Hello everyone, I'm currently writing my thesis on webtoon design and readability and I would love to have creators perspective on how they handle text. Do you guys use typefaces (if so which ones) or do you handwrite yourselfs? How do you ensure readability on both desktop and smartphone?
Thank you very much
Apr '20
Apr '20
I do a mixture of both handwritten text and typeface.
Many of my comics are thrillers, horrors, and other mind-bend type of genres, so I use fonts like Chiller, Child Writing, Constantia, and Poor Richard. They give that gothnic/dreadful feeling I wanna go for within my stories.
For handwriting, that usually goes with sound effects or trying to add writting text within the story (as in a character writing).
For realiablity, I make my fonts as however big my actual webtoon sized page is. I usually work in 2000X15000 for long hand, so the panels are on the big size. For my font, I use 69 pt, and so far no one's complained about the size. I think because my pages are so huge, the size of the font just downgrades, which makes 69 pt readiable when published online (both for desktop and smartphone).
I only use pc font and never handwrite - noone cares about your handwriting btw unless it' s a well tought calligraphy or leterring. it is especially hard to read for not native english readers who are not used to decypher foreign script. I mean Komika fonts family has 50 free well made fonts for any comic genre including handmade style.
tapas and webtoon both have mobile preview so you can check at least these - if you can read it yourself. when I only started i I checked webtoons tutorial series and youtube channel both stating that 80% readers use mobile phones - personally i only get to know about webtoons because I occasionally downloaded webtoon app. So I made a sample panel and opened it on my iphone 8 which has relatively small screen size. So i kinda figured out which font size was fine to use - my eyesight is not perfect so I found the size which does not force my eyes .
if you have doubs just go check any page from top original creators and sompare your text.
honestly, I have to check with other people. You get kind of a blindness for how big or small your type is, and these forums are great for getting another eye to check you. Another way to check legibility is that both webtoon and tapas have a preview of how it will look on a phone, so you can just...double check.
As for type, I get a font that's easy to read while still looking handwritten--and if I do handwrite because I want it to look extra nice, I still use those fonts as a base to work off of--kind of like tracing. Handwritten calligraphy, even done digitally, is pretty meticulous, and you need a lot of guides to make it legible and clear.
But honestly, and this is me talking just my opinion, a comic intended for the phone and a comic intended for PC are inherently different. You can read them on both, but that doesn't mean they were intended for both, and even if you try and make a comic that works for both--it's always going to lean towards PC or Phone just because the difference in font and layout are So Different. I think most seasoned comic readers understand if they see a traditional page comic, to open a browser or a tablet. Likewise, seasoned readers on a PC will forgive a vertical format comic for it's large font face.
I didn't know that Tapas and Webtoon allowed you to compahad mobile previews, I was wondering if there was a system like Sketch or XD to allow you to see how it will look on the device.
In the survey I did a lot of complains were related to typography and readability, that's why I made this question, having creators answering is really useful for my thesis!
Thanks for the info!
Thank you for your reply, I understand what you mean.
I think the problem is that many webtoons reader (and I include myself in this) use both desktop and smartphone as reading devices.
For dialogue, I use a typeface. For SFX, I draw them. I keep my font generally the same size and make it larger when needed. I noticed my normal typeface was a bit small so I made it a bit larger recently.
I'm planning on printing my comic so I'm thinking of printing out at actual size to ensure the typeface is large enough to read and making adjustments if needed.
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