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Manga Studio/Clip Studio Impressions

Recently I invested in Manga Studio 5 EX because I managed to get it for $75 as opposed to the usual $230 it goes for. Now to preface, Manga Studio 5 is different from the previous versions in that it’s the same exact program as another one called Clip Studio Paint, except rebranded for western audiences. Both have English versions, but Clip Studio is digital download only while Manga Studio 5 is a physical item.

That said, if I had to describe Manga Studio 5 it’s like a hybrid between Paint Tool SAI and Photoshop. It’s a little more on the Photoshop side than on the SAI side, so those coming from Photoshop will feel more at home, however it has all the customization and smooth lines fans of Paint Tool SAI have come to know and love. It’s got all the usual trapings users of Photoshop are used to: Shape rulers, text tools, etc. It also comes preloaded with manga panel layouts, screen tones, and the ability to ink on vector layers. One of my favorite features so far though are the perspective rulers which will come in handy when I want to draw more dramatic angles. I haven’t worked extensively in MS yet, but so far it’s been really good and the interface customization is a nice touch. I personally use the dark skin and edited it to look a little more like SAI to feel at home:

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I can’t say I reccommend it just yet, but so far everything’s been positive and at $50 for the normal version it does undercut SAI in feature value which makes it really competitive. I have Manga Studio 5 EX which is the same as Clip Paint EX. The only difference the EX versions have are multiple page management for printing comics. Otherwise they’re identical in functionality and if you aren’t planning on printing comics then one wouldn’t really need the EX version. I had Manga Studio 4 and hated it, but 5 is so much better and has everything I wanted in Manga Studio to begin with. 

Anyway, I’ll keep testing it! 

EDIT: It seems Amazon has the normal version of Manga Studio 5 for even cheaper than the digital download I linked to

  1. thefortressofscience posted this