Comics, Manga, Webtoons Drawing Apps - Clip Studio Paint (2024)

This guide presents five popular drawing apps for creating comics, manga, and webtoons. From professional art software to free or simple apps, learn how to get started so you have the best tool to draw and share your story.

When creating a comic or webtoon composed of tens or even hundreds of pages, drawing apps make it easier to manage and edit your story. You can save page templates, modify already drawn lines, colors, and shapes, and even integrate 3D tools or image resources to help you bring your story onto the page. Even if you don’t have a graphics tablet, there are professional-level drawing apps available for mobile tablets and smartphones.

Here are some points to consider when picking a drawing app for comics or webtoons.

1. Ease of use

Creating a comic or webtoon takes a lot of time, so you should make sure to pick a drawing app you feel comfortable with, whether that’s a simple and clean UI or a more traditional desktop appearance with all the tools visible.

2. Pens and brushes

As well as finding the perfect sketch and lining brushes for your artwork, you might also want to consider the range of stamp or pattern brushes for a variety of effects in your story.

3. Layer tools

Layers are essential for managing your comic projects, including panel lines, characters, backgrounds, and dialog. Make sure to choose an app that helps you manage your project effectively.

4. Templates and rulers

Although not necessary, templates, guides, and rulers can be a huge help when drawing things like panels and effect lines. Choosing an app that lets you save your own templates will be even more helpful for your workflow.

5. Text and balloon features

Text is essential to most comics and webtoons, so check for font support and formatting tools in the drawing app. Some drawing apps even include preset speech bubble shapes or tools.

Clip Studio Paint is widely used by professional manga, comic, and webtoon artists. With tools for comic panels, speech bubbles, detailed stamp brushes, and 3D models, you can create comics, manga, and webtoons of any genre and any level of complexity. The app also offers a 3D-print preview for comic books and a real time smartphone preview for webtoons, so you can check your artwork as you create.

For beginners, the tablet and smartphone versions offer a minimal Simple Mode with the essentials for drawing, as well as a Studio Mode where you can access more of the comic features. You can try it out for up to 6 months free.

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics software used by professionals in design and photo editing. Best used on a desktop computer, it is very function-heavy and most suitable for intermediate and advanced users. Although not specialized for drawing or painting, the Pen tool can be used for smooth vector shapes and paths. Photoshop is fully CMYK compatible and has good image editing and color correction tools as it was originally designed for photo processing.

To learn more about each drawing application as well as more drawing apps, check out the following article.

Those were our 5 top apps for creating your own comic, manga, or webtoon. If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend looking up tutorials or researching what app your favorite comic creator uses. Most importantly, don’t forget to test out the features of different apps with a free trial.

Features