Which program is best for what?

[gateofselidor]

I do my pencils in actual pencil, but I can sketch digitally if I need to.

Inking I do in Photoshop for convenience, but Manga Studio/Clip Studio Paint is probably my favourite piece of software for it. Colours I also do in Photoshop. Of all the software I have I think it's the most versatile. I can cel shade, or do various different styles of painting, and there are so many brushes and other plugins available to download that I don't need to look to other programs for tools.

[PotooGryphon]

I love Manga Studio 5. That is my jams right there. XD

I love being able to draw with vector lines so I can scale without losing quality in my line art, and the coloring in Manga Studio 5 is a lot better than it was in Studio 4. I can do pretty much everything in that program. For ages, I used to use Photoshop, but I'm pretty done with it now and only ever use it for graphic design work (designing ads and exporting final images for the web).

[LTyler]

I used to use Paint Tool Sai - but switched to Manga Studio after I lost my Sai activation code & my computer blew up. I made the switch, as I found Manga Studio better suited my needs & what I was personally looking for from a comic-making program.
For sketching/inking/tone/typesetting, in my opinion, Manga Studio>Sai. The automatic vector line feature with inking on Sai, I found, made me go all OCD and nit-pick things to death - making me waste TONS of time. Just my personal experience with it, though.
But I'd almost say I preferred Paint Tool Sai's coloring & overlays better.
And, while Sais inking vectors made me waste a massive amount of time, Sai did have better quality image scaling when you wanted to re-size your inking (probably due to the very vectors I'd griped about earlier).
I don't know, it's a tough call. It could just be the nostalgia talking - it could just be I'm just not completely used to Manga Studios features yet. But I'd say just use what you're most comfortable using... I mean heck, I've seen artists who make seriously epic drawings using Microsoft Paint of all things... Crazy, right?
Generally speaking, tools have only a small part to do with the quality of your work. But, if you feel like you're having to constantly fight with your tools - then a change is indeed in order. (For example, drawing with a computer mouse... Cringe).
But if you're not battling with your current tools, don't expect a whole lot of improvement if you change to another tool set. Sometimes you'll seem even less skilled on a new program, simply because you're still new at the program. (When I changed to Manga Studio, my art looked like it regressed by 2 years. I caught back up pretty fast after about a month, but that learning curve is there)
If the option is available, go ahead and try other programs out & see whether or not they'd be a helpful addition/replacement for you. (Usually these programs offer a sort of 'trial period' that lasts anywhere between a day and a month, but sometimes not. It's worth exploring.). But the tools you're currently using, (Paint Tool Sai & photoshop), I wouldn't say are a bad tool set - especially to start with. (I can't afford photoshop, so I can't say much about it - aside from 'I wish I could afford photoshop', lol).
There really is no 'best tool' -- only 'what's the best tool for me and my needs?. And that's not really something anyone can answer - it's more something you'll just have to explore & see for yourself.

Best of luck to you and your future comic, and merry Christmas!

[hierogriff]

For Canyon's Canyon, I inked it in manga studio 4, exported as a layered photoshop file, and coloured it in paint tool sai.

I recently upgraded to manga studio 5 (aka clip studio paint ex) about halfway through doing the first 12 pages of Outside the Box, and I've yet to experiment fully with the paint tools. But I'm really liking the other new features so far!

[Strontium]

I have/use the same programs you do - SAI and Photoshop (elements in my case). I ink and color in SAI and do the layout, color edits and text in Photoshop. It's a bit back and forth between sketching the page (SAI), setting it up in Photoshop, doing the artwork in SAI and then going back to photoshop for the finishing touches.
Since SAI is a raster-based program, if you plan on printing your comic someday You'll want to make sure your canvas is pretty large.
Otherwise it satisfies what I need and I'm comfortable working in it!

[yvettegustafsson]

Since last year I'm completely in love with Clip Studio Paint (Manga studio). I used Photoshop before, and nothing was fun. I dreaded coloring because the brushes didn't feel like my doing. CSP is a lot more accurate and true to what I draw with my hands Coloring is also a lot more fun, I think. I problably have a lot to learn still, and fortunately there are plenty of tutorial videos showing how to work with CSP. It's not for free, but they do have campaigns every now and then, and even without a discount, I think the prize is def worth it!

[skatuya]

It's mainly a personal preference for everyone I think. I used photoshop and sai to make comics in the past but now I only use Krita (it's a free art program, a bit like photoshop but aimed more to artists). I'm just most confortable with that program and I love the brushes there. I don't exactly do lineart and coloring separated though and I prefer a bit messier style. (if you want an example here's my comic) I still use photoshop for editing and adding the texts.

[Dariru]

I have to second (or maybe it third of forth) Manga Studio. I started off in Photoshop, but found that it's a resource hog. On the little slate PC I use to draw, Manga Studio runs much better than Photoshop. Plus I find you can do much better line work in Manga Studio than Photoshop.

[Shanny8]

I use Clip Studio to initially draw and ink my comic. Clip Studio(Manga Studio) is capable of drawing/inking/coloring/lettering- but right now I dont like Clip Studio's gradient tool( I like Photoshop's gradient tool better). I use Photoshop for coloring and other fx, and use Illustrator mainly for my lettering(though I did use it to create some graphics for school posters on one of my upcoming Ray Thunder pages).

