Software for Zines/Comic layout & printing

[altimys]

Heya! I working on compiling a comics zine for a club at school, and I'm wondering what software I should use. I have Publisher, Photoshop, and Medibang, and frankly, I have no idea where to start. Right now I'm trying out Publisher (never used it before) but I'm worried that it might not export with good res, or something. IDK. Like I said, I do not know where to start.

Any help would be appreciated, especially if you've printed your comic before! Thank you so much!

[Tanisha]

Now I use Manga Studio EX 4 for my comic since it will be printed later at A4 size and I would recommend that for comic making of any sort. Clipstudio Paint Ex as well. But Medibang should work in a similar way to it and since it's free so I would definitely look into it if I were you! They both export in good resolution but I honestly think most programs export in good resolution? So you should have no worry there. I've never used Publisher before and I find photoshop a bit inconvenient for comic making///;x

[altimys]

Thank you! I'll look into Medibang!

[AnnaLandin]

Whichever software you end up drawing in, make sure to keep your resolution above 300 dpi for colour, and even higher for grayscale and black and white work.

When I do print-layouts, I use InDesign - it's fairly easy to use, and good for setting up multi-page documents. You just place the images for the pages where they're supposed to go, and export in whatever resolution you need. You can fiddle with the export-settings to get what you need, up to and including bleed-marks (handy tip; give yourself nice big margins around all of the edges; anything too close to the edge of the paper gets trimmed off).

While I work in Manga Studio/Clip Studio Paint when I draw my pages, I've never used it to create a PDF for print, so I can't tell you what that is like, but it is excellent for drawing comics.

[Mikayi]

not sure if this is any help, but I used to do a comic print from school computers, as well as using my home, which is where I found out, that the programs you use to print can vary, but depending on the printer; if printing. to make sure that either the program reads into the printer book format or remember to lay out first page then last page till you meet in the middle, if that makes any since.
so basically it's cover- back cover
inside would be the opposite last page- first page so it's prints back. not sure if that makes since at all! but it's something I had to deal with in school when making a printed comic-zine type thing. and we had basically normal printers, so I had to turn the paper over so it would print the other side.

otherwise I've used an old version of publisher, it's not to hard. but I use photoshop for any editing then export to a printing program. normally 300 dpi is good, I use 600dpi

not sure if that was any help, but either way sounds like a lot of fun! I hope it goes well!

[sauropasquini]

Adobe InDesign is the tool of the trade. For sure!
I use Medibang to draw the pencils, ink and add the shadows, then I color in Photoshop, where I also add the backgrounds and special effects, then I use InDesign to add the text and page the book. Export in PDF as 300dpi and ready to go.