Friday, October 3, 2014

Comic Series Planning - Part 2: Choosing a lettering typeface

In this second part of my series on producing my own digital comic-book using computer graphics resources, I will be focusing on something most readers probably don't think much about consciously -- the lettering typeface.

Traditionally, of course, comic-books are hand-lettered.  And using my comic-production software, Manga Studio 5 EX, I could, in theory, with a digital pen and digital tablet, hand-letter my comics. But, in the first place, that's just far too laborious, and in the second place, I'm a lousy letterer these days. (I was pretty good in my day, having taken drafting in high school, but by using computers so much and hand-writing so little over the years, my writing has become appallingly sloppy.)  So actual hand-lettering is a non-starter.

Of course, Manga Studio comes with the ability to type words into each panel using the keyboard, which technically obviates the need for any sort of hand-lettering and also allows one to use any typeface one wants -- from Georgia to Trebuchet to Courier.  However, because comics have always been hand-lettered, using a mechanical typeface that resembles something from a typewriter or a printing press dramatically changes the look and feel of the word balloons, and, in my view, diminishes the overall result.  In short, comic-books should at least look hand-lettered, even if they are typeset on a computer these days.