Photoshop just can't compare, especially not for this price. Photoshop is excellent for...you know...photos. For anyone using a pen tablet, it falls a bit short for line art and smooth brushstrokes and brush customization and all those key features you actually want in a painting program. And that price tag is ridiculous....
The biggest difference between Manga Studio and other image programs I've used is the pen correction and smoothing feature. Wondering why your lines are shaky when you're using a tablet? It's because your tablet is extremely sensitive to every little shake of your hand, in a way that pen and paper isn't. Many people on the internet will tell you the answer is "practice." I disagree, because Manga Studio has proven that it isn't necessary to change your drawing technique when you move from traditional to digital. Manga Studio will smooth your lines forward into the shape you intended - not the squiggly mess that Photoshop leaves you with on the same stroke. Photoshop does sort of have a line smoothing feature - a checkbox. This isn't enough, because it's so minimal that I can't tell the difference. Manga Studio's line smoothing is a slider, so you can customize the strength of the smoothing to suit your needs, whether you're drawing long sweeping capes or scruffy fur that needs lots of sharp points.
Manga Studio has another feature Photoshop lacks - vector rendering. You can draw with vectorized lines as though you're in Adobe Illustrator, but without the painful learning curve that comes with Illustrator. (For those unaware, having vectorized lines means you can resize and even manipulate the shapes of your lines without losing any quality.) Manga Studio doesn't allow you to create large fill areas in vector. Still, the drawing experience between raster (aka non-vector) and vector is so similar and seamless that I often find myself drawing on raster layers by mistake without realizing it... :) And then I realize my lines aren't as smooth as I'd like them to be, and immediately switch over with a single click.
All in all, Manga Studio is also just more user friendly than any image program I've ever used. It doesn't have all the features used for photo manipulation...and chances are, a digital painter or cartoonist doesn't need them.
More features:
Easily create your own brushes with images you've drawn in the program...right in the program. The brushes can be smooth "paintbrush" images, random sprays or effects, or even long ribbons that track the direction of your pen, such as lengths of chain or pearl strings or barbed wire or even waving music staves. I personally use it for long hair braids (no one wants to ink all that every time), but it's easily used for ropes, fences, vines, or anything long and repeating. Unlike other programs, you can also use multiple colors in these brushes, so you can even add shading or photorealistic textures to a brush. You can also use as many separate random images as you like to create a spray brush (I use this for leaves, branches, and grime). I used the brush creation feature to re-create Dan Luvisi's set of Photoshop brushes for my own use in Manga Studio. It wasn't that hard.
All of your brush materials and custom images are kept in a Materials folder that's easy to back up and edit from inside the program. This feature inside the program is slightly glitchy, but a program restart generally fixes it. I'm one of those heathens who will keep programs running for days at a time, so I'm not surprised.
I've never actually had Manga Studio crash, though. Food for thought. It's a robust piece of software. Also, it loads in SECONDS. Read that, GIMP users. Seconds.
Guess what ELSE can go in your materials? 3D models, that's what. This is more of an "extra" or "just cool" thing than something you want to rely on, but it seriously helps for drawing things you're not used to at weird angles (for me, read "anything with an internal combustion engine" ... ). It also comes with several positionable "mannequins" that you can trace over if you need help getting that weird action pose just right - sort of like a digital wooden joint doll. But more flexible, and more useful.
Oh, and those who've worked out an entire 20-step method for getting legitimate-looking speech bubbles out of Photoshop (like I have)...look no further.
FOR PAINTERS: For those who think this program is only for cartoons, think again. It comes with tons of natural brush options (and, as said before, the ability to create as many custom brushes as your heart desires with virtually no overhead). Plus, it comes with five different smoothing/retouching options, including photoshop-normal fingertip and blur...and adding "color mixing," which gives you a more natural, realistic blend without looking blurry. Each brush can use several different blending modes that mimic watercolors, oils, inks, or graphite.
And don't worry - it still comes with all those Photoshop-necessary features like render modes (Subtract, Add, Multiply, Screen, Burn, Dodge...), opacity, levels, HSB, Bright/Contrast, Masking, etc.
FOR UPGRADES:
From Manga Studio Debut (AKA Manga Studio Lite):
I had Manga Studio Debut 4, so this may not apply to MS5D, but Debut was missing one vital component: an eye dropper. If you ever want to work with color, this is essential, so beware. You're also not going to get the brush creation features or the 3D. Treat Debut as a cheap trial version of this program.
If you're REALLY iffy on the program, it may not be a bad idea to look at Manga Studio Debut first, since it's VERY reasonably priced for any similar software (probably the cheapest for its class!). It makes an excellent intro to the key features of its big sisters. However...you're going to want to upgrade at least to this version eventually. I find myself not wanting for the features of Manga Studio EX, but Debut was missing many of the things that make my life 1000x easier in the "real" version.
