Noir Style Tutorial, Pt. 19 - Step 14: Saving Your Final Image

Now that you've got the final image, it's time to save it. As with almost every other image program out there, you're going to maintain a source file and an output file:

• Manga Studio files have a .lip extension and contain all the layers and other info needed for you to edit it in the future:
• Output images usually have an extension of .jpg, .png, or .tif. These are "flat" files and are intended for publication, either in print or online.

MS handles this through an Export function.

For web display, I usually select JPG. For print, I use a TIFF.

If you look closely at this screenshot, you'll see that MS has two Export options: one for layered files and another one, without any other text. The Layers option lets you export as a PSD file (among other things). The second one lets you export to all the formats you see here. And, no, the sharp-eyed among you are not seeing things – Manga Studio does let you Save in Kindle format. This is a very cool feature, and one that I admit to not having used – – YET! Ditto for its ability to export as an epub. 

Once you've selected the file type, a standard dialogue box will appear asking you to name the file and put it where it goes. After that, you get this pane:

As you can see, it has the usual quality and color settings that you would expect. Note that at the bottom of the dialogue is one of the things I said was cool about this program: It's ability to scale tones for print.

By default, Manga Studio selects "For Comic" and sets the Rasterize quality to "Fast." I always set it to "Prefer quality," even though I really haven't seen much difference between the two settings. In general, I do prefer the default settings "For comic" because it does do a better job of scaling the tones I use. I have experimented with the "For illustration" settings before and have never encountered the "gaps" it references. Nevertheless, why take any chances?

Here are some images saved with the "Illustration" and "Comic" settings for comparison.

Saved with ILLUSTRATION settings.
This image has been scaled to 50% of its original size.
Click for full-size image.

Saved with COMIC settings.
This image has been scaled to 50% of its original size.
Click for full-size image.

You'll have to enlarge both of these to see that there are, indeed, subtle differences between the tones. 

Detail of the two images shown above.

Here you can see that the Illustration setting is a little darker than the Comic setting. On the Web, I must say I prefer the Illustration settings. However, in print I think the Comic settings print better (although I must admit that, as of when I'm writing this, I only have a little experience with printing these images; if this changes in the future I'll let you know).

Here are a few more examples, this time with an actual comic page instead of a single illustration.

Illustration settings: Page reduced 33%

Comic Settings: Page reduced 33%

And here's another close up, where we can see again that the Illustration settings seem to present stronger lines, at least online in a web browser. I do suspect that the tones will print better under the Comic settings, but time will tell.

Detail of the output settings.

And that's that. Once you have the final image or page output, you can put it into your desktop publishing program (like InDesign, Publisher or QuarkXPress). Or, if you're feeling bold, output it as a Kindle or ePub file! It's all up to you.

NEXT TIME: Process "Quick" Summary