I dont get it. I see so many people using them and they are ugly, and it can sometimes make the text hard to read. why are people doing this?

well..it works sometimes but a whole comic done like that should just stop. i guess they dont leave space in their panels for the bubbles or they think adding that blank space is gonna take away from the picture

word balloons are evil, especially when you poorly plan your pages and your dialogue so that if you want to put everything you really need to, you end up covering over massive amounts of drawings. So, I can totally understand the urge to use transparency so as to not totally lose the image behind the dialogue. Still, it does end up making reading text difficult at times, and people really ought to grin and bear it and "white out" that space for words.

I use them from time to time to indicate that something is being said quietly, or off-panel (therefore making it quiet, since it's at a distance from the reader's position).

I would never use them for a whole comic, because it does make things hard to read at times. I think a lot of people who use them don't want to cover up the art, which I understand, but there comes a point where you kind of have to realize that the whole page is art, and the word bubbles need to fit into it.

silentkitty
I use them from time to time to indicate that something is being said quietly, or off-panel (therefore making it quiet, since it's at a distance from the reader's position).

I would never use them for a whole comic, because it does make things hard to read at times. I think a lot of people who use them don't want to cover up the art, which I understand, but there comes a point where you kind of have to realize that the whole page is art, and the word bubbles need to fit into it.

why not use smaller text or a mishapen text bubble like so many others?

RobertTidwell
why not use smaller text or a mishapen text bubble like so many others?

Because I don't like smaller text or misshapen text bubbles. =p I don't see how smaller text is any easier to read than a semi-transparent speech bubble, and I haven't had anyone complain that they can't read the text in them.

Yeah, right...I've noticed this in the world of webcomics.

Print comic books don't tend to do this and it's odd the first few dozen times you encounter it. I don't mind it so much. I've yet to do it, but it seems pretty common amongst webcomic books.

It's ok. I make mine a little transparent to blend in with the colours of the page a bit. Hard white word bubbles with stark black text over nice comic art with careful rich colouring is a sin against the artistic soul.

Look, white is the brightest colour you can get in a comic in print or on a screen, as black is the darkest. By using those two colours in a speech bubble your reducing the quality of your artwork because you've taken away a little bit from the power of your highest contrast tools: black and white...

Eh, we're used to that and used to that, but trust me, it does lessen the art... The black text isn't so bad because most people use it in outlines anyway, but the white is wrong.

That said, VERY transparent bubbles look terrible. So mine tend to be coloured with a little bit of transparency- To make white bubble acceptable in tone you have to make them too transparent to be useful. Ah, but work that doesn't use colours in a modulated way like my comic is fine to use black and white hard bubbles. :)

Look, white is the brightest colour you can get in a comic in print or on a screen, as black is the darkest. By using those two colours in a speech bubble your reducing the quality of your artwork because you've taken away a little bit from the power of your highest contrast tools: black and white...

Quite the opposite, by using white balloons with black outlines you're setting the text out from the art. Word balloons aren't supposed to blend in, they're supposed to pop out.

Note, the following only applies to color comics:

Print comics are printed in CMYK color which is much different than RGB. Because of this, comic book artists rarely set the tone and contrast via white and black. Your lighting should be based on "warm" and "cool" colors, not black and white. Warm colors like red and orange appear to pop out of the page while cooler colors like green and blue appear dull and fade in the back. Your characters or objects of focus should always be warmer than the background even if they're are naturally pale in color. If you have a character who dresses all in blue, you should try your best to use a little more reddish hue in their clothing otherwise the human eye will instantly associate it with the duller colors of the background.

Honestly, I think coloring on an LCD monitor is a crime because LCD cannot display true black or white and has very poor clarity compared to a CRT... but I can't brag because I only have a lap top.

I'm not a coloring expert or anything and things like "balloon color preferences" are totally opinion based, but my job revolves around working on cameras and monitors so I know quite a bit about printing, the human eye, and color in general.

...it's a shame i forgot most of it. school was pretty boring.

