I can't decide my comic's page dimensions

[marygold]

I'm currently stuck between setting up my pages to be 6x9 or 6x8 or even 6x8.5 ( Of course on my digital file I'll be sizing up) 6x9 would give me the greatest surface area to draw on which I like, but I'm worried about it being too narrow (so I guess the ratio between length vs width being too large). I have a vague memory of reading printed comics like Bone and Amulet which are both 6x9 and the books were both kind of hard to open completely? My memory's kind of vague.

I've been looking into the page dimensions of other comics and manga and many have been more or less 6 or 5 x 8.5 so I'm wondering if I should go with that. Will the 1" or .5" cut off from the length be that big of a deal? Or on the flip side, are 6x9 books not as narrow and not as hard to open as I'm remembering?

I printed out the two pages I've completed (6x9) and they don't look bad at all, I'm just worried when I'll have a lot of pages together is when the narrowness might become a problem.

Thanks!

[endlessuprising]

Hiya! To be honest it is most likely going to be a time of trial and error printing up different sizes and seeing which works best for you and your set up, sometimes a more standard size is handy in terms of print though. Just for convenience, sometimes going against the grain causes a few unexpected problems or there is more advice if you are using a standard format that others are familiar with. That said, sizing the comic up to the next most standard size if if easier for you to read or hold, or the artwork looks better to you should be fine just as long as you adjust your digital templates for bleed and everything accordingly. Hope you find that perfect set up soon!

[marygold]

This was helpful, thank you! I'm leaning towards 6x9, just hope the book is easy to open come printing time

[SeraphicMayin]

I think 6x9 is a nice standard size.

I'm currently working off of a 6.75x10.25 final cut size that's based off Western comics so I have a nice broad area to work in. It's more about the aspect ratio and if it's on a big canvas it should be able to scale down okay.

That said, since you can self-publish/Print you can go with any size the printer is able to do.

But yeah, I'd just keep an eye on the page count to ensure the thickness of the book doesn't eat up the center of your pages. If you know you'll have a lot of pages then you can just ensure the edges on the center side of the pages are a little bigger than the outside edges to be safe.

[marygold]

Thank you! I'm leaning back towards 6x9 and this definitely helped. Ideally yeah the book will have a lot of pages so I guess I'll keep the center border in mind