Here's an overview of changes based on the input from grey. I have made an attempt at improving the white leveling, but as I'm a complete newbie with regard to this, I fear that there still might be some issues that should be fixed... The input that vertical text should be avoided and be replaced with rotated horizontal text, was attempted implemented for a bunch of the SFXs. I didn't succeed in getting a rotated text approach to look good, so in the end I messed around with different approaches until I ended out with the one used in the present version. The strategy used as a replacement for the vertical SFXs is that each individual character has been added in a separate text layer, with the attributes "Bold" and "Italic". (The font for some of the SFXs has in addition been changed to "Whisperings", since that's the one I am using in the sequel "Rainy Holiday".) The size of the successive characters in these new SFXs where decreased in accordance with the corresponding decrease in the original SFX. The base of the successive characters in the SFX should approximately be following a line (from the base of the first character) going down left with an angle close to 70 degrees. The resulting text-layers where then merged, and adjusted in an attempt at getting the "white character with black border" effect from the original SFXs. Position of SFXs(?): The old vertical version of the SFXs where easy to place, since I just put them over the corresponding original SFXs. The new SFXs doesn't allow such a simple solution, but they are mostly placed close to the positions of the original SFXs (with a few exceptions when the SFX would cover "foreground" instead of "background"). Note: I have taken the liberty of adjusting the length of the translated SFX to match the length of the the original SFX, i.e. that "vssh" in some cases either has been extended to "vsssh" or shortened to "vsh". The list below mention the major modifications made to the different pages, i.e. minor modifications related to adjustment of the text are in general not included. This list was mostly written in order for me to keep track of what I had done and what remained to do, but I include it here anyway. There's some questions intermingled below, and I would apreciate feedback on those. ### START - overview of major changes ### page 1 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. New leveling with adjusted filters/parameters. page 2-3 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. New leveling with adjusted filters/parameters. The new version is a combination of the old version (for the background black/gray areas) and the new version (for the white areas). page 4 Right edge cropped 2 pixels. Leveling performed with adjusted filters/parameters. The new version is a combination of the old version (for the background black/gray areas) and the new version (for the white areas). page 5 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. Upper edge cropped 1 pixel. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin less dark. Question: The box containing "Aah, my heart's throbbing..." have been changed from the old version Aah, Aah, my my heart's to the new version heart's throbbing throb- ... bing... This was done in order to avoid a line with only "...", since I anticipate that the input "Avoid putting punctuations on its own line" also includes this case. But I really don't like the hyphenation of "throbbing" that was required in order to avoid getting "..." on a separate line, and would like to resurrect the previous version. Would that be OK? page 6 Left edge cropped 1 pixel. Upper edge cropped 1 pixel. Right edge cropped 1 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin less dark. New layer added in order to fix/redraw the marks from the debinding. SFX updated with new version, as explained earlier. page 7 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. Upper edge cropped 2 pixels. Right edge cropped 18 pixels. Lower edge cropped 1 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. Two SFXs updated with new versions, as explained earlier. Question1: How much should the right (completely white) edge be cropped? It was in the previous version rather wide (perhaps due to the debinding) and I initially thought that it should be as wide as possible. The input from grey said to crop all edges, and I have now selected a cropping that I think gives approximately the same amount of white margin on both sides of the top panel. Does this look OK? Question2: Would it be OK to have "...?" on a separate line for the bubble containing "Shall we undress...?". I think the present hyphenation "un-dress" looks rather hideous, and would like do avoid it. In the same vein, I also think that the "..." in "b- b- but..." might look better if placed at a separate line (since it then would better fit the shape of the bubble). page 8 Upper edge cropped 2 pixels. Right edge cropped 3 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin less dark. page 9 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. Lower edge cropped 1 pixel. