best paper for printing comics

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. However if you have any questions, please get in touch with us atinfo@mixam.co.uk. This is crazy amazing news. When you sell your creation yourself, you keep all your rights. You can of course combine a shiny cover with uncoated inside pages. Casebound books are just hardcover books, which isnt usually seen in the world of comic books unless its a collection or special edition. Covers and Finishes Unless you can get into independent shops, stores usually have policies and distribution restrictions. Will you act as your own publishing company? Most importantly, you can game the system to get the best value for money. You can do live drawing and other gimmicks in order to discern yourself at your convention table, but a great way to grab attention are offset posters printed in bulk which you use as a visual backdrop for your space. Pros This is a good starting comic board to use. Staple bound comics require a 0.125 bleed area and a 0.25 quiet area all round whereas a perfect bound comic will require a quiet area 0.4 wide on the binding edge to ensure nothing important gets lost in the fold between the pages. Silk a smooth paper (default) If you are a penciller and dont like inking or have no desire to ink then just stay away from this paper altogether. 100gsm to 120gsm is a better choice. Which leads us on to finishes, also know as laminations. 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. You can also consider a thick and glossy cover with lighter and uncoated inside pages. Both online and print publications come with their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, at 115gsm you need at least 40 sides. An alternative way to fund your comic book or graphic novel are crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Its not meant for that in my opinion. Obviously, this will have a big impact on your artwork, so its worth careful consideration to ensure that youre happy with your choice. These specifications are a classic comic combination and the results will be predictably high quality. You will need to do some planning. This isnt to knock the Eon Boards as they take ink brilliantly but the Strathmore 300 Smooth makes my inks look aesthetically how I like them to look. No matter what size page you choose, your quiet area will be 0.25 on each side unless you choose a binding option which will require a greater quiet area, but we will expand on this later. The colour profiles we recommend are ISO coated V2, U.S. The prices also update instantly, so you can see what impact a change in paper type or paper gsm can have on the overall cost. Like Perfect Bound books, you need at least 24 sides at 200gsm to access this type of binding. I did draw and ink an entire book with this paper and I really could only ink with a brush. Child Care Aware of America is dedicated to serving our nations military and DoD families. The thicker the cover, the more effort it takes to open if you have a low page count. A shiny cover is an eye-catching way to draw attention to your comic, but sticking with satin for the interior pages will give the most accurate reproduction of your work, so this is an option which appeals to many, although there are plenty of satin covered comics succeeding as well. The Strathmore 300 also works in my printer. Matte is slightly reflective, whereas gloss coated is brighter. What's the state of child care in your state. Thanks to technology, producing and printing your comic book and graphic novel is fairly easy and straightforward. Uncoated a rough paper When your comic book is mass produced, the cutting blade will aim to fall just outside of the Trim line by a fraction of a millimetre or so. Both the plate and smooth are fine but the smooth has a bit of a waxy surface which can lead to pencils being a little inconsistent, but overall Blue Line has a good product. Pros Eon boards in my opinion are the gold standard for quality when discussing comic book art boards. The black is black enough but I can also see the brush strokes. They also usually have a pretty sizeable product line. As mentioned above I use a Brother 6490CW that can print at 1117. While some online systems can accept Jpegs and other files, for the best results, always upload PDF files exported from inDesign using the high quality print setting. * Be aware! If you have already started working in RGB and want to convert then you can do in most design programmes, but you might need to fine-tune the colours a little to get them true to the originals. Why should you always laminate your cover? However I really need to give their new paper stock a try. Gloss 170gsm cover paper with a Gloss lamination. So theres an element of scale between paper thickness and the size of your comic book. So theres something to bear in mind. You will get a chance to learn about binding options later, but for now, lets focus on trim lines, bleed and quiet areas. If you have questions or inquiries feel free to send me a messsage. Papers, Binding and Finishes DIY comic artists tell their stories without the back-and-forth with a publisher, getting their art directly in the hands of their audience. But if you want your artwork to have high saturation colours and be really striking. weve created some good quality specifications below. But for simplicity, lets just accept that its a measurement of paper thickness. All images should be at least 300 dpi or higher, as anything below this may appear low resolution. Some papers take ink brilliantly. You should avoid printing at one place and binding at another. Used with permission. If in doubt, stick to 100gsm to 120gsm pages and a 170gsm to 200gsm cover with a Matt lamination. 