An excellent breakdown of the various software programs available for comic artists. I was weaned on Adobe but recently ditched it (and the $60.00 monthly subscription) and I’m very happy with Clip Studio Paint. Affinity is my backup. Thanks!
I have CSP and Procreate and use them both. Procreate sucks at text formatting. Clip Studio is pretty nice but it lacks the full control that a design software (like Affinity Designer) would have.
My opinions on CSP and Procreate would take longer than this comment box, but overall.. they each have tools they’re better at but not the full package in one.
I haven’t used photoshop in years, but one thing that gravitated me to CSP was their color blending in brush settings. They pull surrounding color really nicely (like wet-on-wet oil paint or alcohol markers), something I haven’t seen other applications do.
I use Affinity. Have done so for a while. Mostly Designer and Photo.
I enjoy the desktop version the most. iPad is a hit or miss for me. The Touch triggers the color picker at random.
You can create assets with them and use it across platforms, meaning you could create comics pages. Also its just works when it comes to move prjects between softwares.
By the way, I am not sure what "the touch triggers the color picker" means, but if you mean the side of your hand touching the screen, perhaps the glove can solve the issue. I use it all the time when I am working on my iPad / Cintiq. https://tinyurl.com/22tcypfe
I have used a combination of Linea Sketch and affinity when making books/graphic design projects with no issue … the CMYK or conversion to if I am using software that doesn’t really support CMYK is always perfect
I have used procreate a bunch too and tested out prints always without issue on the final product
Not to mention all the alternatives work better for mostly seamless workflow between iPad and Mac.
Adobe is too expensive and I was iPad only for too long so I suggest to everyone to try to make the switch if possible.
Great post for process nerds like me! 🤓 I'm familiar with all of the Adobe software and am especially skilled with Photoshop. I've branched out to learn Procreate in the past couple of years and CSP this year, because I thought it would be handier for my graphic novel workflow. I use Procreate mostly for sketching or webcomics. I really like the all-in-one shampoo and conditioner feel of CSP, because I can intuitively move between story and layout. However, I'll probably end up exporting my black-and-white pages to Photoshop for coloring, because no other program seems to handle CMYK as well. Welcome to the world of a modern comics artist!
Thanks for sharing this! This is immensely useful to me, especially since I'm still a beginner who knew nothing about CMYK! And I'm planning to print my comic very soon for a festival! That's why I have a question: Can Photoshop convert RGB to the CMYK color close to what you intended or does it always turn everything dimmer and you have to manually adjust it to resemble the original intent? I use Procreate. Thank you so much!
Hi Ana! I'm glad to hear you find this article helpful. :) Yes, Photoshop can convert RGB into CMYK, and how dull the color will turn out largely depends on your choice of color palette. In general, the greens will look especially dull just because the visible spectrum for RGB is so much wider than CMYK. (You can check out my article on "Watching the 'K' in coloring", where I also talked briefly about this: https://maplelam.substack.com/p/do-you-watch-the-k-in-coloring) There are artists who think the differences do not bother them much, and others will be biting their nails and losing sleep over it. Again, I suspect this is due to everyone's unique palette. The best way to check this is probably import your Procreate file into Photoshop, convert it to CMYK, and do a test print. Hope this helps, and good luck on your artwork and projects!
Turns out Procreate does have the CMYK setting you can draw in! When you are creating a new canvas, you go to color profile and choose one of the CMYK options. The only thing is you can't switch between RGB and CMYK in the same canvas but you can have two canvases with different profiles and compare that way.
I tend to use Procreate the most because I don’t enjoy drawing at a desk all the time. But the CMYK thing is annoying. So I have to put everything into Photoshop in the end to convert it.
This was a great read! Thanks for laying it out there and confirming that I have made reasonable working choices instead of me just not knowing why I choose to work the way I do :)
I am the same. The whole reason why I bought an iPad Pro and installed Procreate was to get away from the desk, but it's so limiting, I ended up getting stuck in the studio regardless. It's good that CSP is powerful enough to let me work on the road on parts of the project. :-)
Nice review of tools which more or less echoes my own experience as well. I like to use Procreate for casual sketches and illustrations from time to time, but as far as making comics go CSP is second to none. In fact I just upgraded to the EX option to sync across my iPad and desktop versions.
I ditched Adobe for Affinity tools some time ago because I couldn't justify paying upwards of $700 a year for vanity projects. Affinity takes some different approaches to Adobe's programs but you get used to them over time. One thing I've been thinking about is to import CSP produced files into Affinity Publisher (their InDesign equivalent) and do typesetting and balloons there since CSP's text tools always have been rather clunky.
Thanks for sharing, Alberto! I still haven't made the leap to switch over to Affinity yet, but I'll explore it one day, for sure! (Or, if CSP decides to up their game and drastically improve on their clunky text interface, even better!) :D
Thanks for breaking it down for us! I’ve considered most of the above but due to time crunch, stuck with what I know- Ps. I’ll revisit this post when I’m ready to experiment. 👌
An excellent breakdown of the various software programs available for comic artists. I was weaned on Adobe but recently ditched it (and the $60.00 monthly subscription) and I’m very happy with Clip Studio Paint. Affinity is my backup. Thanks!
