.
The thing I really like about traditional pages is that the whole page can be utilized and the relations between the panels are as important as the panels themselves. It seems more whole, if that makes sense.
I strongly dislike vertical scrolls. Creative panel arranges? not there. Lots empty wasted space? Sure. wide establishing shots, or just wide shots in general? no can do. the only thing that suit scrolls is the loooong vertical panels, but they come up so infrequently and are so specific that I don't even sure it can be called an advantage, since literally nobody uses frames long enough that they wouldn't fit on a normal comic page.
And tarnishing all the effort that the author put in the artwork by viewing it through a tiny dirty telephone screen while shacking in a bus on the way to work or school is just WRONG.
I'm just gonna link to an old post I did, as well as a post @HGohwell did because this convo has come up before again and again, and my answer remains the same:
TL: DR -- Both. Both have their advantages, both have their weaknesses, and I don't choose between the two. In fact, with a lot of my comics, you see elements of both. If I can try and experiment with both, I do it because I wanna get better. And if you compare my 2017 work with my 2020 work, you'll see that I have improved working with both.
If you don't try and experiment and work with both (with both reading and creating), that's kinda on you rather than the medium. If I can learn how to read manga right to left and understand the different ideas around it, I can learn how to read vertical scroll and understand how to work with it.
Simple as that.
Every time this subject comes up you inevitably get people saying that you can't be creative with vertical scroll and every time it comes I feel the need to point out you can, that working within the restraints of your medium is what breeds creativity and simply throwing your hands up and saying "it just doesn't work in this format" makes you look lazy and not willing to put in the effort and experiment with how you can.
Oh @Jenny-Toons just did that as I was posting haha.
I prefer traditional page layouts, especially when it is obvious that the artist has put a lot of thought into how the eye progresses across the page and how the reader takes in everything as a whole. The vertical format makes sense because of phone screens, but it kind of kills the art form in a lot of ways. The experience of reading a comic has always been very similar to watching a movie for me, so when you restrict the ability to do wide framing you kind of lose the cinematic quality that a lot of comics have.
The best comic art tends to be when a page, in its entirety, is treated like a single piece of art, not just a collection of panels. JH Williams III's sequential artwork would not work in a vertical format, and his stuff is sooo incredibly beautiful and thoughtful.
I've seen people do some interesting things with the scroll format, but I still think it is too much of a creative sacrifice. Designing for vertical feels too piece-meal for me, like you're hyper focused on each individual panel and you kind of lose track of the whole. Anyways, my comic is done in the traditional format and I imagine a lot of people are turned off because it isn't intended to be read on a phone, but that's fine. I'm looking forward to printing the first chapter soon.
Creating: I prefer to make traditional pages. That way I can put my energy into use to make the entire page as creative as I want to in order to tell the page's story...also- once I finish the entire chapter, I've got very little adjustments & formatting to do to make my comic print ready.
Reading: it doesnt matter. I read both- but some of the pet peeves with vertical that I have is when creators make the gutters between panels too wide to the point where you could literally stick a whole nother panel in there; I dont like that.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I like vertical because it can be easier to read and I don't have to keep clicking to a new page. But I actually prefer traditional because I like seeing the entire page and artists can make very interesting compositions. Also, I can get tired when I have to scroll too much in a vertical comic.
However, the most important thing for me is making the comic readable.
I like them both. But if i had to pick one it would be traditional. The scrolling thing is cool but I'm more used to reading comics traditionally like an actual book.
