These areas are vital to your design to ensure that the printing process results in comic that looks exactly how you want it to. Get inspired by amazing poster artwork from Comic-Con artists, but go with what serves your comic book or graphic novel best. Standard offset or text stock of 80lbis agood choice for comic books (note: standard copy paper is roughly 55lb-65lb). 5 Amazing Things You Can Do At A Comic Convention That You Probably Dont Know. Unless you can get into independent shops, stores usually have policies and distribution restrictions. Comic-Con in San Diego may be the most famous, but comic conventions happen all over the country, all year round. Did you know that comic books have their own industry standard sizes? But this is the 21st century and everything is online now, so theres no need to be tied to the traditional method of printing. He also works as a digital art director and designer. Include promotional details and where and how to get your book. Check options with your printer first to get an idea of printing costs. A big reason is to save time but also because this paper just doesnt handle pencils well. We've created an at-home toolkit you can use to help advocate for resources to support the child care system. Are you looking to break even or make a profit from sales, or do you have another way of financing your project? I tried using a Pentel Color brush and the ink just wouldnt dry on it. First, it makes your comic look far more appealing to customers. You can of course combine a shiny cover with uncoated inside pages. Making a 12 sided comic? Perfect binding You will want your comic book to last at least through multiple reads without being too heavy to handle easily. Become a member to benefit your organization no matter your role in child care. The size of your comic book or graphic novel is determined by your approach to page layout as well as economic concerns. Pretty much the typical comic print set up youd expect to see. These specifications are a classic comic combination and the results will be predictably high quality. Printed examples approved by Lorenzo! CMYK colour comes from combining different colours of ink and so there are slight differences between each spectrum. Will you act as your own publishing company? Its a very minor thing and wouldnt hurt scanning and the final printed art but I can be a little nit picky and I like how the black magic looks on other papers. Uncoated 70lb text paper So if you want a US Standard Size comic, your Trim line will measure 170mm x 260mm. If you are simply a penciller you wouldnt hurt to buy this stuff at all. Silk 100gsm paper Well, with this paper I get what I want. Which leads us on to finishes, also know as laminations. Or if youve already produced your artwork, youll need to find a size thats going to suit your creation. Again its great to pencil on but I just cant ink on it at all. However, the lb scale for interior and cover pages are not the same a 100lb interior page is half as thick as a 100lb cover page, so there is a noticeable difference between the two. 20 sides Is the paper easily fed through an 1117 printer. But for simplicity, lets just accept that its a measurement of paper thickness. A comic with 120gsm pages and a 170gsm cover will do the job quite nicely. This gives you way more options for printing and you can get way more for your money when you arent reliant on someone else to set up your print file. This is also a cost-efficient option that will have the traditional look and feel of a comic book. Some people call this the Danger Zone. Self-publishingallows artists, illustrators and writers to take full creative control. As mentioned above I use a Brother 6490CW that can print at 1117. Coated stock comes in matte or glossy. This is the edge of your design. If you like what we do please support us on Ko-Fi! Typically, comic books are bound in one of three ways: Staple bound, or saddle stitched, is two staples through the centre of the pages and its the most commonly seen binding type in comic books. Some paper you can pencil easily on, sometimes it feels inconsistent or doesnt take the pencil well. Casebound books need the same thickness of pages as perfect bound ones, but the cover design is much more complicated as the bleed area needs to wrap around and the quiet areas are larger. Now that you have read all about the various options available to you, here are some real-world examples of how to combine those elements in order to create the comic book that matches your vision. However, the manufacturing process is not completely fool-proof and sometimes the cutting blades will fall either just inside or just outside the trim lines by a few tenths of a millimetre or so, but dont worry- you will be well prepared for either eventuality. It looks really good and gives a premium feel. Quiet Area The most common options are matte lamination, which is a smooth protective coating and gloss lamination which is a shinier coating and will give your artwork a more saturated look. DIY comic artists tell their stories without the back-and-forth with a publisher, getting their art directly in the hands of their audience. You can use social media to promote your site and still have the option of directly selling physical books on your website later. And ALWAYS give that cover a laminated finish (unless youre using Uncoated or Recycled paper). 