Great to know! I have yet to try Affinity, but now I am tempted! :D
I have CSP and Procreate and use them both. Procreate sucks at text formatting. Clip Studio is pretty nice but it lacks the full control that a design software (like Affinity Designer) would have.
My opinions on CSP and Procreate would take longer than this comment box, but overall.. they each have tools they’re better at but not the full package in one.
I haven’t used photoshop in years, but one thing that gravitated me to CSP was their color blending in brush settings. They pull surrounding color really nicely (like wet-on-wet oil paint or alcohol markers), something I haven’t seen other applications do.
Thanks for sharing, Theresa!
I use the affinity suite - designer, photo and publisher ask for a one off fee of £85 - which is less than 3 months for the Adobe stuff.
I hadn’t heard of Affinity before. Thanks for sharing, gonna check them out!
I use Affinity. Have done so for a while. Mostly Designer and Photo.
I enjoy the desktop version the most. iPad is a hit or miss for me. The Touch triggers the color picker at random.
You can create assets with them and use it across platforms, meaning you could create comics pages. Also its just works when it comes to move prjects between softwares.
By the way, I am not sure what "the touch triggers the color picker" means, but if you mean the side of your hand touching the screen, perhaps the glove can solve the issue. I use it all the time when I am working on my iPad / Cintiq. https://tinyurl.com/22tcypfe
I cant draw without the glove. But it still triggers the color picker by touch some how. Super annoying 😫
That's very interesting! Thanks for sharing! :D
I have used a combination of Linea Sketch and affinity when making books/graphic design projects with no issue … the CMYK or conversion to if I am using software that doesn’t really support CMYK is always perfect
I have used procreate a bunch too and tested out prints always without issue on the final product
Not to mention all the alternatives work better for mostly seamless workflow between iPad and Mac.
Adobe is too expensive and I was iPad only for too long so I suggest to everyone to try to make the switch if possible.
Great post for process nerds like me! 🤓 I'm familiar with all of the Adobe software and am especially skilled with Photoshop. I've branched out to learn Procreate in the past couple of years and CSP this year, because I thought it would be handier for my graphic novel workflow. I use Procreate mostly for sketching or webcomics. I really like the all-in-one shampoo and conditioner feel of CSP, because I can intuitively move between story and layout. However, I'll probably end up exporting my black-and-white pages to Photoshop for coloring, because no other program seems to handle CMYK as well. Welcome to the world of a modern comics artist!
Thanks for sharing this! This is immensely useful to me, especially since I'm still a beginner who knew nothing about CMYK! And I'm planning to print my comic very soon for a festival! That's why I have a question: Can Photoshop convert RGB to the CMYK color close to what you intended or does it always turn everything dimmer and you have to manually adjust it to resemble the original intent? I use Procreate. Thank you so much!
Hi Ana! I'm glad to hear you find this article helpful. :) Yes, Photoshop can convert RGB into CMYK, and how dull the color will turn out largely depends on your choice of color palette. In general, the greens will look especially dull just because the visible spectrum for RGB is so much wider than CMYK. (You can check out my article on "Watching the 'K' in coloring", where I also talked briefly about this: https://maplelam.substack.com/p/do-you-watch-the-k-in-coloring) There are artists who think the differences do not bother them much, and others will be biting their nails and losing sleep over it. Again, I suspect this is due to everyone's unique palette. The best way to check this is probably import your Procreate file into Photoshop, convert it to CMYK, and do a test print. Hope this helps, and good luck on your artwork and projects!
Turns out Procreate does have the CMYK setting you can draw in! When you are creating a new canvas, you go to color profile and choose one of the CMYK options. The only thing is you can't switch between RGB and CMYK in the same canvas but you can have two canvases with different profiles and compare that way.
Thank you, this is a huge help! 😊
I tend to use Procreate the most because I don’t enjoy drawing at a desk all the time. But the CMYK thing is annoying. So I have to put everything into Photoshop in the end to convert it.
This was a great read! Thanks for laying it out there and confirming that I have made reasonable working choices instead of me just not knowing why I choose to work the way I do :)
I am the same. The whole reason why I bought an iPad Pro and installed Procreate was to get away from the desk, but it's so limiting, I ended up getting stuck in the studio regardless. It's good that CSP is powerful enough to let me work on the road on parts of the project. :-)
Nice review of tools which more or less echoes my own experience as well. I like to use Procreate for casual sketches and illustrations from time to time, but as far as making comics go CSP is second to none. In fact I just upgraded to the EX option to sync across my iPad and desktop versions.
I ditched Adobe for Affinity tools some time ago because I couldn't justify paying upwards of $700 a year for vanity projects. Affinity takes some different approaches to Adobe's programs but you get used to them over time. One thing I've been thinking about is to import CSP produced files into Affinity Publisher (their InDesign equivalent) and do typesetting and balloons there since CSP's text tools always have been rather clunky.
Thanks for sharing, Alberto! I still haven't made the leap to switch over to Affinity yet, but I'll explore it one day, for sure! (Or, if CSP decides to up their game and drastically improve on their clunky text interface, even better!) :D
I love reading how you create your graphic novel! :)
Thanks, Alina! :D
Thanks for breaking it down for us! I’ve considered most of the above but due to time crunch, stuck with what I know- Ps. I’ll revisit this post when I’m ready to experiment. 👌
Photoshop still remains my favorite. ;-)