I finally got around to drawing a '
Brudders' comic in
Clip Studio Paint for iPad with Pencil. Here's the latest comic (episode 86 - 'Context'.):
If you'd like to also see the roughs, visit the website here:
https://brudders.littlegreendog.com/bru ... 6-context/
Here's a short review comparing Clip Studio Paint on iPad vs Clip Studio Paint Windows:
Remarkably, drawing in CSP on iPad is nearly the same experience as using CSP on a Windows computer with a Wacom Tablet. The UI is more or less the same, including multi-touch capabilities. The program is very responsive, and you can easily exchange data between the iPad and Windows computer using the Clip Studio program to share files on the cloud. The pencil's responsiveness is at least as good as a Wacom Stylus.
Where the programs differ is mainly with the pen and tablet UI. Because the Wacom pen has multiple buttons and the Apple Pencil does not have any, Celsys had to add an extra 'Edge Keyboard' panel to the iPad app for the necessary on-screen modifier keys. To access the Edge Keyboard, just swipe from the left or right side of the screen. Here's a pic with the panel on the left side Edge Keyboard:
You can press and hold these buttons while you work in CSP as if they were physical keys. Of course, if you have a physical BT keyboard, you can just use the keys there too.
Panning, Zooming and Rotation are just like when you use CSP on a Windows computer or tablet that has multi-touch enabled. Some common commands also use finger gestures like the ones in found in Procreate. For example: two finger tap to undo, three finger tap to redo.
Unfortunately, in reproducing CSP to iPad so faithfully, some of the same long-standing flaws in CSP carried over too. For example, neither version supports auto-kerning for fonts that have a built-in kerning table, so you can expect to do a bit of manual kerning.
Font families are still a problem for the iPad version, but it's a different problem. On the Windows version, CSP only recognizes the base font and ignores the bold, italic and bold-italic versions of the font. Instead of using the proper fonts, CSP tries to generate it's own bold, italics, and bold-italics, and THEY LOOK AWFUL!!! To work around this problem, I've had to create custom 'non-family' versions of my styled fonts that CSP recognizes as unique fonts. A small hassle but it works. On iPad, the problem is slightly different. The program actually recognizes a family but instead of reading it as a single font with styles, it reads each style as a separate font. That's fine except, if I use any of the styles in iPad version and then transfer the files to the Windows version, the Windows version still doesn't see the family, so the fonts are ignored. Aargh! So my final solution was to use the same 'non-family' versions in both the Windows and iPad versions of CSP.
(BTW, getting fonts into the iPad is a bit of a pain. I highly recommend an app called AnyFont along with DropBox to move fonts from your desktop or laptop to the iPad.)
On annoying thing was that I can't transfer my custom tool settings from one version of CSP to the other. Apparently, the settings aren't compatible, so I had to rebuild my tools for the CSP version. Of course, once that's done, I'm good to go.
Another annoyance is when I save a PSD from the iPad, wherever the file is saved to, it's not accessible by anything but CSP. To make the file accessible, I need to save it as PSD first and then
share the PSD with DropBox so I can access it from other apps and other computers from there. TBH, it is much easier to re-sync the original CSP file to the cloud share and open the file in the Windows version, and then save the PSD from there.
Apart from the font problem and the somewhat convoluted PSD export process, both of which can be overcome, I have little to complain about with the iPad version of CSP.
So, yeah...I love using Clip Studio Paint on the iPad and I can't wait to draw my next comic! The tools behave exactly like they do in the desktop version, and the performance of the app on an IPad Pro is smooth and responsive. I did have to tweak the pressure curve slightly but, honestly, that's no biggie. Once I got everything set up in CSP for iPad the way I wanted and I finished my first comic, CSP on the iPad became my favorite
digital way to draw comics.
Oh, one
important difference with the iPad version is that it's only available by subscription. So, is it worth it? If you like using CSP in the desktop version because of its unique tools and you want to use the same exact program on your iPad for it's mobility, then yeah, I totally think so.
But, If you have CSP on a desktop, and are considering getting an iPad, then...maybe? Probably yes if you also plan to use the iPad for other things besides CSP. When you start the subscription, the first six months are free, which is plenty of time to see if you really want to continue with the subscription.
And if you
only have an iPad with Pencil, and don't own a desktop or laptop computer, then sure. It's definitely the best comics drawing app for iPad. I still think Procreate is a better painting app but CSP is a better app
specifically for drawing comics.
CelSys offers multiple subsctiption plans for Clip Studio Paint Pro and EX versions, annual and monthly. (EX is the one you want to create long format multi-page comics. If you don't need that, then the Pro version is a lot cheaper and just fine.)
Subscription is a whole cheaper when you subscribe by the year: CSP Pro is $25 for the year ($2.08/month) and CSP EX is $72 a year ($5.99/month.) FYI, I got the yearly sub for EX but I might downgrade to Pro if I don't start working on a multi-page comic later this year.
If you subscribe monthly, the cost is quite a bit higher but you can start and stop the subscription without committing for more than a month. IMO, if you draw comics that infrequently you're probably better off staying with the desktop version since it has a perpetual license.
BTW, there's a 50% sale going on right now at CelSys till June 25th, Pro is $25 and EX is $109 for a perpetual license (Windows and Mac, not iPad). A fantastic deal, IMO! Buy it from here:
https://www.clipstudio.net/en
Hope this info is helpul!