Hmm, I don't know what's up with the transparent word balloons, but I do see some of what ozoneocean talk about. Sometimes the white can be very sharp and almost hurt your eyes.
I know I really can't compare this topic to my comic Lost because I don't have word balloons at all, but I originally tried white text on my nlack background. It didn't work, I found it too distracting and changed it to a light gray.
What I'm trying to say is that sometimes it can be distracting with all-white, but I can understand why it's annoying with far too transparent too.
I guess it should be a case-by-case thing.

And I quite like silentkitty's idea. My first thought was that it could be used for wispering or maybe thoughts.

If I were to use nontransperant word bubbles, the whole comic would look like a horrible mess. it would block certain things that I need to be seen, and not to mention the space it take up. my panels aren't that large so they would be a huge problem.

With transperancy, I get exctly what I need. I need the words and space. A word bubble take up space just to look fancy... what are you reading the words or the word bubbles? the words? Correct. Aside from certain situations, the words are pretty much all your really needing to see in a comic.

Well, I've stated my opinion... and my opinion isn't too big :P

The drawings should be artsy. The word balloons should, above all, be legible.

I prefer the text to stand out.

Its my style choice to use it set them at a slight transparency, and I'll stick with it thank you very much.
Its the same as saying something like, "oh why do people use gradient fills in place of shading?"
That's their choice, and ultimately, if the artist is happy with that, then leave them alone. Not everybody likes the same things.
I make webcomics to make me happy, not to be a professional print artist.
Which is why I feel I cant complain about something like sprites or yaoi or manga or superheroes.. They're doing the same thing: what they love.

I did the white and black before (which you can see in my earlier pages) and I just didnt like how it looked with my coloring..
No one ever complained about it. Actually a lot more people have asked me how I do it.

Transparent bubbles can sometimes be used to convey a sort of airiness to the words being said when combined with some other visual tricks. My text bubbles are currently the sharp black-and-white, but then again my comic uses pale colors, anyway, so it doesn't really hurt it too much.

I've also seen some places, like Drowtales, that make their balloons and text colors other than black and white, often with less contrast, and varying the color from character to character to make it clearer who is talking. Any opinions on that tactic?

angry_black_guy
Print comics are printed in CMYK color which is much different than RGB. Because of this, comic book artists rarely set the tone and contrast via white and black. Your lighting should be based on "warm" and "cool" colors, not black and white.

Ha... Look, black and white define contrast ok? CMYK, RGB whatever.
I've done plenty of real world art that doesn't involve distinction with inking and monitor colours and I've studied art academically for almost a decade, I know about colours and contrasts. ^^
Yes there are a lot of different ways of using them depending on the application and the limits/abilities of the media you're using, but contrasts are pretty constant... Black/white, Red/Green, Yellow/Purple, Orange/Blue... and out of those only black and white matter in grey tonal work since colour contrasts only work because their tones match which renders them the same colour grey when turned to grey scale. But you can always juxtapose implied textures and other things to make up for you limitations in black and white or grey work.

But as I said; it depends on the kind of work you're doing. Plus, what means more to you... If you're more sensitive to the art then you probably won't make your speech bubbles "stand out" so much, and vice versa.

ozoneocean

angry_black_guy
Print comics are printed in CMYK color which is much different than RGB. Because of this, comic book artists rarely set the tone and contrast via white and black. Your lighting should be based on "warm" and "cool" colors, not black and white.

Ha... Look, black and white define contrast ok? CMYK, RGB whatever.
I've done plenty of real world art that doesn't involve distinction with inking and monitor colours and I've studied art academically for almost a decade, I know about colours and contrasts. ^^
Yes there are a lot of different ways of using them depending on the application and the limits/abilities of the media you're using, but contrasts are pretty constant... Black/white, Red/Green, Yellow/Purple, Orange/Blue... and out of those only black and white matter in grey tonal work since colour contrasts only work because their tones match which renders them the same colour grey when turned to grey scale. But you can always juxtapose implied textures and other things to make up for you limitations in black and white or grey work.

