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Creating a comic book: the layout

Creating a comic book: the layout

First of all, some background.

- Sorry for my bad English, the original article is in Italian, translated using automatic systems.

- This is not THE solution; It's MY solution, which is good for my needs, it doesn't mean it's good for everyone. If even one person finds this article useful, I will have achieved my goal.

What is this article about?

To create a comic with AI it is necessary to solve many problems that I will not deal with here: in particular, the consistency of the characters, clothing, environments. There are many articles, also here, on Civitai, which propose various solutions.

I'll deal with another problem you need to address: page layout.

Here is a practical example right away, so as not to get lost in chatter:

These are the layout and the page 1 of my comic "High Pressure", ready for creating a PDF or a CBR/CBZ.

It is a European-style layout, with regularly shaped panels, but also flexible enough to allow the creation of very varied pages.

My system involves the creation of individual modules, made up of the final image (complete with balloon and captions) with a black 2 pixels margin and a white 16 pixels margin around it; the modules are placed side by side to form the layout. The layout will be 1800 x 2412 pixels and fits on a blank A4-A5 page.

For example, let's see how the last strip of the page is constructed.

1. The first image will be inserted in the module that I called "2 - Wide - 960x768":

So, first we create the image with dimensions 960 x 768:

You add, with your favorite software, captions and balloons, then you insert everything in the center of the form:

Same procedure for the other module:

Place the two modules side by side and obtain the strip, which will be 1800 pixels wide (like the layout) and 804 pixels high (one third of the layout):

Proceed in the same way for all the modules on the page and obtain the layout of 1800 x 2412 pixels:

The layout is resized and pasted in the center of the white A5 page, to form page 1.

I create a blank page of 1485 x 2100 pixels (A5 size, 254 DPI) and resize the layout to 1385 x 1856 before pasting it in the center of the page.

Alternatively, the individual modules can be inserted into the A5 page created with vector software, the important thing is to place them side by side without leaving any margin other than that already present in the module: in this way the space between the vignettes will be constant.

If desired, you will add the page number or other graphic elements.

Here are 6 summary diagrams, showing all the modules available, in various layouts:

Attached are the modules I created and my comic strip "High Pressure," which uses some of those modules.

The comic is also translated with automatic systems, forgive the errors; it is just an example of what can be done.

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