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. Its hard for me to make too many statements about their products though as I havent used them in quite a while. This is why most printers prefer PDFs and so do their customers when they see the results! More on bindings later. The design of your work starts here: just like you need a vision for where your story is going. Create more time to make comics and still have time for your family. Staple binding If you choose to go with a publishing service to do these things for you, make sure to read the fine print. Some paper you can pencil easily on, sometimes it feels inconsistent or doesnt take the pencil well. Whenever people go Perfect bound, they seem to like a gloss cover with a gloss lamination while having Silk pages. We have compiled self-publishing printing tips for comics and graphic novels for ambitious artists. 80gsm to 120gsm is fine. Lamination does incur an additional cost, but its not one to be cut if you can avoid it as it protects your comics from damage during the distribution process and will result in a better-looking comic. Are You Ready to Open a Child Care Business? Standard offset or text stock of 80lbis agood choice for comic books (note: standard copy paper is roughly 55lb-65lb). 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. But this is the 21st century and everything is online now, so theres no need to be tied to the traditional method of printing. 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. Disclaimer: In the article below there are Amazon links to paper brands I have used. You need to make sure you put the same love, effort and dedication into your paper, binding and finishes as you did your story and artwork. First, it makes your comic look far more appealing to customers. Finally, Case Bound is for something a little more special. Secondly, a clear space at the edge of each page makes it easier to focus on the important design elements and if your comic has a lot of pages you might struggle to see into the gutter as you flick through it. Are you interested in this independent community in the comics industry? Making a 12 sided comic? One of the reasons self publishers find it so hard to get to grips with the technical side of getting theyre comics ready to print is that printers have a vested interest in making it sound really complicated. Its perfect for all comic books great and small. Before you even start drawing your artwork, you should choose what size your comic is going to be. They are rarely seen, partly because of the high page count required to create a casebound book but also due to the high production costs which makes it prohibitively expensive for all but the most premium publications. There are three typical types of binding for comics: Saddle Stitch (Staple) Bound Held together by 2 staples, Perfect (PUR) Bound Like a soft back book, Case Bound Another name for a hard back book. Thanks for this informative breakdown! 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. I dont do full pencils anymore. Cons My original frustration with this paper has evidently been solved (see above update). The more pages you have, the lower your gsm can be. Demanding Change: Repairing our Child Care System, State Fact Sheets & Child Care Data Center. Binding These should promote the item you are looking to sell, but just like with your book, you have all the creative freedom here. Summer weather, including severe storms and extreme heat can come and go quickly. Thats why I typically print my blue lines and just use the pencil or blue pencil to hammer out a few details and then just ink. 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. Nice and simple. Mostly due to cost. Inking wise they were the best. This may be another con thats no longer a thing. Well, with this paper I get what I want. Is the paper pre-lined with comic book templates. One gives a flatter matt finish, the other a shiny gloss finish. I have a template for all my pages and draw my digital layouts on it then print to the board. Matt lamination a matt protective coating, Gloss lamination a shiny protective coating. Lets take you through setting up your Trim lines, Bleed area, while thinking about your Quiet area as well. The bleed is not as gory as it sounds it is the 0.125 inches outside each trim line. This gives you the minimum thickness required for the system to allow you to use Perfect binding. A softcover (think: paperback) will be the cheaper option, though a hardcover is also possible. Just to give you an idea of size; in the print factory, US Standard and UK Standard are actually trimmed down from A4, while Manga Standard is trimmed down from A5. Independent comics and graphic novels can offer unique and interesting voices. Looking for fee assistance or respite care? Perfect Bound Template (US Standard size), Casebound Cover Template (US Letter size), Casebound Interior Template (US Letter size), 80 lbs satin paper for the interior pages, Additional quiet area on the spine side of every page (including cover) for a total of 0.4, 0.125 bleed area on every side for the interior pages, 0.25 quiet area on every side for the interior pages, You will always need a bleed area so add 0.125 to all your artwork, CMYK is the way, so set your colours up before you start, All images should be between 300 and 400 dpi, Getting Your Comic Reviewed + Contacting Us, An Easy Guide to Printing Your Own Comics. And your artwork needs to extend into the Bleed area. Adam from. Offset prints wont have that effect unless a special coating is applied (learn more about the differences between digital and offset printing). Perfect binding 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. Check options with your printer first to get an idea of printing costs. Pop your email in below and Ill send you a FREE Avengers Print. 