scanlationnn

Seeing stray pixels

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:09:00 -0400

Depending on the raw, after you level the image (or rather, place an appropriate level or curve adjustment layer on top of your raw), you’ll still have several dust specks.

You could amp up the white leveling, but then your image begins to get over leveled and edges become jagged. From this point, it’s best to manually take care of the remaining dust.

The brush tool is your friend. Or enemy.

Regardless, it can be hard to see all the dust remaining on a page without giving yourself eyestrain. It can be especially challenging if the raw is actually huge and you’re looking few the remaining slightly off-white pixels…

What will help out is an adjustment layer that will render any non-white pixels to black. Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels, and move the grey slider all the way to the right.

And now, it’s very easy to see all the additional work you’ll have to do~ Time to zoom in and clean up! You’ll be able to be confident that you have eradicated all of the stray pixels~

Here’s my final cleaned version:

Dark adjustment layers are also useful in revealing some editing mistakes, like off-color brush strokes. Pretty useful.

Aside from a dark adjustment layer, you can make one for whites (slide the grey level to the left), which will help finding light pixels in places which should be black (like Ritsuka’s hair above).

Here’s a visual representation of the invisible bubble...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:30:00 -0400

Here’s a visual representation of the invisible bubble border mentioned before.

Even if it fits the bubble, font that is too large invades this border and makes the whole page look cramped. Its better to opt for a smaller, and consistent font size.

Also: Shape your text to fit the shape of the bubble! If it’s in a round bubble, you should have lines lengths that taper at the top and the bottom. If in a box, then the general line length should stay consistent. Avoid line breaks that give your text an hour glass figure.

Excuse me for not actually asking a question, but I gotta say, awesome posts so far. As an aspiring scanlator, I quite like this blog. Keep it up.

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:05:00 -0400

I’ve been found out! And quite sooner than expected ////

Thank you so much for your praise! I’ll do my best to continue posting. If there’s anything you want me to cover, feel free to make a request.

I heard you like resources

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:15:00 -0400

The point of this tumblr (point? there’s a point?!) isn’t to teach anyone to edit from scratch, just to provide tips that will help scanlators who’ve already got their feet wet. Several excellent tutorials have been made — and they work, since that’s how I learned 70% of what I know. The rest is from experience and some wonderfully insightful QCers.

Anyway, if you’re just starting out, or you’d like to look over some good tutorials, please see below~

Dynasty Style Guide / Dynasty Tutorial
The Idiot’s Guide to Editing Manga
QC Guide
Someone’s giant list of other tutorials
Honorable mention to Null’s Wikilation, which is sadly out of commission.

Aliasing tips. The differences between the anti-aliasing options...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:25:00 -0400

Aliasing tips.

The differences between the anti-aliasing options become more apparent with smaller font sizes.

Addendum: Keep your typesetting on top of all of your other layers. If your font still looks jagged and the anti-aliasing filter is not set to ‘none,’ it’s probably because you put your text layers under an adjustment layer.

TS Tip #1

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:52:00 -0400

Always make your text fit the shape of the bubble.

Every time the font changes in JPN, change the font in your...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:40:00 -0400

Every time the font changes in JPN, change the font in your edit. Ideally, you should have a wide variety of fonts at your disposal, so you can match the Japanese typesetting.

In terms of SFX, it’ll look the most seamless if you completely redraw everything and typeset your translation (to look similar to the JPN, as I mentioned).

You can also just typeset the SFX next to the original JPN, which is faster and easier. This is called the Del-Rey style, since the publisher of the same name used it for their releases.

Bamboo.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:30:00 -0400

Bamboo.

When in doubt, bamboo.

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:25:00 -0400

When in doubt, bamboo.

Use consistent font size. While you should make adjustments to...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 11:03:00 -0400

Use consistent font size. While you should make adjustments to font size when bubbles get bigger, you lose points if you have towering text but readers need to use a microscope to read footnotes.

Font fluctuations should be on the order of… ±5 pts. I’d generally only go ±3.

PR tip #2

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:56:00 -0400

Use punctuation at the end of every bubble.

…

♥

…!

…?

Match fonts as best you can, to fit the mood and style of the...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:47:00 -0400

Match fonts as best you can, to fit the mood and style of the original Japanese.

PR tip #1

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:45:36 -0400

It’s always “?!” and not “!?”

This isn’t exactly fair, since it’s a amateur TL...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:40:00 -0400

This isn’t exactly fair, since it’s a amateur TL who’s probably using paint to put text on the page.

That said, make sure your text is not too big for the bubble. Text that breaks bubble lines makes everything look ridiculous and messy. There should be a “border” around your text in the bubble too— space between the edge and the text, or everything will look too crowded.

Center your text. Centercentercenterrrrrr

There’s two easy(?) things that will make an edit look...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 10:34:00 -0400

There’s two easy(?) things that will make an edit look awesome— leveling properly and centering text in the middle of the bubble.

Your text should be broken up in a way that follows the shape if the bubble/

If the bubble is cut off, center to the middle of the imaginary bubble. Within reason, of course. If you hit the edge of the panel, then you’ll have to make adjustments.