3) A Fine Vintage Theres also UK Standard size for the hardcore Brits and Manga Standard size for the weebs. You should avoid printing at one place and binding at another. As the more soothing-sounding counterpart of the bleed area, the quiet area is the 0.25 strip inside the trim lines on each edge. Discover indie and small press comics in the UK, How to Print Your Indie Comics with Mixam, How to submit your indie comic for review at Pipedream Comics, The Best Indie and Small Press Comics of 2021, The Best Indie and Small Press Comics of 2020, Come and have a play with our instant price calculator, Review: Hellphone Book 1 (Silver Sproket Publishing), Review: The Legend of La Mariposa Vulcans Challenge. We are also going to assume that you will be Saddle Stitch (also known as Staple) binding your comic book. But you need to reach a higher page count in order to make your comic thick enough to be Perfect bound. Staple binding Webcomics and ebooks have changed the publication landscape, but comic books and graphic novels remain first and foremost a printed medium. Bleed Area If you wanted a comic with 80gsm pages and a 300gsm cover, youd need a lot of 80gsm pages to bulk it out so that you could actually open and read it easily! Cons As I said Ive not used their paper in a while so they could have gotten better or perhaps worse. Lets take you through setting up your Trim lines, Bleed area, while thinking about your Quiet area as well. So, in this article were going to cover absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about comic printing, but were afraid to ask. Obviously you choose your cover paper type, then apply a finish to it. That way you can avoid the sometimes perceived stigma of self-publication and look as professional as you want. There are websites where you can calculate the width of your spine which makes designing it a lot easier. All four of these things are qualities I look for in my paper. I said above how I get picky with how my Higgins Black Magic Ink sits on the paper, especially when doing large areas of black. Most importantly, you can game the system to get the best value for money. Now to put all this knowledge into practice and create some examples of popular comic configurations. Report: Operationalizing Equity in Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. Because youre going to be submitted your artwork to an online system, youll need to meet some technical requirements, which will help ensure that your comic gets printed how you want it to look. Or didnt know that you needed to ask. Well use a US standard size comic book which is staple bound (also known as saddle stitched) for this example as it is by far the most common combination on the market. Any less than that and you will end up with a blurry mess that will not do your artwork any justice. You can use either of those finishes on satin or gloss paper but uncoated paper cannot be laminated as the surface does not hold the finish effectively. I can also print out outlined typography if I want to included typography in my layout so all I have to do is ink it up. Excerpt from LENINGRAD by Alexandra Sternin. Thanks to online printing and digital self-publishing tools, it is easier than ever to create and produce your own comic book or graphic novel from end-to-end. A non-standard size can help your work stand out, yet it may be more costly. A blog might be easier for you to maintain and for your readers to follow. But that doesnt stop things from going wrong. Often they are realized by just one person, working as writer, artist and publisher. Or a comic with 100gsm pages and a 200gsm cover should be fine. Its important to note here that due to the offset printing production process, its ideal to ensurethe total pages in your comic book are dividable by 4, ie: 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, and so on. So you could choose a Silk cover paper and give it a Matt lamination for a very matt finish. Use our self-publishing printing tips to break into the world of DIY comic books and graphic novels and get physical copies of your work into the hands of your fans and friends! Mind Meld With Purple Eyes Anthologys Phillip Maira. Whatever you call it, you need to ensure that you do not include any important design elements in this area. Dont self-publish until you have answers to these questions. Its not too heavy for a printer and it comes pre-ruled. Select your best artwork (and not necessarily just your book cover) a close-up of your villain, a mysterious and moody scene, or an action shot of your hero. But it makes your comic look amazing! Some paper the ink dries poorly and puddles, and sometimes it just looks flat and grey on the paper. I did draw and ink an entire book with this paper and I really could only ink with a brush. Now I wanna check out more of your site. Because if the cutting blade of the printing machine fell just outside of the Trim line by 1mm and you didnt have anything in your Bleed area, because your artwork ended at the Trim line, you would end up with 1mm of white paper with no ink on it. With that being said, there are also great resources for artists to reach their crowdfunding goals, such as ComixLaunch and the self-publishing imprint Two-Headed Press. Most comic books are staple bound, while many indie creators love their comics to be Perfect bound and get that lovely square edge. It is also known as the danger zone by those who enjoy the adrenaline of the bleed area, and the safe zone by those who dont. There are three main types of paper to choose from and each will have an effect on the way your artwork looks. Text, for example, should never go into the Quiet Area. If you choose a binding with a spine, then you will need to supply text to be featured there. Before you go to print, determine your budget and see which printing options are available to you. Print File Summary But if you want your artwork to have high saturation colours and be really striking. Secondly, and this is the most important reason, it ensure that you do not put anything important from your artwork too close to the page edge. Note: if you do test prints on a digital toner printer, they tend to be shiny due to the way the toner is fixated. Thanks for this informative breakdown! Not just with setting up your print file, but also in your choice of paper types, paper weights, adding a cover