Discover the Top 5 Drawing Apps for Comics, Manga, and Webtoons

This guide presents five popular drawing apps for creating comics, manga, and webtoons. From professional art software to free or simple apps, learn how to get started so you have the best tool to draw and share your story.

When creating a comic or webtoon composed of tens or even hundreds of pages, drawing apps make it easier to manage and edit your story. You can save page templates, modify already drawn lines, colors, and shapes, and even integrate 3D tools or image resources to help you bring your story onto the page. Even if you don’t have a graphics tablet, there are professional-level drawing apps available for mobile tablets and smartphones.

Here are some points to consider when picking a drawing app for comics or webtoons.

1. Ease of use

Creating a comic or webtoon takes a lot of time, so you should make sure to pick a drawing app you feel comfortable with, whether that’s a simple and clean UI or a more traditional desktop appearance with all the tools visible.

2. Pens and brushes

As well as finding the perfect sketch and lining brushes for your artwork, you might also want to consider the range of stamp or pattern brushes for a variety of effects in your story.

3. Layer tools

Layers are essential for managing your comic projects, including panel lines, characters, backgrounds, and dialog. Make sure to choose an app that helps you manage your project effectively.

4. Templates and rulers

Although not necessary, templates, guides, and rulers can be a huge help when drawing things like panels and effect lines. Choosing an app that lets you save your own templates will be even more helpful for your workflow.

5. Text and balloon features

Text is essential to most comics and webtoons, so check for font support and formatting tools in the drawing app. Some drawing apps even include preset speech bubble shapes or tools.

Clip Studio Paint is widely used by professional manga, comic, and webtoon artists. With tools for comic panels, speech bubbles, detailed stamp brushes, and 3D models, you can create comics, manga, and webtoons of any genre and any level of complexity. The app also offers a 3D-print preview for comic books and a real time smartphone preview for webtoons, so you can check your artwork as you create.

For beginners, the tablet and smartphone versions offer a minimal Simple Mode with the essentials for drawing, as well as a Studio Mode where you can access more of the comic features. You can try it out for up to 6 months free.

Procreate is the staple of iPad drawing apps. Although it lacks dedicated functions for comic creation, this app is easy to use and includes standard drawing tools such as versatile brushes and layer options. Depending on your device, app limitations may make it difficult to create comics and webtoons that require many panels and layers, but it offers a simple Page Assist feature to swipe between separate canvases in a single document.

Krita is a free, open-source software for Windows, macOS, and Android that includes basic features for creating digital artwork. The app includes templates for comic layouts, but lacks a paneling tool. You can freehand draw your panels or use the grid tools as a base.

This free art app has basic features for drawing comics, such as panel assets and screentones. It includes some templates for comic projects and the paid version offers additional cloud space for larger projects. Medibang Paint also includes some features for multiple page projects. However, this app does not offer as many brushes or 3D models as others in this list.

Adobe Photoshop is a graphics software used by professionals in design and photo editing. Best used on a desktop computer, it is very function-heavy and most suitable for intermediate and advanced users. Although not specialized for drawing or painting, the Pen tool can be used for smooth vector shapes and paths. Photoshop is fully CMYK compatible and has good image editing and color correction tools as it was originally designed for photo processing.

To learn more about each drawing application as well as more drawing apps, check out the following article.

Top Drawing Apps and Software in 2024 (Free & Paid)

Those were our 5 top apps for creating your own comic, manga, or webtoon. If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend looking up tutorials or researching what app your favorite comic creator uses. Most importantly, don’t forget to test out the features of different apps with a free trial.