Manga Studio Debut 4 - Win/Mac

I'm just starting to use this software, but from what I've seen, it's worth the money. Conceivably, you could do an entire comic from start to finish, from pencils, to inks, to coloring, to lettering, with this program and never have to touch pen to paper. Plus, if you register it online, you get extra content for free. However, i wouldn't entertain the thought of buying or using this unless I had a pen tablet. not sure how you could use this with any efficiency without one. Debut doesn't have a vector option, as the more negative reviews state, but if you are like me and just love to draw comics for fun, then that's something you probably won't miss. I draw comics as a ministry, so i want to do a good job. I think this is definitely a useful tool. There may be a slight learning curve at first, but there's tutorials found online that can help you figure it out pretty quick. the menu interface is very very similar to Photoshop, which made it pretty easy for me. You probably won't be disappointed with this. just my two cents.

If you want a toy, then get this version, but if you'd like a really great tool for drawing manga, then get the EX version. The EX version may be much more expensive, but if you're a serious artist, then you might as well throw away your money if you're going to buy this version. To give you an example of how many features that this version is missing: it doesn't have vectoring, an eyedropper tool, or even a gradiation tool! Check the website's manual for a list of features it doesn't have.

Skip this version, buy the EX version.

Manga Studio Debut 4 is the closest thing to a perfect sketchbook replacement on the market. A 70 dollar bamboo pen tablet and a 50 dollar Manga Studio Debut 4 program, and you have enough(assuming you have a sufficient computer) to stop buying sketchbooks for as long as you want to.

Manga Studio Debut 4 is fast enough at pencil, pen, and paintbrush/airbrush(airbrush is hidden in the paintbrush options) tools. This makes it perfectly reasonable to replace a sketchbook. Add the storybook files of 32 pages, with the option of seeing your pages to your left while working on your picture to the right and you've got a tight sketchbook.

Does it do panels? yes. Custom panels? yes. Tones? yes. Custom Tones? yes. Layers? yes. Ruler layers, Grid Layer, Selection Layer? yes. Layer Opacity? yes. Layer color? yes. Advanced curve settings for pen/pencil tools? yes. Does the brush have materials that are fun to play with in B&W and color? yes. Speed lines? yes. Does it have print settings? yes, a host of them. Could you make your own comic? As easy as a comic is to make. Can the program draw for you? Actually it kind of can... you can make selections, then paste tones inside the selections, and you can subtract selections from within a selection and add selections outside of the selection... and have the program tone or material all your selections. First... this is where it's a bit slow... and two, that's kind of overusing the feature.

Weak tool points of the tools present.
Text - for whatever reason... text rotation seems only present in the EX version. text rotation?? oh, come on... you'll probably work a page at 90 degrees for comfort. Just sketch your own text, or work a page vertically. Balloons? yes. Sizing? yes. Multiple language input? yes. Vertical text? yes. So everything that made sense with text except rotation was included in the text tool.
Line tools - there is no such thing as a decent pen tool in this program, nor in the EX version. However, you can use the polygon line tool to create custom panels. And the Curve line tool makes tracing possible for Ruler work on the Ruler layer(a custom layer of saved paths for line work that is unique to Manga Studio)

Conclusion: Amazing digital sketchbook... better in page organization with 32 page story files than any program on the market. With it seemingly overpowered, the lacking rotation on the text tool is a hair puller.

Tips: With all that sketching practice in your tablet, you may want to animate your sketches... and a free program called "Pencil" will do that for you.

Update1: IllustStudio is the companion to Manga Studio. It is available in Japanese only. The next software to come will probably merge the two.
Update2: Recommended this application for a short newsletter a friend was creating.
Update3: Added Pictures.
Update4: OpenCanvas5.5 has an easy save layer function. OpenCanvas5.5 is probably better as a sketchbook replacement. Manga Studio is better for print/comics.
Update5: Manga Studio 5 is now out and it's finally 64bit and multicore for Windows 7 64bit users. !! Manga Studio 5 has blend modes. !!