[El_Psy_Congroo]

why do you prefer photoshops gradient tool if? i use only mangastudio

[Zanreo]

Manga Studio for everything Does everything I need it to, and for me it's a pain to switch between programs - especially since my workflow is often kinda erratic and not just "finish all sketches, THEN do all the lineart, THEN do all coloring" ect. The "finish the page first and then add the text in the end in another program" method just wouldn't work for me. Plus I always find these last-minute fixes and tiny edits to do, and having to keep opening several programs over again depending on what I wanted to fix would be a nightmare...

Also, at least for me, it loses tablet pressure sensivity WAY less than SAI did, I've noticed. In SAI there seemed to be a 1/5 chance to get it every time I opened it, while for MS5 I can count the times it's happened on one hand, after having used it for a year+. SAI is great otherwise, but having to reset tablet preferences allllll the time was a pain. (Before I got MS5, I used SAI for drawing and added text in GIMP - or rather, opened a flat image in gimp, added text over, hid the comic image so only the text layers were left, saved that as a png and then pasted this text layer back into the SAI file. I always hated when I noticed I made a typo/wanted to change some text and had to open gimp all over again... especially because I didn't tend to save the "original text image" in gimp, just the png)

[Shanny8]

To me Photoshop's gradient tool transitions are better from one color to the next. I've been testing Clip Studio, and the transitions arent that smooth. I dont have the patience to keep adjusting and messing around with it...same case scenario with the color overlay option. Maybe one day when I have a LOT more time I will go through all of Clip Studio's features, but right I dont have the time nor the patience.

[69Michi]

For me, SAI for drawing, coloring, inking, (pretty much all the visual aspect) and Photoshop for arranging canvas and text. I grew way too attached to SAI to use any other program to draw. SAI has my custom brushes, shortcut that I'm comfortable with when using, and most of all, doesn't take forever to load or crash as often as Photoshop. The only downsize is that my webcomic is a mobile-otimized-scrolling webcomic style, and SAI's maximum canvas height is 10,000px... (then you have Photoshop with 40,000px max so there is that)

[El_Psy_Congroo]

ah, then I know exactly what you mean, you can see the bars of color. I just assumed for really big ones that was inevitable. I haven't tried this yet, but maybe a directional blur might help

[demthorshie]

I prefer to do all of my line art in Manga Studio, Photoshop is not good for line art and the interface is too primitive to create even the neatest of lines. I do however prefer to color my pages in Photoshop, it's the easiest program for me and the results seem to turn out best when I color using it vs. Manga Studio and Sai. I'm sure you can make some amazing things with Manga Studio using it's coloring tools and brushes, but I don't have the time to scope through the entire program and figure out how all of it works unfortunately :s.

[ahkwardkat]

The problem with Sai and coloring is this:

If you EVER plan to print it, your colors are gonna be skewed. Sai does not support CMYK color mode, which is the color mode for prints (that or pantone which SAI also doesn't support). Sai only supports RGB as far as I know.

That being said, it has BEAUTIFUL coloring and I love the brush system, however since I print my comics, I use Krita or Photoshop for color, and I line/ink by hand on paper.

[AndrewSutton]

I use clip studio paint (aka manga studio)

it's an excellent programme and rather than sit an read this, look it up, it's amazing.
when doing lineart, make sure to use a vector layer with high resolution, that way when you load your png and reduce the size, it tends to look much better than drawing in the smaller size in the first place.

check out my channel for reference on finished product you can get. (every pic on my wall and my comics use CSP EXCEPT gangster mice, that was drawn in the size the site allows and looks noticably bad, line clarity-wise)

good luck!

[ChrisCoteArt]

I've used nearly every program under the sun, either as part of my education or in my personal work, and I find it honestly just comes down to preference. I use Photoshop for every single thing, because I always have. I have used it for long enough and learned enough about it that for me, it is the best program for sketching, coloring, line art, editing, text, and screentones. I even use it for layout work, and making print ready PDFs for publishing, which most use InDesign for.

In the age of patches and content packs especially, you can do almost anything you want with a lot of programs, but I personally give the award to PS as a program that you can do literally anything in if you take the time to learn how.

[NickRowler]

I'm going to say this, use the program you know well. If you get super used to one program, it is hard to try to transition to another...trust me, I've been using Photoshop for over 10 years and every time I try to use another program...I get frustrated because it is not Photoshop.

In the end of the day, the final product is more important than what program you used. Someone can make an amazing piece in MS Paint and someone can make the worse possible thing in the most expensive fanciest program there is.

[haleymewsome]

I use Photoshop for every stage of my comic other than the thumbnails, but even I can admit that Photoshop is not a great program for artists when you first crack it open. The way that I was able to make it work for me is A. I downloaded the 'Painter Wheel' add on that you can find online, and B. I bought the Kyle T. Webster megapack. With those two tools together, Photoshop is pretty good, though you can still get beautiful lines way easier with Sai. The only reason I don't use Sai anymore is because it doesn't work on Mac and it doesn't have an option to add text.