But as I said; it depends on the kind of work you're doing. Plus, what means more to you... If you're more sensitive to the art then you probably won't make your speech bubbles "stand out" so much, and vice versa.

Nicely said!

silentkitty

RobertTidwell
why not use smaller text or a mishapen text bubble like so many others?

Because I don't like smaller text or misshapen text bubbles. =p I don't see how smaller text is any easier to read than a semi-transparent speech bubble, and I haven't had anyone complain that they can't read the text in them.

Consider this a complaint. heh.

I have a hard time reading a lot of the web comics I've seen with the slightly transparent balloons. It's a pain in the ass and it makes it look fucking ugly.

Small text works for me. I dunno. I'm used to it. I hadn't understood that a fadded balloon was meant to be quiter. I didnt know what it meant. I know what smaller text means just like I know that HUGE text means loud.

How do you emphasis loud text? Shouldn't loud and quiet be opposites?

Kohdok
Transparent bubbles can sometimes be used to convey a sort of airiness to the words being said when combined with some other visual tricks. My text bubbles are currently the sharp black-and-white, but then again my comic uses pale colors, anyway, so it doesn't really hurt it too much.

I've also seen some places, like Drowtales, that make their balloons and text colors other than black and white, often with less contrast, and varying the color from character to character to make it clearer who is talking. Any opinions on that tactic?

I like that trick. To a degree. I like solid black letters, but having the word bubbles take on certain characteristics is cool.

I'm thinking of doing a page of solid black, with just text bubbles. I'll need to make the different people have different fonts, different looking speech balloons and I'll definetly have to use color.

I <3 the way the sandman did the balloons for dream and many members of his family.

Delirium was the best. :-D

Heh. I think my tutorial site is partly to be blamed for the transparent balloon technique. I didn't realize people would overuse the transparent balloon technique.

RobertTidwell
Consider this a complaint. heh.

I have a hard time reading a lot of the web comics I've seen with the slightly transparent balloons. It's a pain in the ass and it makes it look fucking ugly.

Small text works for me. I dunno. I'm used to it. I hadn't understood that a fadded balloon was meant to be quiter. I didnt know what it meant. I know what smaller text means just like I know that HUGE text means loud.

How do you emphasis loud text? Shouldn't loud and quiet be opposites?

I'm sorry if you feel it's "fucking ugly" (cute, really), but in the end, it's your opinion, and one I disagree with, so I won't be not using them based on your "complaint".

I use them for maybe 2-3 bubbles every 5-10 pages, not for the whole comic, and I like the effect. On the other hand, making text tiny annoys me, because it makes it very hard for me to read - much more so than looking at solid black text on a bubble that's at 85-90% transparency.

For loud text, I do make it larger, bold, or change the color of the text or text bubble to match the mood of the words being spoken. It depends on the situation.

I'm not saying you have to do it my way. You said you hadn't ever had a complaint. Now you have.

Making text tiny is stupid. but going from this to this not so bad, is it?

RobertTidwell
I'm not saying you have to do it my way. You said you hadn't ever had a complaint. Now you have.

Making text tiny is stupid. but going from this to this not so bad, is it?

I actually can't read either of those, so no, I don't suppose one is worse than the other. =p

(Edit: Oh. You edited them while I was typing, lol. But still, my opinion stands: I don't like small text in comics. I wouldn't go any smaller than 9 or 10 point for any reason.)

And by "never had a complaint", I meant from readers, mostly, complaining specifically about my comic. Unless you are a reader, complaining specifically about my comic, in which case I will be happy to qualify you as my first and only complaint. =p

I read bits. I also fucked up on the coding thats why you couldnt read either one. I fixed the problem though. I stopped reading when it became a problem.

Fair enough :)

Frankly I don't give a crap either way...as long as I can look at it and..
1: Be able to read it.
2: Not cringe from bad color choices.

...though, I guess I always preferred plain white.....not sure why. I like transparent balloons when they aren't TOO see-through. Just a little transparency is the best.

most of the time transparent bubbles are not even an option for me , i usualy draw the bubbles into the original picture, it cuts down on how much crap i hav 2 ink ~!