Manga Art Techniques: Screentone, Inking and Panel Layout
The distinctive look of manga comes from a set of techniques developed for black-and-white printing on inexpensive paper. Adult manga uses exactly the same toolkit as mainstream work, and many of the most respected technicians in the field work in adult publishing or self-publishing. This article introduces the core techniques: screentone, inking and line weight, panel layout, lettering and colour pages.
Analogue and digital workflows
Until the 2000s, most manga was drawn on paper with dip pens and ink, using physical screentone sheets. Today most professional and doujin artists work digitally, using drawing software and a pen tablet or display. Digital tools reproduce the traditional techniques closely, and the vocabulary has carried over.
A typical workflow in either medium follows these stages:
- Script and thumbnails – rough layouts of each page.
- Pencils – the detailed underdrawing, often called the “rough” or “sketch”.
- Inks – the final linework.
- Tones and effects – screentone, shading and speed lines.
- Lettering – speech bubbles, dialogue and sound effects.
- Final checks – including any required censorship layer for adult work.
Screentone
Screentone is a pattern of tiny dots, lines or textures used to create shades of grey on a page printed in black ink only. Traditionally, screentone came on adhesive transparent sheets. The artist laid a sheet over the page, cut around the area to be toned with a craft knife and peeled away the excess.
Screentone is defined by:
- Line count – the density of dots per inch. Higher counts produce finer, smoother greys.
- Percentage – the proportion of the area covered by dots, controlling how dark the grey appears.
- Pattern – plain dots, gradients, textures, backgrounds or decorative effects such as flowers or sparkles.
Techniques include:
- Layering two tones to create darker shades or textures, aligned carefully to avoid moiré.
- Scratching away tone with a blade or eraser to create highlights, a technique used for hair shine and glowing effects.
- Gradient tone for skies and soft lighting.
In digital work, tones are applied as pattern fills. The artist must still choose line counts suitable for the final print size, or the printed tone may produce unwanted moiré patterns.
Inking and line weight
Inking produces the final black lines that define the art. Line weight, the varying thickness of a line, is one of the most important skills in manga.
Common principles:
- Thicker outer lines, thinner inner lines. A heavier outline separates a figure from the background.
- Taper. Lines that start and end thin, with pressure in the middle, look lively and controlled. Traditional G-pens and maru-pens produce this naturally; digital brushes simulate it with pressure sensitivity.
- Weight for depth. Objects closer to the viewer are often drawn with heavier lines.
- Weight for light. Lines on the shadow side are thicker than those facing the light.
- Hatching and cross-hatching to build shadow without tone.
Other inking conventions include speed lines to show motion, focus lines radiating towards a point of interest, and beta, the solid black fills used for hair, clothing and dramatic shadow.
Panel layout
Panel layout, sometimes called koma-wari in Japanese, controls the pace and flow of a story.
Basic principles
- Reading flow. Layouts must lead the eye from top right to bottom left; see reading manga.
- Panel size and pacing. Large panels slow the reader and add weight; small panels speed up the action.
- Variety. Changing panel shapes and sizes prevents monotony.
- Breaking the frame. Characters or effects that extend beyond panel borders add energy.
- Page turns. The first panel after a page turn is a natural place for a reveal, so artists plan important moments to land there.
Spreads and splash pages
A full-page or two-page image is used for key moments. In short adult works, where page count is limited, artists use these sparingly so they retain impact.
Composition and censorship
In adult manga, composition also determines how much obscuring a panel requires. Skilled artists frame shots so that speech bubbles, effects or angles cover what must be hidden, reducing reliance on heavy mosaics. See censorship and mosaics.
Lettering
Lettering includes typeset dialogue in speech bubbles and hand-drawn sound effects. Japanese manga uses different typefaces for different purposes, such as a softer typeface for dialogue and bolder type for emphasis. Sound effects are drawn as part of the art and are integrated with motion and composition. When manga is translated, letterers must decide whether to redraw, subtitle or leave these effects.
Colour pages
Most manga interiors are black and white, but colour appears in specific places:
- Covers of magazines, collected volumes and doujinshi.
- Opening colour pages at the start of a magazine chapter.
- Full-colour works, increasingly common in digital-only releases.
- Illustration collections and art books.
Colour techniques range from cel-style flat colour with hard-edged shadows, as in animation, to painterly rendering with soft gradients. Digital colourists commonly work on separate layers for flats, shadows, highlights and effects. Print colour requires attention to the CMYK colour space, since bright screen colours may print duller.
Tools
Common tools include:
- Analogue: G-pen, maru-pen, brush pens, manga paper with printed guidelines, screentone sheets, craft knives, white correction ink.
- Digital: drawing software with manga-specific features such as panel tools, tone fills and vector lines, plus a pen tablet or pen display.
Many artists combine methods, sketching on paper and finishing digitally. AI tools are now also part of the conversation; see AI and doujin art.
Summary
- Screentone creates greys on black-and-white printing and can be layered or scratched for effects.
- Line weight distinguishes form, depth and light.
- Panel layout controls pacing, reading flow and the impact of page turns.
- Colour is mainly used for covers, opening pages and full-colour works.
- Digital tools now dominate but reproduce traditional techniques closely.