General Lettering Discussion

[chaingunchimp]

lol.
yep i see what you mean.
is indeed quite nice.

[chilipenguin]

Does anyone know of any decent resources or books on the full comic production workflow? I'm going to be working on a five page submission in the near future and don't have much experience of processing inked artwork. The process, as I understand it will be:

Writing>Pencils>Inks>Lettering>Colours.

My issue is that the pencils and inks will be done traditionally then scanned and sent to me. I'll do some rough balloon positions and send it back for final inks. They'll then be sent back to me, I'll letter them and then send them on to the colourist.

I haven't worked with such a large team of people yet, so it's a bit daunting.

Plus, on the colouring side of things, I'm not sure what I should be doing as any SFX will have to be sent uncoloured.

[Jim_Campbell]

My issue is that the pencils and inks will be done traditionally then scanned and sent to me. I'll do some rough balloon positions and send it back for final inks. They'll then be sent back to me, I'll letter them and then send them on to the colourist.

Ask them why they want to do it this way. Lettering before colours complicates your job and the colourist's unnecessarily.

Cheers

Jim

[chilipenguin]

I thought that seemed a bit odd but like I say, this is the first time I've been involved in a five stage submission. I'll say to the guy who's putting it all together but he seems to be under the impression that this is the correct way of doing things. Haven't heard anything from the colourist yet so he may speak up too.

It's a ways down the line yet anyway so hopefully it'll be resolved before it gets down to the lettering.

[Bolt-01]

Chili, Listen to Jim. You really don't want to be lettering 'before' the colouring. Seems pointless to me.

Also, if the page is coloured- then you get to see what colour SFX you need- if any.

[HdE]

The only thing I can think of is if the intention is to prepare the lettering as a seperate overlay.

This is something I've done on occasion, and a trick some folks I work with sometimes use to work out a good layout on the fly.

Basically, the lettering is done over the top of the art in Illustrator and exported as a PNG file.

It's a faff, not ideal, and I'm not a huge fan of doing things that way. But it does happen.

Just throwin' that out there as a possibility.

[chilipenguin]

Looks like the guy has spoken to someone in the know independent of myself and has since decided that it will be easier to do the colours before the letters. Weight off my mind but he still may want to send me the pencils so I can lay down some rough guides. We'll wait and see. Looking forward to this though. The lettering train seems to be gathering momentum all the time.

Cheers for all the advice guys.

[chilipenguin]

Does anyone of a simple way of denoting silence? I have a script where the character is struggling to talk but can't make himself heard. I know the manga inspired solution is to have a balloon with an elipsis but are there any other methods of expressing this?

[Jim_Campbell]

Does anyone of a simple way of denoting silence? I have a script where the character is struggling to talk but can't make himself heard. I know the manga inspired solution is to have a balloon with an elipsis but are there any other methods of expressing this?

Either a Manga-style lone ellipsis, which is becoming increasingly acceptable in Western comics, or even a completely empty balloon might work…

Cheers!

Jim

[chilipenguin]

Ah groovy. Think I'll just go with that. Should be an interesting one. Plenty of telepathy and thought balloons to give me a challenge.

[chilipenguin]

Another question (a lot on at the moment). I know this is going back to basics but you'll forgive my ignorance. When dealing with full bleed art in AI, do you have the art extend past the edge of the document or do you extend the size of the document to include the additional space needed for the bleed?

For example, I'm working on an A4 story, the black background bleeds off all four sides. What I have done is increase the size of the art to 216mmx303mm (3mm bleed on each side) but the document itself remains at A4 size.

Is this correct? I'm struggling to get my head around bleeds etc, especially as I seem to only be working with A4 art.

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.

[Jim_Campbell]

For example, I'm working on an A4 story, the black background bleeds off all four sides. What I have done is increase the size of the art to 216mmx303mm (3mm bleed on each side) but the document itself remains at A4 size.

Right… this is the bane of the letterer's life because many, many artists don't seem able to grasp this, either. To all intents and purposes, the actual page size (in this case A4) is completely irrelevant if the publication has bleed.

You only need two measurements, and these should come from the printer: the full bleed size, and the safe type (AKA live) area. Your document should be the whole, full bleed size. If the printer says there's 3mm bleed then your document should be 216x303mm and the artwork should sit exactly on it. If it's 5mm bleed then your document should be 220x307mm.

All panel borders, speech balloons, anything that doesn't want to get cut off by the finished page edge (when your oversize page gets cut down to A4) should go inside the Live/Safe Type area.

You will frequently find that when you fit the full bleed dimensions to the edge of your AI document, the artist has drawn the panel borders outside the Live area. This is not your problem, and there is no easy fix for it. All you can do is ensure that the lettering, at least, stays inside the Live area -- the art will have to take its chances.

Cheers!

Jim

[chilipenguin]

Right, that all makes sense. Thing is, the guy I'm doing this for doesn't seem to know the required bleeds or trims. He has asked me if there is a British standard for these things (I'm assuming no). Will I have to ask him to check with his printer (I'm guessing so)?

[Jim_Campbell]

Right, that all makes sense. Thing is, the guy I'm doing this for doesn't seem to know the required bleeds or trims. He has asked me if there is a British standard for these things (I'm assuming no). Will I have to ask him to check with his printer (I'm guessing so)?

It really is dependent on the printer. If you assume 3mm, you probably won't go far wrong. If I'm creating artwork with bleed, I usually allow 5mm on the grounds that too much is just extra artwork that'll get cut off, but too little might be a problem. Most competent print finishers should be able to work with 3mm, though.

It's the Safe Type/Live area which can vary widely. If he really can't give you one, I'd assume that it's 18mm in from the edge of your full bleed document (15mm in from the page edge when it's cut down) on every side and stick to that. Just make it clear (assuming he can't or won't give you the info) that you're giving it your best guess and you shouldn't be held responsible if there is a problem when it reaches pre-press.

Cheers!

Jim

[chilipenguin]

As always Jim, you are a legend.