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. SFX updated with new version, as explained earlier. page 10 Upper edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin less dark. page 11 SFX updated with new version, as explained earlier. page 12 New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. page 13 Right edge cropped 18 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in water) less dark. page 14 Left edge cropped 30 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in water) less dark. page 15 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. SFX updated with new version, as explained earlier. page 16 Upper edge cropped 2 pixels. Right edge cropped 2 pixels. Lower edge cropped 3 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. page 17 Right edge cropped 12 pixels. Lower edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. SFX updated with new version, as explained earlier. page 18 Right edge cropped 3 pixels. Lower edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. SFX updated with new version, as explained earlier. page 19 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. page 20 Upper edge cropped 1 pixel. Left edge cropped 10 pixels. Right edge cropped 6 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. page 21 Left edge cropped 3 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. Question: The "aah..." either had to be reduced in size to fit into its bubble on one line, or it had to be hyphenated as "a-ah..." to split it over two lines (and keep the same size as the other text). I picked the solution with two lines. In order to use a larger font, I wonder if it in such cases would be acceptable to either put the "..." on a separate line, or perhaps drop them altogether. page 22 Right edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. Question: This question is related to the sequel "Rainy Holidays", but the present page contains bubbles that is rather similar in shape. What is the recommended solution when a long word has to be inserted into a very thin and high bubble? Will it in such cases be acceptable to use vertical text instead of horizontal? I think that neither a very tiny font nor a solution with several hyphenations (and a small font) gives a good solution, so I would like to avoid those if possible. page 23 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. Right edge cropped 6 pixels. Lower edge cropped 1 pixel. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. page 24-25 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. Upper edge cropped 2 pixels. Right edge cropped 2 pixels. Lower edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. page 26 Upper edge cropped 2 pixels. Lower edge cropped 3 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in water) less dark. page 27 Left edge cropped 2 pixels. New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. Two SFXs updated with new versions, as explained earlier. page 28 New layer added in order to make shadows-on-skin (in air) less dark. ### END - overview of major changes ### #### Original input from grey #### general stuff: 1. TYPESETTING x Size >> When you want to make the font larger, increase the font size (http://puu.sh/hFDna/1611e0b47c.png). Do not use CTRL + drag. It only destroys the font by distorting it. x Shape >> Always try to form the text in the same shape as where it is contained (i.e. if the bubble is round, shape it like a circle. if it's the narration box, shape it like square/ rectangle) x Line Break >> the one-line-one-word habit: http://puu.sh/hQt8D/53ee1a117d.png >>> Try to avoid that. It's fine if it can't be helped, and just once in a while, but never all the time. x Text centering >> text should be placed in the middle of the bubble. >> There are times, though, that the text looks better if it's a little bit higher above the "center" but never put the text below the center. >> For incomplete bubbles, the text should be centered but sometimes it should be placed near the border to look nicer. Something like this: http://www.mediafire.com/view/myfiles/#956gj2ul42dw6w7 additional reading: http://senbonzakura.kageyoshi.net/2009/05/02/typesetting/ x SFXs >> if you like to make it vertical, try to write it horizontally and just rotate it (not too upright though) >> http://puu.sh/hQtao/fd4235357c.png x Punctuations >> Avoid putting punctuations on its own line >> make all the vertical "....." horizontal (just three dots, okay?) 2. leveling - the white especially in the first few pages seemed underleveled. 3. CROPPING > make sure to crop the edges correctly to avoid having blacks(check the samples below) when released. e.g. check the lower left http://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/tora_ni_tsubasa_ch01#2 and upper right edge http://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/tora_ni_tsubasa_ch01#8 4. FILE SIZE > current file size is too big. use 32 colors not 256. 5. change the em dash (for stutters) to a hyphen page 1 crop - left edge page 2-3 crop - left edge page 4 crop - right edges page 5 crop - upper and left edges page 6 crop= upper, right and left edges = the marks on the upper left edges are from debinding and not patterns page 7 crop - all edges page 8 crop - upper and right edges last panel: Ah... -don't slant (check the other similar pages, too.) page 9 crop - left and lower edges page 10 crop - upper edge page 13 crop - right edge page 14 crop - left edge page 15 crop - left edge page 16 crop - upper, right, lower edges page 17 crop - lower edge page 18 crop- right and lower edges page 19 crop - left edge page 20 crop - upper, left, and right edges page 21 crop - left edge clean - lower edge of the narration box page 22 crop - right edge clean - panel 1; narration box 1, upper edge page 23 crop - left and lower edges page 24-25 crop - all edges page 26 crop - upper and lower edges page 27 crop - left edge