Datasheet

Knowing what Manga Studio
can’t do (easily)
The one thing Manga Studio can’t do, at least as easily as other drawing
programs can, is color work. That’s not to say it’s
impossible to do, it just
isn’t really as intuitive as your traditional digital coloring programs. The
reason for this is simple — at its heart, Manga Studio was designed for black-
and-white use. While it can convert a layer from black and white to custom
colors, the intention is more to adjust your draft work color to differentiate
it from your finished work.
You can do simple cell-shaded-style color work, as well as some airbrushing,
to add highlights and shadows to a drawing. However, you can’t alter a layer’s
settings like you can in Photoshop. This means you can adjust only the layer’s
opacity; functions like multiply or overlay don’t exist in Manga Studio. The
other thing to keep in mind is that each color has to be on its own separate
layer. This can certainly bloat the size of your page file if you’re planning on
doing detailed color work.
In Chapter 14, I go over how you can do some simple color work in Manga
Studio. It’s a fun little trick that you can experiment with. However, if you’re
looking to do some serious color work for your comic, this is the one area
that Manga Studio lacks, compared to other programs.
Debut versus EX: Which Is Right for You?
Manga Studio comes in two flavors: Debut and EX. Choosing the right version
for you comes down to what features you’re looking for in a drawing program,
what ones you can do without, and (most importantly) how much money
you’re willing to spend:
 Manga Studio Debut is the introductory-level version of the program.
There are no bells and whistles to this version of the program; it con-
tains all the basic tools you need to create your manga from start to
finish. Debut works as a fairly accurate simulation of all the traditional
tools you would use for producing a comic, all in one convenient
package.
If you’re looking for a straight-forward drawing and screentoning art pro-
gram, you may want to consider this version instead of EX. At a lower
price point than the EX version, Debut is easy on your wallet.
 Manga Studio EX helps you take advantage of the fact that you are work-
ing on a computer. This version provides shortcuts and functions that
you simply can’t do with traditional tools or even Manga Studio Debut.
The EX version also allows you to work with
vectors, which let you expand
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Chapter 1: Getting to Know Manga Studio
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