1) Standard Staple I shall reveal all.. Thats our personal opinion anyway. There are websites where you can calculate the width of your spine which makes designing it a lot easier. Go the extra mile and make your promotional poster into a piece of art of its own. Where and how will you find your audience. But if youre working to a budget, theres absolutely nothing wrong with Staple Bound. The same goes for any important artwork details. Keep in mind that you might have to pay a fee in order to set up a table. This is where things get interesting, because your binding is often determined by your page count and overall thickness of your comic book. Ok, its a little more art than science at times. Update I was recently contacted by EON because my one biggest con was that their paper was just too thick to run through my printer. 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. The high gloss paper combined with gloss lamination sets them apart from regular comics and gives them a quality look and feel. 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. Choosing a size that is significantly larger than this could impact on your ability to get your comics into stores as they simply wont be able to fit them on their shelves. Ask for paper samples from your printer if you need to compare. Examples 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. First of all, theres a slim chance that the cutting blade could fall inside of the Trim line if youre doing a comic book printing run of thousands and the stack of paper shifts a minuscule amount. Matthew Childers is an artist and comic book creator living in East Tennessee. Graphic novels tend to be perfect bound which works with the higher page count that you would usually expect from one. Always give your comic a proper cover. US standard size is 6.7 X 10.2 and it is by far the most commonly used which means that most comic book stores and shops are set up to accommodate this size on their shelves. The same goes for recycled paper, which is a different kind of uncoated paper. 40 sides What works for one person may not work for another. The reasons for this are twofold. However, choose something you can stick to. A blog might be easier for you to maintain and for your readers to follow. Now I wanna check out more of your site. Unfortunately, the print industry in general has bamboozled us for years, making out that print is this really complex process. Or didnt know that you needed to ask. Theres also UK Standard size for the hardcore Brits and Manga Standard size for the weebs. So you could choose a Silk cover paper and give it a Matt lamination for a very matt finish. Some people call this the Danger Zone. Paper also comes in a choice of thicknesses, with interior pages tending to be between 70 and 100lb and cover pages from between 80 and 130lb. Note: if you do test prints on a digital toner printer, they tend to be shiny due to the way the toner is fixated. Enjoy! A website will allow you to self-publish in installments and get direct feedback. These papers are reliably great for comic printing, but if you want a sketch cover on your comic then you will need to choose uncoated paper as its really hard to draw on either satin or gloss. If you arent sure which CMYK setting to go for, we recommend ISO coated V2, U.S. The ink dries fast and looks nice on the paper. However, the majority of comic creators use silk paper, which is the recommend default option. Are you looking to break even or make a profit from sales, or do you have another way of financing your project? 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. If you have already completed your artwork in RGB, you will need to convert it to CMYK before printing in order to preserve the integrity of the colours. For a US standard sized comic, the trim lines will bound an area measuring 6.7 x 10.2. You may work with a printer which accepts other types of file, but using alternatives can have unexpected results, leaving you with image resolution issues and technical problems. I print my blue line pencils straight onto the board which saves me the time of having to lightbox my layouts. stapled comic book or a graphic novel perfect bound book. So your print file is as much about setting your expectations for your final comic as it is you providing instructions for the person setting up the print machine. Also you will need to know what you want to achieve with your book. 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. Most comic books are staple bound, while many indie creators love their comics to be Perfect bound and get that lovely square edge. In order to build an audience, a regular update schedule is helpful, such as twice or more per week. Read CCAoA's full statement on this issue below. Laminations or finishes are the coatings given to the paper which prevent them from getting scuffed or damaged and stops the ink from wearing off. Uncoated paper is an economic option most often used for comic books. But theyve changed that. An online publication, ebook or webcomic is less expensive to produce. But promotion and distribution are more difficult, and getting a DIY comic book onto store shelves is even harder to achieve. But that doesnt stop things from going wrong. However, among the things a publisher needs to take care of are obtaining an ISBN for books and a barcode (compliant with scanning systems of shops and stockists). The square-edged spine can be printed on so they can be stored like books, but you do need a minimum number of pages to be able to use perfect binding. Typically you would choose a paper type based on artistic expression. This is because the cost of bulk printing isnt always logical, its often determined by supply and demand. