[X] My Assistant

On the fist box, and then those two combined boxes in the first panel, the font size could be a bit smaller. Notice how the words are almost touching the border? You should leave a little more space than that.

Your colors also feel a little off, and it's probably because the image is still on RGB. I would personally change it to Grayscale and then apply levels.

Result:

Re: Font Size - I tried shrinking it a bit, how does it look?
Re: Grayscale - Wow, that looks so much better. Thank you very much.

This post has been edited by frontsex: Dec 25 2016, 22:22

Result:

Re: Font Size - I tried shrinking it a bit, how does it look?
Re: Grayscale - Wow, that looks so much better. Thank you very much.

It's pretty good for a first try.

Re: Font Size - I tried shrinking it a bit, how does it look?
Re: Grayscale - Wow, that looks so much better. Thank you very much.

Always make sure your text has "room to breath"

Greyscale will also reduce the filesize, so make sure you convert all B/W pages to greyscales

What i also like to do is give my text a white "background" so that when it's placed on the background it'll be alot easier to read.

Would come in handy for "Release!" in your sample

What i also like to do is give my text a white "background" so that when it's placed on the background it'll be alot easier to read.

That's called a "stroke". Photoshop can do it very easily from its layer style section.

Hi all (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
I am new to this thread, I usually lurk in hentaiverse thread.
I am a beginner in this bounty stuff. Currently I am taking my second editing bounty, so I would like to hear opinion from all dear experts here about my images edit result in the following (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Image raw

my editing result [attachmentid=99611]

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Image raw

my editing result [attachmentid=99612]

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Image raw

my editing result [attachmentid=99613]

This post has been edited by longwood: Feb 23 2017, 17:12

Hello~! Just a couple notes.

-Main text is a little off center, from what I can see too much to the left.
-Just an opinion, but put hearts underneath respective text chunks as to not sacrifice positioning.
-SFX, if you're unable to fully remove the text, do like a small mark like "*SFX*" above it. This way it doesn't clash wit the doujinshi's art.

Hello~! Just a couple notes.

-Main text is a little off center, from what I can see too much to the left.
-Just an opinion, but put hearts underneath respective text chunks as to not sacrifice positioning.
-SFX, if you're unable to fully remove the text, do like a small mark like "*SFX*" above it. This way it doesn't clash wit the doujinshi's art.

thanks for the suggestions (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

-SFX, if you're unable to fully remove the text, do like a small mark like "*SFX*" above it. This way it doesn't clash wit the doujinshi's art.

The better solution is to tell people who want out of bubble sfx that aren't absolutely essential to the understanding of the story to fuck off, but that might not work with bounties.

Hello~! Just a couple notes.
-SFX, if you're unable to fully remove the text, do like a small mark like "*SFX*" above it. This way it doesn't clash wit the doujinshi's art.

Redrawing art because of the sfx is really pain in the ass (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) . Could you please give an example how to make a small mark like "*SFX*" above it? I would be really grateful to you (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Redrawing art because of the sfx is really pain in the ass (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) . Could you please give an example how to make a small mark like "*SFX*" above it? I would be really grateful to you (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

It's old but you get the idea.

It's old but you get the idea.

allright, time to finish the bounty job, yeah... (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) , thanks

Hi,
Can someone help me with how to clean this...
[i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/O3tdEYo.png

This is the best I have been able to do till now...
[i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/xV5Y8W6.png

but still not good (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ..

The issue is solved.

This post has been edited by Lolicore-Subs: Apr 2 2017, 17:07

I am fairly new to the editing scene and looked through the forums for some information, but I have a few lingering questions. If anyone could provide me with any information on the following questions, that'd be great:

1. While leveling, people mention using the droppers (in GIMP/PhotoShop) to select the black/white areas that correspond to the color and level the image that way. Is it normal to use the same leveling (e.g., 5 black & 200 white) for every page of the manga? How does the answer change if the work is a magazine/anthology (i.e., multiple artists)?
2. When should I be adjusting the brightness, contrast, and/or gamma of an image? Are these even typically necessary adjustments for simple raw scanning and uploading?
3. When is it best to use a JPG versus a PNG?
4. Regarding PNGs, what is the preference for the compression utilities: pngout versus pngcrush? What are the typical settings for either utility for the best results?

I don't know if this goes in here or in the scanning section, but it pertained more to the post-processing of the scan, so I figured I would post it here. Thank you for any assistance.

1. In my experience, levels are a property of printing/scanning, not normally something done by the artist him/herself. Most art I see is intended to be black and white, with the greys coming in as a result of scanning and processing. So yes, applying the same leveling settings to every single page is perfectly reasonable. This should apply for multiple authors as well, since it was printed as a single item.

3. You typically want to avoid JPG for scans because it's a lossy format. It introduces errors, and every time the file is re-edited (i.e. to add translations), the errors get worse. That said, full color PNGs tend to be massive, so I typically use (high quality) JPG for color images and PNG for greyscale.

4. Wikipedia says they're both lossless, so whichever gets the file smaller. I've never personally used either, so I have no clue how much it actually helps.

[...] levels are a property of printing/scanning, not normally something done by the artist him/herself.

[...] avoid JPG for scans because it's a lossy format. It introduces errors, and every time the file is re-edited (i.e. to add translations), the errors get worse. That said, full color PNGs tend to be massive, so I typically use (high quality) JPG for color images and PNG for greyscale.

