Comic Page Templates

[City]

I want to create a bunch of comic page templates for myself. I want to make sure the gap between the panels are consistent and that the panels are properly lined up. I expect to use a variety of quadrilaterals in the templates. How would I do something like this? And is Paint.NET even an appropriate tool for this?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Try downloading & installing the CellMaker plugin. It will draw boxes of specified size (Height x Width). Using a brush with some thickness will create a gutter around each box:

 

[Lemonade]

Paint.net is a great tool. I really recommend checking Help (F1 inside paint.net) and Tutorials section.

Line (Curve) and Shapes (Rectangle) tools are enough with some help from:

BoltBait's Outline plugin

and Lines/Grid by ReMake

Lines/Grid is useful to divide document and decide where to draw lines.

I'm not sure if I already saw a similar process posted before. Can't remember, so here goes.

Example 1

Spoiler

Work with default black and white colors for templates.
Create new document. I'm using 600x800 px here (for taking screenshots).
With Rectangle (Shapes tool) create document margin.

Add new layer and then Effects > Render > Lines/Grid. Adjusted to 14 "rows" so I can use 4, 3, 3, 4.

Create another layer and use Line (Curves) tool, hold Shift for straight lines.

Now you can hide or delete Lines/Grid and Background layers. I like to keep them all, just hidden.
While Lines and Rectangle layers are visible Ctrl+Shift+C will copy anything that is visible on the canvas.
Create new layer and paste.

Go to Adjustments > Invert Colors (Ctrl+Shift+I)

Go to Effects > Object > Outline Object.
For straight lines disable Anti-alias and set Blur radius to 0.

Add your comic art layer below.

 

Example 2

Spoiler

Use Rectangle for margins and then with Lines tool create sections/panels.

Merge Rectangle and Lines layers or create a flattened copy.

Adjustments > Invert Colors (Ctrl+Shift+I)

Effects > Object > Outline Object, enable Anti-alias and set Blur to 0.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by Lemonade
updated image source

[City]

@Lemonade

 

Your solution looks fantastic. I have a question though. I am thinking about using a page size of 2750wx4175h with 400 PPI. If I wanted my templates to look like yours, how would I figure out how to adjust the numbers from your example to fit my desired size?

[Lemonade]

Hey @City, considering that Grid plugin interval width is constrained to 100px, I would create a smaller size picture with grid first

For example, create new 2750wx4175h with 400 PPI, then resize to something like 900w (check-lock Maintain aspect ratio) and add grid only.
Now resize back to 2750w and draw lines over. And 15px line in my example is going to be something like 70-90px and margin instead of 50px more like 200-250px.

Or keep 900w and play around. When you have a template you like, save as png. Then create new 2750w, add png image and resize (with Move tool) to fit the canvas. Draw outline (margins) and lines over.

You could work with grid plugin and 2750w, but instead of 20 squares (looking at vertical squares) there would be 40-50 which is to much to work with.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Lemonade
included picture

[Lemonade]

Played a bit with "low quality" image for fast drafts.
- Document size 550x835 px, default 96 ppi; the width 550 * 5 = 2750
- Effects > Render > Lines/Grid: Line width 2, Interval width 39
- Now, while grid layer is selected, move 6px right and bottom (arrow keys) so the grid is somewhat centered
- For margins, use rectangle with 40px brush size
- For lines, 12px brush size
At this stage, no need to invert colors or apply Outline.
Copy or export as png, jpg...

For high quality image, create new document 2750x4175 400 PPI
- Paste copied image (or load if exported) and resize to fill the whole area
- New layer (Margin), add rectangle with 150px brush size
- New layer (Lines), add lines with 70px brush size (maybe set layer opacity to 100-150 to see pasted image)
- After that, merge lines and margin layers, invert colors and set Effects > Object > Outline Object 14px

I'd play with different layouts (550x835 px) and only if I like something, then I'll proceed with high quality steps.

[City]

After going through the process myself I have a few observations. With my first template created, I did not find the grid particularly useful, as it did not line up with the simple 2x3 panel grid I created. I would say that using math is a better solution barring a better grid option or image size. (I only used the size I did because a website said it was "the standard size for American comics".) Lastly, I simply resized the complete smaller template to the larger size and PPI. I don't know if there are any problems with this, but it is certainly faster.  

[Lemonade]

Nice! The second part where you load smaller size image into large size document (and draw lines again) is to avoid any blur on the edges. Although it is slower and takes more time.

[City]

Just want to add that Borders and Shapes by pyrochild works better for margins than the shape tool.