The manga page workflow at a glance
A manga page is built in black and white, panel by panel:
- Panel layout — thumbnail the page and reading order.
- Rough sketch — characters and action inside each panel.
- Inking — clean black lineart.
- Solid blacks — fill hair, clothing and deep shadow.
- Screentones — grey shading and texture.
- Bubbles & SFX — dialogue and sound effects.
- Export — print-ready black-and-white pages.
Set up your canvas
A B5 page (5.83 × 8.27 in) at 600 DPI in greyscale is a common manga standard — the high resolution keeps screentones crisp and helps avoid moiré. Add a layer for panel borders and leave a safe margin so nothing important sits in the trim area. Remember that traditional manga reads right to left, so plan your panel order that way.
1. Thumbnail the panel layout
Before drawing, rough out the whole page small: how many panels, their shapes, and how the eye flows through them. Vary panel size for pacing — a big panel slows a beat down, a row of small ones speeds it up. This stage decides whether the page reads clearly.
2. Sketch inside the panels
On a sketch layer, block the characters, poses and action within each panel using light pressure. Keep it loose; you're solving composition, not drawing finished art. Put borders, sketch and (later) inks on separate layers so each stays editable.
3. Ink clean lineart
Lower the sketch opacity and ink the final lines on a new layer. Manga lineart uses varied line weight — heavier outlines, lighter interior detail — plus speed lines and motion effects for action. A crisp inker is essential; browse the inking brushes category and raise Streamline for smooth curves.
4. Fill the solid blacks
Before tones, decide what is pure black: hair masses, dark clothing, deep shadow. Solid blacks give a page its punch and structure the values. Fill them on their own layer with a hard brush so screentones read against them later.
5. Add screentones for grey
Screentones turn flat areas into the dotted greys that define manga. Apply each tone on its own layer over your greyscale plan, denser for darker areas. We cover this in detail in how to add screentones in Procreate — tone brushes live in the texture brushes category.
6. Add speech bubbles and SFX
Draw clean bubbles, then add dialogue with Procreate's text tool, keeping it legible and centered. Hand-drawn sound effects (SFX) give manga energy — a bold lettering brush sells impact and motion. The lettering brushes category works well for SFX and titles.
7. Export print-ready pages
For print, keep the file greyscale at 600 DPI and export as PNG or PDF. Check your tones at 100% so they aren't too dark, and confirm nothing critical sits in the trim margin. For webtoon or color releases, you'd shade differently — see our anime cel-shading guide.
Brushes and next steps
You can ink and tone a full page with free brushes — grab a set on the anime & manga brushes page or browse all free brushsets. New to anime and manga art? Start with our guide to drawing anime in Procreate.