What drawing app is the best when it comes to making speech bubbles? Which apps do you use and how do you make them these are the different examples I'm talking about. I know you can draw them but I'm talking about the ones that have a very clean look that are obviously not drawn by hand. I can't seem to get the hang of it.
Jul '19
Jul '19
it really depends on what software and what personal style a person is going for so methods will be pretty different
personally i use medibang paint pro. while the software itself has a "materials" option which includes speech bubbles i tend to use the line tool or shape tool the make any speech bubbles. The "tail" of the bubbles i usually just hand draw with the pen brush.
i know clip studio paint has speech bubble assets, as far as i can recall, and photoshop had the default speech and though bubbles in cs5 or cs6 as for more recent versions i'm not to sure
to give some samples of speech bubbles i've done:
this episode used photoshop's shape tool, angled brush for the "tail" and the stroke effect to create the outline
versus this episode where i used medibang's shape tool, the draw selection border tool(effect?) to outline text that feel out of the shape, and a marker brush I "copied" from firealpaca to do the connecting lines and "tails" for the speech bubbles
like i'd mentioned before there's a ton of different methods it's just a matter of finding what works best with your artwork/artstyle, what your style preference is for speech bubbles and just finding methods that your most comfortable with or are the most effective. it takes some experimentation but it pays off and you get to learn a variety of methods to use/shortcuts you can take
sorry if my explanations are disorganized but i hope it helps 
Yup, you need to download it from the clouds to access the bubbles and materials.
Me personally just draw the bubbles by hand.
I write amd edit text in Krita, because it's text editing tool is pretty impressive. Then I just color it in Sai and put some circles underneath. My characters are colorcoded to distinguish who is speaking.
i use a custom tool from the clip studio assets shop so i draw my bubbles out so they dont look too... cookie cutter and computer generated
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I use photoshop's shape too too WITH a caveat...after I've placed my ellipse with a 10pt edge so I can see the line next to the type I use the warp tool to make the outline of the ellipse follow the text as closely as I can.
Medibang user here! Yes, it has materials with speech bubbles that you can import into the canvas, but I prefer to use the ellipse snap and then I draw the tail of it.
As for fonts, Medibang already has fonts on the cloud, but just in case you don't want to download it, you can use Blambot14, which is where I got the font for the main logo of my comic, and it has a lot of dialogue fons that are free.
I just use Photoshopâs shape tool.
But I also use Zombiesmileâs Free Speech Bubbles PSD File.
Itâs great for a variety of bubble shapes and you can just copy and past them.
Sometimes Iâll look for brushes or vectors or attempt to make my own if Iâm looking for a more complicated shape.
And most of my fonts come from Blambot and 1001Fonts (only the totally free to use ones tho - Id be lost without the Aladin font, which I use for my title).
I always drew my bubbles myself. I feel like it has a natural look to it. I suggest looking at "making comics" or "drawing words and writing pictures" for lettering references. They both explain how to do it pretty well. I usually type my letters with a good font and then "ink" over them, then make the balloon.
I use the rectangle tool and ellipse tool from Illustrator most of the time. Now I'm thinking about starting to be more creative with the designs of some of my speech bubbles.
I use Illustrator to do my lettering and word balloons. CSP does have lettering/balloon capabilities, but they're currently not the best- the kerning functions are horrible and it doesnt do well with fonts that have ligatures.
Also Illustrator allows me to create balloons like this:
As for my fonts- I get most of them from Comicraft & Blambot. Comicraft has some SUPERB fonts, but they are pretty expensive UNLESS you catch them on New Year's Day when they have a sale on all of their fonts for the price of the new year(i.e., in 2020, fonts will be on sale for $20.20 each all day on Jan 1). Blambot has great fonts as well- his is cheaper(I can buy his fonts any day of the year coz they usually average about $20-$25); he also has FREE fonts that he allows small indie and webcomic artists to use.
I have page template that already have everything I need for a page - templates of bubbles, texts, effects or colors. I simply delete what I don't need in the current page I'm working on. Bubbles are shape-based.
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i use the circle tool and manually add the arrow with freehand 
and depending on the tone i increase the outline thickness
I use ComicLife and mostly Blambot fonts, though I might invest in some version of Illustrator in the not too distant future.
The pen tool and vector shapes in Photoshop. Give's me a lot of freedom. I do freehand a bit if I need a special shape that the tools cannot provide.
I don't use apps, they seem to shopped and soulless. here's an example of how I do it for my book. the bubbles are blank on purpose but I started out with the text and colored in the space around it then moved the bubbles accordingly to flow with the page as best as possible. I try to give the dialogue as much symmetry as possible spanning over the entire page, binding the panels together further and making it all one big picture. then of course I trace a line around the shapes when I'm doing the final linework. give it a try!
I'm still using my old copy of Manga Studio 5 (which I think is now Clip Studio or something?) so I just use their word balloon tool. I started out with the ellipse balloon, then switched to the curve balloon for a while but went back to the ellipse one because the curve balloons were looking too messy. Maybe one day I'll try to make them myself but it just saves so much time...
yea I just draw mine by hands. it's better that way, I have control over it better that way and it looks more natural. but if you are just really bad at doing it then, use remade bubble.
