Windows XP/2000/Mac OSX (OSX version reviewed)
Graphics tablet recommended
$299 / $49 for "Debut" version
Published by e-frontier (www.e-frontier.com)
A comic book artist's first impression upon firing up Manga Studio EX 3.0 is twofold: first, a wave of serenity on seeing that the highly specialized tasks are presented in a manner familiar to any Photoshop user; and second, an itching anxiety at watching the screen grow cluttered with ten tool and palette menus. The good news is, every one of them is useful.
Manga Studio EX combines many features of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign with tools and brushes designed especially for creating manga. Vector layers allow a nice degree of smoothness for those who want to draw directly into the program using a mouse (or, more likely, a graphics tablet), and common manga conventions like motion lines and textured backgrounds can be added with just a click. Of course, artists who prefer to draw the old fashioned way can scan their art in and manipulate it in Manga Studio. The Mac version of Manga Studio supports importing and exporting of layered PSD files, a bonus for OSX users made all the more curious since 3.0 is the first version of the software for Apple’s platform. In addition to all the tools an artist can expect from a standard graphics program, the EX version of Manga Studio also includes a tool specifically for lettering—a feature so nice that e-frontier may be able to get away with selling it separately. There is also an integrated page layout feature, perfect for creating two-page spreads or just looking at how well a book flows together.
Ruefully attendant on all these features is the previously mentioned menu clutter. While it is perfectly simple to just close infrequently-used items, it would be preferable to have the option of collapsing several windows into “tabs,” as seen in recent versions of Photoshop. Of course, artists willing to spend the money on industry-professional software will likely have a cinema display or second monitor, which could handily stow the army of menus.
A drawback of the program's dedication to manga (rather than comics in general) is that it does not natively support color artwork. Imported color images are converted to black and white or grayscale (rather smartly, it must be admitted), and the user must export illustrations to other programs in order to add color. While this exclusion no doubt allows the software to focus on the myriad effects possible in glorious halftones, it is quite puzzling that any visual art program would choose to limit itself in this way.
Despite these flaws, Manga Studio EX 3.0 is an incredible piece of software. For users uncertain whether they're ready for the whole package, e-frontier offers a "Debut" version of software with many of the basic features. Giving aspiring and veteran comic artists a professional tool specifically dedicated to needs of manga illustrators, the Manga Studio suite could quickly become the way new OEL titles are made.
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