>>2557968It just depends.
- Trying to reflect the same style as the original kanji.
- Trying to make it really stand out and make sense. Not just put in there to fill a spot.
- Or the typesetter. It's he or she who really decides how exciting the read will be by going with what they feel really punches up the graphic.
A lot of times, if I cannot find a font I have in mind, I will take one, rasterize it, and modify it to suit me. Take a look at 'SQEEEEEZE' on page 3. I DID THAT! *BIG GRIN*
The most important task though is CLEANING. I hate when setters try to just throw a font over an existing one or sloppily blot out the text bubble or SFX. It kinda takes forever, but I try to re-build as much of the art as possible. Only when the font almost totally overwhelms the graphic do I have to cheat and paste in a mondo-size font or SFX, and Nabe goes NUTS with big effects. But he does use them well.
SO, when you do this, go by what a setter here told me once. Stick with 2-3 primary fonts (You can use a special one every once in a while if you see the need.) And CLEAN your sheet thoroughly.
If you're using Photoshop, you should have:
1 - Your base background.
2 - Your clean layer.
3 - A background text layer.
4 - Your text/SFX layer.
Doing it this way allows you to go back again and again to either remove or modify something you put in and later want to change.
And even after you merge down and save your final work as a jpg or png file, UNDO it and then SAVE and KEEP your Photoshop PSD files. You don't know how many times I have posted my final work here and you guys spot something I totally missed or expressed incorrectly. It only takes me a few minutes to go back in and change it using this technique.
It takes like forever, but if you take your time and really put effort into it, you'll get a real kick out of your work every time you spot one at a doujin site and read the comments.
Hope this helps. We really need more translators and typesetters here.
