Day 1 of Using Clip Studio Paint

• Tweet

• Tweet

I first bought Clip Studio Paint (also known as Manga Studio) when it was on sale. Apparently there are periods of time when the software goes from around $50 to $15 (which is banana pants). I had heard of the software before, but when it went on sale I went, “Why not?” And got it.

Then I didn’t use it… until this last weekend.

You see, I was getting some maintenance done on my work horse of a laptop because it was running a week bit slow and certain programs were sluggish. So Allison (one of my besties) did a little check-up on it and fixed it.

It ran wonderfully! But then PhotoShop was glitching.

I have PhotoShop CS2, which is no longer upgraded. So any glitches it has can’t really be fixed, which is a problem because lately it’s begun to freeze when I hit “Save” during my work flow. That is a MASSIVE pain in the dick.

Seeing that I still had Clip Studio Paint, I decided to give it a try. I had not used it before, so I didn’t know what to expect.

Now that I have used it for a day, I can say it’s…good.

Thankfully many of the keyboard shortcuts I used in PhotoShop are the same shortcuts on CSP. It has a lot of the features I really needed (like Multiply color modes and layers), but also a lot of features are a bit more intuitive than in PhotoShop.

For example, the zoom feature is a smooth motion rather than clicking repeatedly, the paint brushes are much easier to manipulate and customize (once you get used to the qualities of it being detailed in a stationary window), and there’s an actual freaking color wheel.

I haven’t done anything yet resembling lettering, putting in speech balloons, or things like that. As far as painting things goes, CSP is actually really nice. I have a feeling that once I get used to it, I can work in this thing REALLY fast.

Will CSP replace PhotoShop? I don’t know – that all depends on how this program handles the lettering I want it to do in my comics. Here’s hoping it turns out well!

Stay turned for further updates on the CSP situation. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.