How to test a canvas size?

[amortelito]

Hey, I hope you are having a wonderful day! I want to test different page sizes but without publishing them, because that will ruin the surprise update. Also, I eventually want to see rough sketches of the pages to see if they look good on the mobile, see if the space between panels is good, etc.

When I open images on my mobile, it adjusts them to fit everything on the screen, so this doesn't work to look a scroll-down comic. Is there a way to see the pages in private here on Tapas or any other website (that doesn't adjust the image to fit everything on the screen)?
I hope this is not a stupid question

(Note: I didn't have this dilemma before because my pages were traditional A4 size, not vertical style).

[fleohr]

You can "post" on LW, and view it on a "mobile" before posting it

[DiegoPalacios]

When uploading the page. Click on the preview button. This shows how the page looks in terms of size,color, etc....

[amortelito]

@fleohr I am painfully inexperienced in web comics, what does "LW" means? I'm so sorry.

[fleohr]

Oh it's Line Webtoon

[amortelito]

Ahhh Ok! I will make an account then, Thank you so much!

[amortelito]

OMG true!! Diego, the hero, saves the day! Hmmm... fortunately it doesn't let you publish without typing the title and chose a thumbnail. I guess I don't have to worry that I would press "publish" by accident (because I'm super clumsy jajaja ) It will works great on my desktop! unfortunately on the mobile works painful slow for me, but I can test only the most relevant pages there. Thanks a lot.

[hjfsdh2222]

Short version:
Just draw on whatever size canvas you want and then reduce the size to 940 or lower. Then do an image split (I use Krita to do this. It’s free. It’s the only free one I know that does this.) so that the vertical will be less than 4000. As long as you upload it in order everything should be all good.

Here’s how I do it:

My canvas size I draw on is usually 2000 x 10000-20000.
Then I reduced the image size to 800 x whatever-this-number-will-be-usually-4000-to-8000.
Then I do an image split, on tapastic I usually just break it up 3 times horizontally; as a result I get the update split into 3 images that are 800 x whatever-this-number-will-be-usually-2000.
Those 800 x 2000 pages are real easy to upload on tapastic:)

I plan on uploading to webtoons later and their format is 800 x 1280(I’m going to fix the updates later into multiples of 1280 with white space and then do image split again).

Anyhow I super glad your switching to vertical I think you’ll find you’ll really like it! I sure did when I switched!

[amortelito]

@JakiraJurosawa Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!! I just downloaded Krita! Looks very easy to use!! I totally made a mess because I didn't try the canvas size for starting. I should keep in mind the 800 x 1280 of Webtoon you mentioned so that I don't have to resize later...
Yes!! I'm not only changing the format, I'm burning everything to the ground and will change everything! It's gonna be awesome because I practiced with the current chapter and It looked a bit stiff.
Thanks again!

[J.Z.Castillo]

pssssttt, you can also have a secret comic account to upload test pages and try it there, that way no one sees it

[amortelito]

@J.Z.Castillo I will pretend I didn't read this comment wink wink, and I will not make that alternate account. And I will not test the full comic there.

jajajajaja Thank you!! That can work so well!!

[MissionFailure]

A thing to keep in mind; There are mobile phone readers here and many other sites, so you might want to design your comic to be easily seen and read on a phone too.

320x480px is the approx display size for a mobile phone, it is 2:3 ratio and a good size for making thumbnails for comic layouts. A4 standard is a 1:1.4 ratio approx so you were viewing ratio warping likely when previewing images on your phone.

Most tablets are 3:4 and A4 will have much less obvious warping when read on those devices. Of course on a computer, the display ratio isn't such a concern and warping isn't usually a noticeable issue.

I'm half tempted to make a standalone post talking about the 2:3 & 3:4 ratio ideals for sites/mobile/tablet, thumbnails, and printing info.

[amortelito]

Ahh, this information is very valuable, You know a standalone post would be great if you decide to share more details! Many of us are inexperienced in this field, and we invest so much time thinking about the art, story, and characters that we don't consider that the canvas is so important. Thank you, I will check that out.