How do you do Lineart?

[ericlovelock3]

I've seen lots of great comics here, but one thing thats been very confusing is how are you guys doing your line art? No matter what I try it seems my lines always come out either really blurry or really Pixely, how have you guys all made yours so good?

[kurisquare]

I currently ink my comic on paper (I work in A4 size), and then scan it at 600dpi in black and white. It's a good tip to scan big and then resize to something smaller

[PotooGryphon]

It probably has something to do with your file settings. What program do you use? What resolution do you work in? What settings do you use when saving your page? Also do you scale your image up or down before exporting? Raster images lose quality if scaled up to much.

I draw on vector layers in manga studio, then export a photoshop file, once in photoshop I use adobe's "Save for Web" settings were I can preview the compressions on the image. In Manga studio my files have a 600 dpi resolution (way higher than ever needed), so when I bring that into photoshop, I'm able to resize that to pretty much any size I need.

[ericlovelock3]

I use Photoshop, usually at highest resolution possible, and I usually scale down

[PotooGryphon]

I use Photoshop

Seems to me Photoshop brushes always have a bit of a feathered look to them even if the hardness is set on 100%. I recommend using vector, though I know sometimes that's not possible.

[Caelestie]

I suggest using paint tool sai for line art since it has a stabilizer and photoshop does not have that. Photoshop is mainly used for painting than drawing. I still use photoshop for my line because I got to used to it.

[Raven_C]

While my own lineart is not the most polished, Paint Tool SAI is my number one choice when it comes to lineart or even just sketching. I rarely sketch in Photoshop; I mainly just use it for color. Drawing in SAI feels like butter. Oh so smooth. I've also heard good things about Manga Studio (even though I've never personally used it). But judging from other artists' work, it seems to do a good job with lineart.

[Spitfire]

I do line art with MS5 (has stabiliser though after learning my lines in PS I don't need it that much) I used to do my lines in PS but the line weight gets so much more alive in MS that it's not point using PS. I do use PS for text and some special brushes as I haven't found a way to compensate in MS and also I want to be able to edit text after I've been doing things to it, like rotating and such, which isn't possible in MS5.

I usually work with 300 dpi, I don't think I even could work higher as my computer is bit old

[kurisquare]

When it comes to inking digitally I prefer Paint Tool SAI because the lines look way sharper (lots of people also like the stabilizer but I don't use it much). But if you use Photoshop you can draw your lineart in a separate layer and then apply the "sharpen" filter on that layer, it looks pretty good

[biram_ba]

I have a very similar approach to @Spitfire, Manga Studio 5 for sketch/lineart, and Photoshop for coloring. MS doesn't work super smooth on my old computer, unfortunately, but for simple lineart work it's good. Alternatively, Paint Tool SAI is good and probably the most lightweight software I've tried.

[LittleEndian]

When I draw on photoshop I need to zoom to 200% to avoid aliasing on my lines or trembling lines !

[UzukiCheverie]

When you make a digital document - either photoshop or SAI or whatever - make sure the dimensions are decently large (I often use the standard 8.5 x 11 paper size as a starting point) and make sure the resolution and dpi is decent. Often times programs will automatically set the dpi (dots per inch) to 72 (even photoshop does this), but try setting it to something like 350 or 600. I guarantee you will see an increase in line quality, as in 72 dpi, it means that things will get blurry a LOT quicker as you zoom in, and there's a lot less room to make lines look sharp.

So ya, whenever you make a new document, just check the dpi settings (it should be there in new canvas settings no matter what program you're using) and see what it's set to. It might make a difference setting it to something higher. I use 350 dpi for Uzuki, if that means anything

When it comes to inking digitally I prefer Paint Tool SAI because the lines look way sharper (lots of people also like the stabilizer but I don't use it much)

I agree with this u o u one of the reasons why I prefer SAI over Photoshop (besides it being more user-friendly and less of a heavy program on my computer) is because the line quality is just -better-, and you don't need those filters and stuff to make it look nice. The colors in my strips always look so vibrant and sharp when I use SAI to paint u w u

[IAMO]

I do my lineart on Adobe Illustrator.