I hadn't even thought about the fact that the levels are based off the printing/scanning, that makes sense. It's also less time consuming when mass-editing a bunch of scans.
As for PNGs, my cropped, resized (x3000), and leveled scans still ended up being between 3~5 MB per image. Which, for a magazine, seemed a bit too big given the number of pages. Is there any sure-fire way of compressing the PNG images while maintaining the image resolution?

I hadn't even thought about the fact that the levels are based off the printing/scanning, that makes sense. It's also less time consuming when mass-editing a bunch of scans.
As for PNGs, my cropped, resized (x3000), and leveled scans still ended up being between 3~5 MB per image. Which, for a magazine, seemed a bit too big given the number of pages. Is there any sure-fire way of compressing the PNG images while maintaining the image resolution?

I don't edit my own scans because I'm useless with photoshop, but I believe the solution to that is to apply a light blur to the pages before leveling, and maybe clean it up with sharpening. There's all sorts of filters that can improve scan quality, but I really can't give concrete advice.

The specific filesize issue is probably coming from the texture of the paper itself. Just leveling it gives something like this: [i.imgur.com] http://i.imgur.com/Bq7iUZ5.png
Leveling the whites stronger will get rid of the "gunk", but will probably also affect the actual art. Using a filter to apply a blur or something similar will smooth out the relative dark spots, allowing you to make the whites actually white with a lower white level.

(and yes that gunk will absolutely bloat the filesize. It messes with the PNG compression)

Again, I don't do any of this myself, so I could be wrong. I'm mostly just reiterating bits and pieces I've been told over the years, and might've misheard or misunderstood some things. I think it's a good place to start, at least.

*Knocks down doors!*

Alright, I'm going to dump some of my own experience. First....

Automation. There came a time when I manually had to resize, level and save PNG's for every single file, no matter the amount. And then I learned on PS that I could use preset configuration to auto process for me, which is helpful for tanks, or a lot of work in general.

Link: [lifehacker.com] http://lifehacker.com/5776749/how-to-autom...ng-in-photoshop

Second. Get Neat Image. What is does to basically use something of a controlled blur that's not quite a blur, more like a smoother to soften the image which makes it soooo much easier to level B/W stuff. I wouldn't suggest color, but it's worth a try. From there, it's all a case by case thing because it's all dependent on the paper, the artist, how much you want to adjust it and so on, but this goes hand in hand with the aforementioned automation because you only need to set it once per book. If you have plain Photoshop CS6, I can share a link.

The only time I suggest using blur and actual contrast/brightness is when regular leveling fails to give you the results you want. Like in my case, I used to to lighten the overall image then proceeded to properly level it to my tastes.

One thing I should mention is that I don't use the eye dropper, I work the arrows manually, but when you do it enough you'll know your scanner has certain settings for B/W stuff. For color, it's all case by case tweaking, and sometimes you might even have to adjust the hue but it was only once for me to match the actual doujin.

For PNG/JPG, if it's completely 100% pure Columbian raws, JPG is fine since leveling it out will remove those extra pixels if you set the quality to high. But for processed raws, I suggest PNG.

To your last bit, it's all about the amount of pixels on scree, because PNG is the middle ground of BMP and JPG in quality, like with my stuff I do hard black and white at 3500x so it averages out to 3mb or so because I remove as much gunk as possible..... with the help of Neat Image, compared to before I used it.

To your last bit, it's all about the amount of pixels on scree, because PNG is the middle ground of BMP and JPG in quality, like with my stuff I do hard black and white at 3500x so it averages out to 3mb or so because I remove as much gunk as possible..... with the help of Neat Image, compared to before I used it.

PNG is not a middleground, it is a lossless format (in contrast to JPG, which is lossy). Converting a BMP to PNG will not lose any information; the image will be exactly the same, but the filesize will (usually) be smaller.

Second. Get Neat Image. What is does to basically use something of a controlled blur that's not quite a blur, more like a smoother to soften the image which makes it soooo much easier to level B/W stuff.

[...] the solution to that is to apply a light blur to the pages before leveling, and maybe clean it up with sharpening. [...] Leveling the whites stronger will get rid of the "gunk", but will probably also affect the actual art. Using a filter to apply a blur or something similar will smooth out the relative dark spots, allowing you to make the whites actually white with a lower white level.

Ah, I think I understand now. Would it be possible to see a before-and-after? That is, an uncropped/unleveled scan and then the softening/leveling output. Just for the sake of my own example, here are two uncropped images (scanned with 300 dpi, for reference. I am going to try 600 dpi for my next magazine) and then just simple leveling:
Before
[www.dropbox.com] https://www.dropbox.com/s/snj4o64ync7a8kz/P011.png?dl=0
[www.dropbox.com] https://www.dropbox.com/s/p1op1ioujn1eado/P071.png?dl=0
After
[www.dropbox.com] https://www.dropbox.com/s/eoa4mhmtga42jch/P011edit.png?dl=0
[www.dropbox.com] https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwxnbob739ealdr/P071edit.png?dl=0
The first (P011.png) was leveled with 0 black & 187 white, while the second (P071.png) was leveled with 0 black & 185 white. I do notice the gunk/paper texture, as was mentioned earlier, so I am curious about this controlled blur->softening. At any rate, I am looking for any further input, as the After images are an example of what I would upload to the site.
I am interested in Neat Image, by the way, if you could provide some sort of link or alternative.

How can I put text behind a bubble or objects? I sincerely and honestly forgot how to do it.

EDIT: Just found out how to do it with some quick help of the friendly peeps in Live Chat.

This post has been edited by God Revan: Apr 20 2017, 17:27