When do you like to emphasize words in your speech bubbles?

[rajillustration]

When do you like to emphasize words, in your speech bubbles? And when is it too much or not enough? Do you ever wonder if readers who have an accent might not agree with where you put that emphasis? Does it ever change the meaning of your words?

How are ways that you do it? A different font? Or do you just click italicize or bold?

Lets share our thoughts and strong held opinions on emphasis in speech bubbles, so we don't accidentally do a Ken Penders and emphasize every other word:

(unless your into that, in which case, welcome to the forum, Mr Penders, we've been waiting for you)

[Kaydreamer]

I probably do tend to overdo it a bit. I'm still finding my style for it. There are three main reasons I'll emphasise a word in dialogue;

• If it's a name or location, especially if it's one which the readers are unfamiliar with.
• To indicate which words the character would stress while speaking.

The dialogue above does flow a little clunky, because I think he's emphasising the wrong words occasionally. Like 'carried'; I have no idea why that needed emphasis. It wouldn't be stressed in natural-sounding speech, and it's not exactly important. Whereas 'especially', 'nobly' and 'valiantly' are words I'd probably choose to emphasise the same way he did.

[Yulek]

I usually don't, since I tend to find random bolded words distracting

I rather try to convey the tone through the bubbles shape and placement, how the text is distributed over several bubbles (like when they inhale and blah)
Or through the character gesturing

You don't have to put emphasis on the "how dare you" if the character slams a fist on the table.

[chainsawmaniac99]

when someones screaming out something dramatic or shouting out a cool fighting move lol thats usually when I use it

[Iris-Grimoire]

Only two instances - when the word is HEAVILY stressed (not just the usual part of the sentence, but it's yelled or hissed in the middle of an otherwise normal line), or when it's essential to understand what the character means. For an immediate example since I was lettering, I made "you don't want to make a deal with me" because without those italics, it feels patronizing; with the "me" stressed, it becomes more informal in that the character is downplaying themselves, not the listener.

[joannekwan]

I usually only emphasize words in two instances.

1. If I would italic the word if it were written as a novel, so like just regular words a character might emphasize while speaking. Like "You just had to tell me, didn't you?" he grumbled with a roll of his eyes.
2. Sometimes if it's a single word or very short phrase that's shouted and it's the only dialogue for the character on the page, just to give it that extra oomph.

[ninjashira]

I tend to bold frequently because I personally think the look of a lot of uniform text tends to look a bit monotonous. I'll bold words for emphasis, but it's just a light bolding. Just enough to break up the uniformity, not enough to make it seem like the characters are shouting every other word.

[Lady_T_Musings]

I bolded every proper noun when I did my practice pronoun comic and when I showed it to my art friends for critique they ripped me a new one haha, not viciously, but like... "Lady... but why?!" I did it bc a lot of superhero comics made by the big two have a tendency to do this and I was copying that without thinking about all of the editings with leading and kerning and all the spaces between that can make bolded words stand out without looking alien on a page. I on the other hand was just trying to figure out what point size is legible on a phone while still doing page-style comics and adding outlines to my custom font in Affinity Designer without editing each letter just made the bolded words look jarring and my word balloons busy A-F.

I dropped doing that and only bold words now that are names of places or organizations that have plot relevance, but even then I don't harp too much on it nowadays bc it really isn't all that needed if I can communicate intent with the characters on panel, but if it's a disembodied voice or I just need a lil more punch to a sentence, then them bolds and italics can be pretty helpful too.

To tag on to what @Yulek said, would like to play more with the actual word bubbles themselves for communicating feelings over messing with the font as word bubbles are an art form in themselves and can totally be used to communicate thoughts and feelings as well and are unique to the comic medium.

[Colours_dont_match]

I don't really emphasize text much, as I too try to transport the message vio the speech bubbles look. I do sometimes underline the words if characters say something super sarcastic, or I write in caps when someone yells.

[Yulek]

ohh wait that actually reminded me of my typography lessons.

there the golden rule is, only emphasize one way and less is better.

so in a regular rext you would use italics. and not italics + bold + underlined.

and I think that would work with comics too, but adding bubbles and character expressions into the mix.
then itd be what you said as well, with how when it's an disembodied voice, emphasizing is neccessary.

... I', just rambling because I like finding logic behind things like that hah.

also making your In-Universe places emphasized also feels valid.. it'd also be a hint to the reader that it's not been established yet and they haven't previously missed anything.
tho it depends on the comic whether that kind of hinting fits in, since it's a bit meta

[Lady_T_Musings]

Oh, I'm all about rambling and tangents when it comes to this comic-making life XD.

