Vertical Webtoons vs Comic Webtoons (I need your opinion)

[alinlaphel]

I've been experimenting with a different format. I've been making my story spaced out like other webtoons but I've been thinking about changing that. I decided to format a chapter more like a comic where the panels are not spaced out. I heard some arguments for both ends but I'm curious how well it works for my story.

What do you think of the two formats?

Vertical Webtoon Version
https://tapas.io/episode/1958875

Comic Webtoon Version
https://tapas.io/episode/1959844

[Rhonder]

One thing that stands out to me right away is that it seems like in the vertical scroll formatted one, the panels are still the same size (or roughly the same) as in the page format one, if I'm not mistaken? If you do go that route I would personally recommend taking advantage of the format and size up some of the panels to read more easily. That's not to say that every panel has to be full width or super huge or anything, but the main advantage of vertical scroll is legibility on smart phones, and there all the size increase you can get, the better!

If you're not that interested in scaling the panels up at all, then I don't know that there's much disadvantage just going with the regular pages tbh at that point it's more about the reading flow I suppose, it's definitely a little faster to read a page when you have access to all of the panels at a glance, vs. spacing them apart.

---

I absolutely don't claim to be a pro at vertical scroll as I'm only currently working on my first vertical comic atm, but I did a similar exercise to what you did earlier this year and found the ability to scale up some panels, especially ones where I had 2 or 3 in a single row, was useful

Comic Page:
https://tapas.io/episode/1205248

Vertical:
https://tapas.io/episode/1705405

[alinlaphel]

Thank you for your opinion. I definitely been considering changing the size for the vertical. The panels should be same size because my story actually starts out in comic format. I just space panels for the Webtoon version whenever I post it. I was trying this format to see how a direct page upload would look. I'll think about both the formats when it comes to posting my next chapter. Looking at your story, I can see the appeal of doing both formats. I could always consider that as a route too.

[keii4ii]

You don't need to put that much space just because you're doing a vertical scroll. Excessive empty space is an artifact of 1) pro creators being forced to churn out a lot of content every week, so they resort to putting white space to create an illusion of the comic update looking longer than it really is; 2) comics that were originally book-formatted being ported to vertical.

If you are making it in vertical format natively, then there's lots of things you can do to really take advantage of the vertical flow.

But if you are making it in a book page format, and then porting it to vertical, then I'm not sure how much you can do. Personally, I'm not a big fan of format porting; comics usually look the best in the format they were created in!

[alinlaphel]

Thank you for the opinion and advice for the vertical format. The story is definitely a native book format. I design it with pagination in mind. The one thing I did like with the comic format in webtoons is that it felt like one huge super manga. If I go for the vertical format, I'll keep that advice in mind. I know when porting, I look at other people's webtoons to get an idea on what to do.

[ble]

I like your style. If I had to pick I would choose the vertical webtoons. I first do the traditional format, then put it into a vertical comic.

Not only is just better for reading on cellphones but, also it seems to have more breathing space when seeing one panel at a time. In printing is ok the traditional format, but in digital, sometimes it feels like is too much on the screen at once.

[alinlaphel]

Thank you for your opinion. Interesting enough, I personally like being able to to see everything at once but I know it can be pretty busy especially with everything being so compact. I actually have been working the traditional format and moving it to a webtoon format.

[keii4ii]

I know when porting, I look at other people's webtoons to get an idea on what to do.

Studying examples is a great way to learn. My suggestion is don't pick examples solely based on "I like this comic overall" or "this comic is popular." Pick examples based on "I like the layout / visual flow of this comic/ how this comic utilizes the format." Because that's what you're trying to learn, right?

One of my favorite comics is a comic book ported to vertical. I do not have access to the books as they are not sold where I live, so I can only read the vertical version. And even without having read the books, you can still tell that the comic lost much in the porting process! So as much as I love that comic, it's not something anyone should study to learn how to make a vertical format comic.

[alinlaphel]

Thank you for the advice, I'll be sure to look into it.

[bakasama25]

Have you considered moving the some of speech bubbles? Although it may add more time, it you might allow the reader to see more the art that might get blocked by bubbles like parts of faces or backgrounds.

[sarahmcsquish]

I personally love the comic style over the web style. I feel like web style gives a lot of empty space, but comic style keeps your eyes going from panel to panel with each movement and word bubble

[migxmeg]

I like to read on my phone, so for me web style gives the art and text more breathing room. It's more work to keep my eyes flowing through comic style pages (or even densely packed panels) on a tiny screen which cuts into the immersion.

Obviously on desktop or in print, comic style is just perfect.

[alinlaphel]

I've actually been moving bubbles for the vertical version. I make both a webtoon version and manga version at the same time so that's why the text bubbles look very similar between the versions.

@sarahmcsquish
I personally feel the same especially since I grown up on comics and manga. It is very busy but combined it makes a very interesting looking piece that all seems to fit well together.

@migxmeg
I definitely understand this. This is the majority opinion from all the responses I've gotten but it makes sense. It's a more fitting format for the digital medium. I do want to see what I can with a comic style page since I design my pages with pagination in mind but I want to try to see what I can do about a middle ground.