A new Comic Artist Challenge

[BloodGrey]

But on a side note, you can do your basic text formatting, size, kerning, etc. adjust the anti-aliasing, and then if you aren't completely happy with the text convert it to a shape. Suddenly your text is nothing more than vector art.

This is completely untrue. When you export it, it will turn to raster. But even more, Photoshop's type tools are horrific. It's not meant to be a layout program, it's meant to be a photo manipulation program. Just because you can add text, that doesn't mean that you should use it for text. The type preferences for Photoshop are almost non-existent where as Illustrator has much better text handling preferences. If we want to get really into it, InDesign is really the best for text as it has better layout qualities and the type manipulation tools are far better than either program.

Obviously, you aren't thinking of your art as something that might be printed later or just haven't looked closely at what makes vector art what it is. Do some research and then get back to me.

You are right, I never assume 98% of what I do is going to be printed. Next to everything I do is for screen. As for Indesign, as much as I hate it with a burning passion, you are correct in saying that it is by far the best choice of the three for anything text and layout.

Tell you what, I plan on taking an Illustrator class this upcoming semester. I will also be getting my hands on Illustrator sometime next week, so the odds of me agreeing with you are probably increasing by the moment, but until then, I will be completely happy with everything PS does for my text desires. After I take the class, I will get back to you, and be much more informed than I currently am.

[Lizzegirle]

Whatever conclusion you come to, Illustrator is known by all professional designers to be more superior for text than photoshop. Don't get me wrong, designers need Photoshop for about 50% of what they do, but Illustrator is needed for that other 50%.

[GageEndal]

I think my main reason that I end up using Photoshop for all of my text is that it's just faster. I also always have a problem with illustrator and my image borders. For some reason it keeps on thinking that since my border isn't exactly lined up with illustrator's imaginary boundries, that it is supposed to be some kind of different shade and makes it so you can see the image borders. Photoshop doesn't do this naturally, so I just end up having the strip finish there. Text is the last thing I do and I've never really noticed the difference when going off of 72px. I am sure that when I get down to the 6pt fonts it would be very noticable, but I'm using 12 for the most part.

And believe me, I'm totally not arguing with you. If I was doing any real graphic design and I used photoshop to finish it, I would have to kick my own @$$ on principle. I know to use QuarkXPress or InDesign for THAT little task. I'm just not going to make a PDF for my strip... that would be silly.

[Mae Dean]

Actually - what you want to do in that case is set the "borders" of the artboard the size you want the strip - and then do a "save for web", which will allow you to crop it to that artboard. It allows you to have bleed images, which can make for a much more dynamic layout, if you choose to do so.

[Lizzegirle]

I have no clue why you would be having that border problem, unless you aren't using the software correctly. I challenge you to try to make your speech bubbles and text in Illustrator. I'll even make a tutorial for you.

[GageEndal]

Deal, I actually started doing that already. I figured it wouldn't be good if I was to post a challenge and say I did it two years ago and expect anyone to do it now, so I did my entire strip today in Illustrator. If you have some good tips on how to do the text bubbles though I would love that.

Oh, I fixed the problem with the borders by using a matte, it works poifectly now.

[bagheadinc]

If you have some good tips on how to do the text bubbles though I would love that.

If you want some free balloon and action noise shapes, here are some free ones from Blambot. They are in .eps format, so they will scale to whatever size you wish.