Yooo you sound like my Typography professor back in the day so I know you're legit haha. For real though, most of what he was saying about typography pretty much applies to comics when I think about the basic form of laying out words in a visually pleasing and understandable manner, but when I sat down to make my comic, I just got so hooked up on how I didn't have formal education in making comics so maybe that stuff doesn't apply. I mean there are special rules that comics of old follow, but things are ever-changing, but so long as readability is clear, fitting font is used, and the text is easy to follow and spaced appropriately your pretty much set in that department. Though have fun figuring out which point size works best across multiple platforms muahahaha.

Seems silly, but I really did go blank for a bit when making my prologue comic, which was fine bc it was for practice anyway and it helped me get valuable critique on for one how jarring my lettering was and two distracting my thick panel borders were before working on the main comic. But like comic borders are a whole another thing...

also making your In-Universe places emphasized also feels valid.. it'd also be a hint to the reader that it's not been established yet and they haven't previously missed anything. tho it depends on the comic whether that kind of hinting fits in, since it's a bit meta

That's pretty much my thoughts behind doing it when I do it now :D. (I just wanted to quote something since I don't get to use that feature enough hehe).

[rajillustration]

@Lady_T_Musings Yeah, and going off of typography professors, I remember in Graphic design classes in college my teachers were like "don't you dare click an italicize button or a bold button, always use the italicized font family of the font or the bold font family because the button only stretches it or adds a stroke to the edge and that's not going to look nice" and I've been so paranoid ever since, haha. So for that reason I use a different font entirely for emphasis.

Although for comics, truly, I don't know if things ever have to get that particular, since readability is the most important thing of all. Some comics use a lot of emphasis, others would be silly if they did. It's interesting how everyone does it so differently.

[rajillustration]

The dialogue above does flow a little clunky, because I think he's emphasising the wrong words occasionally. Like 'carried'; I have no idea why that needed emphasis. It wouldn't be stressed in natural-sounding speech, and it's not exactly important. Whereas 'especially', 'nobly' and 'valiantly' are words I'd probably choose to emphasise the same way he did.

Yeah Ken Penders is a wild, wild trip and I truly do not understand half the decisions he made when he told his letterer "OK man, here's all the words that have to be italicized have fun" Especially when you don't want too many punchlines or points in each panel so like...why stress so many words that it loses the point that your panel is trying to make? A controversial comic artist, for sure.

[rajillustration]

I usually only emphasize words in two instances.

If I would italic the word if it were written as a novel, so like just regular words a character might emphasize while speaking. Like "You just had to tell me, didn't you?" he grumbled with a roll of his eyes.
Sometimes if it's a single word or very short phrase that's shouted and it's the only dialogue for the character on the page, just to give it that extra oomph.

Yeah, I think novel writing has taught me so much about when to emphasize more than comic making. With comics, it takes so long to place everything out that you can lose sense of the natural flow, so it feels like "well I have to make an emphasis since it's been forever since I last did" when in reality it was 2 panels ago.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Omg lol yeah. It was always if you are going to start bolding and italicizing use a whole butt new font in the same family. I know he'd be shaking his head at me as I made my font and didn't make another for bold and italics XD.

It is really neat to see how folks go about emphasis in comics

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I try to only do it, either when a character is shouting or adding weight to words, or when I want to draw attention to a plot device. But I probably over do it XD and I also change fonts a lot when characters get real serious.

Some examples

[VibrantFox]

I always felt it's best to save emphasis only when it required or fitting, so if a character happens to raise their voice or shout then it'd be reserved for such instances.

Like some of my favorite examples (namely from Sonic related comics) would probably be Evan Stanley's Ghosts of the Future or the IDW Sonic comics (Archie's Sonic Boom and Sonic Universe were pretty good too)

If anything tho I think I'm more likely to communicate emphasis through the speech bubble style than the text itself unless it felt absolutely necessary especially since you've got to be careful not to go too overboard

[Caro]

Almost never unless a very specific emphasis placement makes a joke funnier. I feel like the way I read dialogue in comics is the way I read dialogue in a novel and its just fun to imagine the line delivery myself. And I remember reading with my sister outloud and we would both sort of just put the emphasis on words we felt were correct on our own and I think we did a pretty good job of it just thru kinda understanding the natural cadence of how people speak.