and applying a laminated finish to your cover. The ink dries fast and looks nice on the paper. These are the two standard laminations. Regardless of the size of your comic, your Bleed area needs to extend 3mm out from the Trim line. You will get a chance to learn about binding options later, but for now, lets focus on trim lines, bleed and quiet areas. Pros Strathmore 300 Smooth is probably my favorite paper to ink on. This really suits his vintage artwork, giving the paper a slightly rough feel and his artwork a slightly faded colour. I really love pencilling on the paper. Understanding the elements needed for your print file will help you to incorporate the most important elements as you go rather than trying to adjust your artwork at the end. Seize the opportunity to network and show an interest in the art of others. An online publication, ebook or webcomic is less expensive to produce. Mostly due to cost. A perfect bound book is definitely better-suited for graphic novels and long stories. Uncoated cover paper cannot have a lamination, but this isnt so much of an issue, as the ink soaks into the paper quite nicely, while Silk or Gloss papers are more susceptible to wear over time. However, the majority of comic creators use silk paper, which is the recommend default option. Case bound is expensive compared to Perfect bound and Staple bound, which isnt surprising, which is why most people only use it for really big collections. The paper is excellent for pencilling. However, choose something you can stick to. Click here to get the new 100# Plate Boards. Keep in mind that you might have to pay a fee in order to set up a table. It pencils decently and it inks decently. THE FIRST BANANA by Alexandra Sternin. Go the extra mile and make your promotional poster into a piece of art of its own. To reach your funding goal, you need to provide details about your work, promote your campaign, actively reach out to possible backers and keep in touch with people who have already backed your project. 80gsm to 120gsm is fine. The most important things to remember are: This means that you are now in control of the printing process and no longer have to rely on someone else doing the technical stuff for you. If you want to print your comic book without being baffled by technical jargon, we can help. Although for comics printed on uncoated or recycled paper its acceptable for them to look a bit tatty over time as part of their rustic/rough/vintage/scrappy artistic feel. I started using this stuff in the late 90s and the pencilling quality of these boards was stupendous. You may already be aware of the standard sizes for comics. Depending on the weight and thickness of your cover and pages, up to 32-40 pages are suited for saddle stitching (meaning large sheets of paper with two pages each on front and back are stapled and folded in half and cut to the finished size). A website will allow you to self-publish in installments and get direct feedback. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006. US Standard: 170mm x 260mmUK Standard: 157mm x 240mm. So with that let me get into this. Examples Independent comics and graphic novels can offer unique and interesting voices. Offset prints wont have that effect unless a special coating is applied (learn more about the differences between digital and offset printing). How well they take ink. Firstly, ensuring that there is nothing important in the quiet area means that if the cutting blades fall inside the trim lines, nothing important will end up being chopped off. That means youll have to either rule it yourself or do as I do and use a pre-ruled template in photoshop. You can actually cheat and create a Perfect Bound comic with only 24 sides (+4 cover sides), by increasing the gsm of your pages to 200gsm. People who go uncoated (or recycled) tend to go for thinner paper, creating a more rustic feeling product. Although they may be relatively close, the colours wont match your artwork. Its like a softback book with a square spine. They often have buy one get one half off sales. Although you dont need to make your cover stupidly thick in order to be good. So if youve chosen a larger size, comic stories may not want to stock your work. Cost wise, Perfect Bound is more expensive than banging 2 staples through a few pages. Some online printers offer this service as they have printers which can do the conversion automatically, but you can never be sure that they will come out exactly the same so it could be risky leaving it to chance. If you have not started yet then its worth considering a standard size to increase your potential market. The typical comic book paper weight is 120gsm, sometimes 100gsm. Some printers specialize in comic books or perfect bound books. This is why most printers prefer PDFs and so do their customers when they see the results! Perfect bound is a premium option as its effectively a paperback book which makes it ideal for graphic novels, collections and more upmarket comics. The Bleed area starts at the Trim line and finishes 3mm outside of the Trim line, Keep the important parts of artwork and text inside of the Quiet area, The Quiet area finishes 5mm inside of the Trim line. For example, at 115gsm you need at least 40 sides. Explore all the Options. Uncoated 80lb cover paper. A softcover (think: paperback) will be the cheaper option, though a hardcover is also possible. Are You Ready to Open a Child Care Business? Typically, this is chosen based on artistic expression and the type of product youre creating. Blue Line has been the go to board for many years as I think they were one of the first companies to make a comic paper the public can buy. Unfortunately, the print industry in general has bamboozled us for years, making out that print is this really complex process. The vast majority of comics are Staple Bound. This may be another con thats no longer a thing.