I also think Smith Micro has a very affordable upgrade system for those who get Debut and find themselves needing a more feature-rich version, so fear not! Do what works for you.
From Manga Studio 4:
Remember when Manga Studio was still trying to be a digital version of the traditional manga creation process? No more. It's a full-blown image editor now, and uses the same workflow as all your other image editor programs. Its default mode isn't "Add/Multiply", and tones aren't your only legitimate way to put gradients into your images. In fact, tones aren't your default. Also...if you don't need print comic draft guides (hello fellow web artists/e-book artists), you don't have to have them by default.
Unfortunately, this version does NOT allow you to import your old MS4 files, because the file type has changed. It's no longer an enormous file folder with ten different files in it for each page. It's now a single .lip file per canvas. All in all, this is a thousand times better than the old system, though I do wish I had access to my old files in MS5 without exporting them to .psd or something. Even though I had a large-scale comic going in MS4, however, I found I never ACUTALLY needed to import those files to MS5. It just wasn't necessary. If it is essential to you, you'll want Manga Studio 5 EX instead.
Another thing MS5 doesn't have is the story structure. Honestly, story structure was cool, but I've found it absolutely unnecessary for what I'm doing. My personal favorite image viewer works just as well for viewing previous and coming pages, since I always export to a flat file copy for previewing anyway (MS4 did that FOR you automatically, but the folder structure made viewing in sequence horrible without story structure). I can organize single files all by myself. If you need to label your pages with print metadata, you'll want Manga Studio 5 EX, but if you just need your files to be organized, this version will be just fine for you.
FOR THOSE LOOKING FOR A PHOTOSHOP ALTERNATIVE, who are looking for home use or non-professional use and not to be the next great starving artist:
...Sure! Why not? Most of the Photoshop features you'd be using anyway are here. Keep in mind that it doesn't have a whole lot of "easy photo filters" like red-eye removal. But as for color correction, easy instant shapes, marquee selection, all kinds of text options, and anything else you'd want for light use...Smith Micro has you covered just as well as Adobe. If you anticipate doing a lot of photo work, Photoshop Elements may be the way to go in this price range. But I use Manga Studio for web graphics, print materials, logos, etc. just as much as I use it for artwork. In fact, working in the vector layers will make your print graphics higher quality without resorting to full-blown Illustrator.
And YES, you can import/export Photoshop files here.
***Note: A pen tablet is not NECESSARY to use this program, but that's kind of like saying an internet connection isn't necessary for a computer. Sure, you can do a ton of awesome things with a computer offline...but the internet opens up a world of possibilities!
TL;DR: Much more intuitive, cost-effective, and painting/drawing friendly than Photoshop ever was or ever will be. A fantastic, robust upgrade from previous iterations of the same software. 5/5 stars, would buy again. Try it, fall in love, and leave Adobe Creative Suite in the dust.
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Customer reviews
Best Program for digital art I've used.
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2016
Pirating software never sat right with me, and I could never afford Photoshop, so ever since I began doing digital artwork I've used GIMP. Now for a completely free program GIMP is fantastic, and I made some decent (at least for me) art with it. But then someone suggested Manga Studio 5.I decided to give it a try. I was immediately pleased to find out that it worked with my Parblo Coast 10 artist tablet right off the bat, with no need to fiddle with settings or calibrations. The pressure sensitivity and even tilt sensitivity are spot on. The next thing I noticed was just how smooth the lines are. I've uploaded 2 pictures. The picture that shows me practicing folds was done with GIMP. you can see how choppy the lines are. in comparison to the picture drawn with Manga Studio.The program is very intuitive. If you are familiar with Photoshop, GIMP or probably any other artwork software that utilizes brushes, pens/pencils, layers, wand and lasso tools and so forth, you will get the hang of this right away. I've only had time to do a couple of quick sketches since getting it but I really look forward to sinking my teeth in with a finished piece.I highly recommend Manga Studio 5, even now that Photoshop is a bit more manageable as a subscription base, this program works just as well, perhaps even better as it is tailored entirely to digital art work (whereas Photoshop is also for photo-manipulation and touch up work). This program is NOT a poor man's Photoshop, it is excellent and I don't know how I ever lived without it.Occasionally I've seen it on sale, so if you can bare to wait around and snatch it up for $25 or so then it's an amazing deal, but even at it's full price it is worth ever penny!
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2016
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F. Sidney
Amazing software and no membership - good bye Photoshop!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 15, 2022Style: Software OnlyVerified Purchase
Mark Lockett
PShop beater, without a doubt.
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jezzadarlo
Amazing value
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xmetman
Big problems with Windows 10
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J. Marshall
Fantastic software for digital art creation.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 5, 2014Style: Software OnlyVerified Purchase
