How to Make a Manga: From Idea to Finished Pages (2026)

Manga sells on its hook. "A ramen chef who is secretly a ninja" tells a reader the genre, the tone and the question the story will answer. Write yours as one sentence, then pick the audience, because it shapes everything else:

These are magazine audiences, not rules. Plenty of shōnen readers are women and plenty of seinen readers are teenagers.

Your lead will appear in hundreds of panels, so make a model sheet: front, side and back views, five expressions, and the outfit. In black and white, characters are told apart by silhouette and hair shape, not colour, so give each one a different outline: spiky, long and straight, a bob, a hat.

Stuck on names? The character name generator gives real Japanese names with their kanji and meanings.

Japanese manga artists plan a chapter as a name (ネーム, nēmu): every page sketched roughly with panels, stick figures and the dialogue. Editors read the name before any finished art is drawn, because this is where pacing is decided.

• Weekly magazine chapters usually run about 18 to 20 pages; monthly chapters 30 to 45.
• End the chapter on a hook: a reveal, a threat, a question.
• Give the big moment a large panel or a whole page, and put it after a page turn so it surprises.

Manga reads right to left, top to bottom: the book opens from what Western readers call the back, the first panel is at the top right, and balloons inside a panel are read right to left too. Our guide to manga reading order has diagrams.

• Vary panel sizes. Equal grids feel flat; one wide panel after three small ones feels like a breath.
• Slant a gutter or let a character break the frame for action.
• Don't put more than about six panels on a page.

Professional manga is drawn on B4 manuscript paper (257 × 364 mm) with a printed inner frame, and printed smaller, which makes lines look finer. Digitally, work at the print size at 600 dpi or more; the page size calculator gives you the pixel size with bleed. Use thicker lines for figures in front and thinner ones for backgrounds, and solid black for hair, night and shadow.

Manga is printed in black and white, so grey comes from screentone: tiny dots that read as grey from a distance. Use it for skin shadows, clothes, skies and mood. A gradient tone behind a character shows emotion. Make free tones with the screentone maker.

Speed lines show motion; focus lines (集中線, shūchūsen) radiate from a face or object to say "this matters".

Manga balloons are tall ovals because Japanese is written vertically. In English editions, lettering is usually all caps in a comic font. Place the first balloon at the top right of the panel, keep about 25 words per balloon at most, and never cover a face. Sound effects are drawn into the art; see comic sound effects.

• Online: post chapters on your own site, social media, or platforms that accept page-format comics. A regular schedule matters more than a long first chapter.
• Print: zines and dōjinshi are often A5 or B5; print-on-demand services print paperback volumes. Check bleed and safe area with your printer.
• Contests: Japanese publishers run international manga contests every year; check each publisher's rules and page limits.

Yes, for drafts or for writers who don't draw. In the Panelo manga maker you type a premise; it writes the script, draws a reference sheet for each character, draws black-and-white pages with screentone that read right to left, and letters the balloons as real text you can edit. The first 4 panels are free. One caution: in the US, images made only by AI can't be copyrighted, so your own writing and edits are what you can protect.