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006. US Standard: 170mm x 260mmUK Standard: 157mm x 240mm. Print File Summary Cover papers are much thicker than page papers and vary between 170gsm and 350gsm. If you decide not to have a cover and to use your first page as your cover artwork, which will make it easier to flip through your comic, but will mean that you cannot have a laminated finish which does offer some degree of protection against damage. I tried using a Pentel Color brush and the ink just wouldnt dry on it. These are the two standard laminations. Bleed Area Once youre happy with your artwork, its time to save it. GSM stands for Grams Per Square Metre. This is also a cost-efficient option that will have the traditional look and feel of a comic book. Or a comic with 100gsm pages and a 200gsm cover should be fine. Your donation or partnership can help families access high-quality, affordable child care. But you need to reach a higher page count in order to make your comic thick enough to be Perfect bound. Gloss a smooth, slightly shiny paper* 24 sides It flowed well just looked flat. As youll know, comic books are traditionally saddle-stitched, whereas graphic novels are perfect bound. Pick a website format that is best suited for your work: a blog with a content management system, or individual, static pages? It makes the line not near as sharp as it could be. Pros If you find the pre-ruled paper at Michaels you can get a good price on it sometimes. Seize the opportunity to network and show an interest in the art of others. We are also going to assume that you will be Saddle Stitch (also known as Staple) binding your comic book. How well they pencil, i.e. Making a 200 sided graphic novel? People who go uncoated (or recycled) tend to go for thinner paper, creating a more rustic feeling product. 20 sides 5 Amazing Things You Can Do At A Comic Convention That You Probably Dont Know. Coated SWOP v2 and GraCOL2006 which are available in most design programmes and give consistently good results. Second, and most importantly, it helps to prevent scuffs, scratches and other damage which can occur in packing, shipping and handling over time. Ideally, you would start working in CMYK from the get-go, using one of the CMYK settings in your design programme. If you have made a decision about the size of your comic then its worth bearing in mind how your print file setup will affect your artwork. I dont get a good feel out of penciling when I use this paper. In order to avoid pixelation and blocky images, you will need to ensure that any you use are at least 300dpi to render properly in print. Before you even begin writing a story, sketching characters, drawing panels and laying out pages. This paper works fabulously with my printer and its easily one of the things that saves me tons of time. And when it comes to actually printing on low and high gsm paper stock, I have to say that at Mixam, our paper is top notch, so it doesnt really matter which one you print on when it comes to quality. You also need to provide perks for those who pledge a certain amount of money (note: posters of your artwork printed in bulk make for great crowdfunding rewards). Uncoated paper is as it sounds it has a tougher texture than the other two which gives a rustic look with slightly duller colours which is popular among comics with a vintage feel. It pencils decently and it inks decently. 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. You should create a single PDF for this as, although some printers will accept individual files for each page, most prefer a single file with all the artwork in one place and in order from front cover to back. 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. Now to put all this knowledge into practice and create some examples of popular comic configurations. But it makes your comic look amazing! 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. At some point in the early 2000s they changed paper and the pencilling quality seemed to suffer a little bit but they were still heads above the rest in quality. The paper is excellent for pencilling. But if you want physical copies for selling at events and bookstores, a print publication is the way to go, although it can be hard to break into the market if no one has heard of you yet. But with your expectation that this Bleed area could (and will) be cut off. The higher the gsm, the thicker the paper. You can buy a domain name and find a cheap web host, or choose a free platform such as tumblr, Blogger or WordPress.com. So with that let me get into this. Join my exclusive network and get this FREE 8.511 Avengers digital print to print at home and enjoy. The pages I have done on thier paper however do tend to seem to yellow pretty fast. 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. Gloss is popular for its shiny finish and the high contrast effect it gives to artwork. Quiet Area This outside area is known as the Bleed. It smudged like crazy. You decide where you sell and how you distribute, you control the printing and you keep the profits. 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.

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