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Comics & manga

Screentone manga comic art with AI

Black-and-white manga: clean G-pen inking, expressive large eyes, speed lines and screentone dot shading in dramatic, panel-ready compositions. Pure black and white.

kdpbook.io can illustrate your whole KDP book in the manga (screentone) style: each main character first gets a reference sheet in this style, and every page is drawn from those sheets so the characters look the same from cover to last page. It is recommended for 2 of the 36 book types (comic & graphic novel and manga) and prints in black & white only.

Family:
Comics & manga
Color:
Black & white only
Audiences:
Middle grade, Teens (young adult), Adults
Book types:
2 recommended
Use this styleAll styles
Manga (screentone) illustration sample: a young fox reading an open book on the mossy roots of an old oak, in black-and-white manga inking with screentone shading and bright light rays through the trees
Every style draws the same subject, a fox with a book under an oak, so you can compare them
The look

When to use manga (screentone)

Clean G-pen inking, speed lines and screentone dot shading in pure black and white.

Best for

Manga volumes and one-shots, and black-and-white comics, for middle-grade readers and up.

Better avoided for

Color picture books and toddler books.

Made for

Books that suit manga (screentone)

In print

How manga (screentone) prints on KDP

  • Screentones are fine dot patterns, and resizing a toned page can create moiré (wavy interference patterns): avoid enlarging or shrinking manga pages after they are drawn.

Every illustration is prepared at 300 DPI or more, as KDP asks. Which interior suits it: premium vs standard color, the printing cost calculator and how to choose the trim size and paper.

Your brief

Prompt tips for manga (screentone)

Same characters on every page, text typeset over the art: how every style works.

Three tips

  • Describe emotions with manga shorthand: sweat drops, sparkles, speed lines.
  • Leave some calm background in each panel: the dialogue is typeset on top of the art.
  • Keep scenes to a few characters per panel for clarity.

Similar styles

Other comics & manga styles, and how each one differs from manga (screentone).

  • Ligne claire (BD) illustration sample: a young red fox reading an open book on the mossy roots of an old oak, in uniform clean outlines and flat bright colors, with a hillside village, a castle and a lake behind
    Ligne claire (BD)

    Uniform clean outlines, flat colors and detailed backgrounds, where manga (screentone) has G-pen inking with screentone dot shading.

  • Anime illustration sample: a young red fox reading an open book on the mossy roots of an old oak, with crisp anime line art and two-tone cel shading under a bright blue sky with cumulus clouds and a lake town
    Anime

    Crisp line art, two-tone cel shading and vibrant color, where manga (screentone) has G-pen inking with screentone dot shading.

  • 1930s rubber-hose cartoon illustration sample: a grinning rubber-hose fox with pie-cut eyes and white gloves reading an open book on the roots of an old oak, in orange, teal and cream
    1930s rubber-hose cartoon

    Bendy rubber-hose limbs and pie-cut eyes from 1930s cartoons, where manga (screentone) has G-pen inking with screentone dot shading.

  • Noir ink, one spot color illustration sample: a young fox reading on the roots of an old oak on a rainy moonlit night, all in black and white ink except the crimson book
    Noir ink, one spot color

    Stark black ink with a single red accent, where manga (screentone) has G-pen inking with screentone dot shading.

  • Pixel art illustration sample: a young red fox reading an open book on the mossy roots of an old oak, in 16-bit pixel art with a castle and mountains on the horizon
    Pixel art

    Crisp square pixels and dithered shading of 16-bit games, where manga (screentone) has G-pen inking with screentone dot shading.

About manga (screentone)

Which books suit the Manga (screentone) style?

Manga (screentone) is offered for comic & graphic novel, manga. You can still pick it for any other book type, or describe your own style.

Can Manga (screentone) be printed in black and white?

Yes. Manga (screentone) is drawn in black and white from the start, so it prints cleanly on KDP's black & white interiors and costs less to print than color.

Does manga in this style read right to left?

No. Pages and panels read left to right, like most English-language manga, in the printed book. Right-to-left reading order isn't offered.

Why screentone instead of gray shading?

Screentone dots are the classic manga look and print as crisp black dots, where soft gray gradients would turn muddy on a black-and-white interior.

Make it with kdpbook

Illustrate your book in manga (screentone).

Describe your book, keep this style, and watch every page get painted with the same characters.

Use this style

2,000 free credits · no card required