Finish Line, Safe Line and Bleeding in Medibang

This article will talk about Finish Line, Safe Line, and Bleeding. You can skip this post if you don't intend to publish your Manga/Comics. If you are looking for the meaning of those words above, this post is for you.

I. Manga/Comics Printing Guidelines

When you want to print a Manga/Comics book, you must understand the guidelines/layout for printing. If you start your manuscripts without the guidelines, parts of your drawing may be cut off/misprinted.

Depending on the print shops, they may have a different layout/guidelines you must follow. However, you will see this layout often, especially for the Manga.

The blue lines will be the guidelines you must follow. For the traditional way, some Japanese/Chinese brands may provide you the paper have pre-drawn lines like this:

(A sample product from Artdoor shop)

So what happens with your Manga/Comics in the print shop? They are not printing every A4, A5, A6 paper and then clipping them together later. No, they don't do that here! The print shop will print your files on A0 paper or a large paper sheet. Then they will fold that huge paper and cut off the four sides. 

Source: Clip Studio Paint Tips.

That's the way to prepare for a binding book. If you use the staple-bound or saddle-stitched, the layout still is the rule you must follow, or the essential parts of your stories may disappear at the gap between 2 pages. You can use the format that Medibang has already provided. But my recommendation is to ask the print shop for the correct layout.

About the printing quality, one of my experiences is you should set up your raw file size larger than the print size. However, a bigger file size may abuse your computer. But I have to say the results are better than the right print file size. You can test this method on your own with just 1-2 pages. And remember, the resolution must be at least 300dpi.

II. Page layout meaning

1. Finish Line

In MediBang Paint Pro, you may notice that the Template box gives you a paper size with Finish Line when you choose the line that says "finished". You can change the number manually later if you wish.

So what is the Finish Line? It's the guideline to show the final paper after the print shop cuts off the edges! You can easily see it is the second outline of the layout. 

You can see the example with my Mys City webtoon

However, the Finish Line size is not the paper size shown in Medibang Paint Pro. You can read the formula about how Medibang or other programs calculate the paper size in this Medibang New Canvas Settings article.

That was a big problem for me at the beginning! I always make a mistake when choosing the finish line as the actual paper size on Medibang because I don't understand this layout. And I skip the Manuscript size, which is the actual paper size you must keep in mind. If you choose the Manuscript size the same as the Finish Line size, the actual paper size will be at the edge of the Finish Line.

Based on my experiment, to prevent future problems in printing, you should choose a bigger paper size (Manuscript) than the Finish Line.

Example: Choose the Template: Doujinshi (A5 finished): 350dpiManuscript: A4

The final paper you have:

2. Safe Line

The frame in the canvas center is Safe Line. Everything you draw in this frame will be safe and won't be cut off. Just put the most important parts in this frame, even your dialogue/bubble speech!

Source: My webtoon - Mys City - Chapter 1.

However, be careful with the gap at the bound side (the inside of the book)! The text may be difficult to read if the dialogue overlaps the Safe Line and is too close to the Finish Line on the Binding side.

3. Bleed

Even if you draw precisely at the right edge of the Finish Line, the printing machine can still make the mistake of cutting too far from the border. That's why we have the Bleed Width to prepare for this mistake. The Bleed line will be the largest frame of the layout. And the gap between the Bleed line and the Finish line is Bleed Width.

You don't give the size for the Bleed line. You just put the value for the Bleed Width. It's the value that you allow the machine to make mistakes for each paper edge. 

The Bleed is just for the perfect result. That's why it's just a small number (usually in mm units). But that's not mean it's not essential. You can see the final print page may have a white border if we are not careful with the Bleed.

Source: Clip Studio Paint tips.

So go back to the Finish Line part above; I mentioned that you should choose the actual paper size bigger than the Finish Line. If you choose both sizes exactly the same, the Bleed won't be there. And I'm wondering how the machine will cut a huge piece of paper into parts as we talk about at the beginning of this article without the Bleed?

4. Crop Marks

The Crop Marks are not mentioned in the Settings of Medibang Paint Pro. However, you need to know if you want to print your artwork.

The Crop Marks are not for you. It's a guide for the printer. The marks at the layout corner show the printer where it should trim the paper. 

You must remember that you must not ink over the Crop Marks. It may cause the Crop Marks to become invisible. And the print shop can decline your files since it's hard for them to print your files without Crop Marks.

And that's it for this post. I hope you have enough information to ready your Manga/Comics.