Clip Studio Guide

Viewing and Adjusting a Story in CLIP STUDIO PAINT EX

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DNHills

Hello there! Welcome back to the Clip Studio Guide.

This entry into the Guide continues the discussion of how to work with Story Files in Clip Studio Paint EX (Part one, explaining how to create a New Story, can be found here).

This next part covers the Page Manager, the central hub that is used to view, open, and navigate around the Story. Then, I explain how the Story can be adjusted, by adding, removing, rearranging, replacing, and adjusting the Pages within the Story.

Before We Begin

I want to note some terminology that I will be using in this tutorial before we get started:

Single-clicking on a Page in the Page Manager selects it. In order to select multiple pages, the Control key (for Windows Users), or the Command (⌘) key (for Mac/iPad users) needs to be held down on the keyboard while clicking on the items. For brevity’s sake, I will refer to this action as Ctrl/⌘+Click in this tutorial.

I will refer to the Main Menu’s Story sub-menu as the Story Menu. Functions on the Story Menu can also be brought up as a pop-up menu by right-clicking on any place in the Page Manager. If the function requires a specific page, first select it in the Page Manager, then right-click or use the Story Menu.

Viewing and Opening Pages in the Page Manager

Creating a new Story (or opening an existing one) will bring up the Page Manager.

Each Page in the Story is represented on the Page Manager by a thumbnail. The size of the thumbnails can be adjusted by clicking the + and - Zoom buttons, or by use the Zoom Slider, all located at the base of the Page Manager

To open any Page in the Page Manager, double-click on the Page thumbnail, or select the Page, and then select Open Page from the Story Menu.

Generally, only one Page can be opened at a time. To open additional Pages, select a (or Ctrl/⌘+Click each) page from the Page Manager, then select Open Page in New Tab from the Story Menu.

Once a Page is open, The Page Manager can then be closed. It can be brought back at any time by selecting Page Manager from the Story Menu.

Positioning the Page Manager on the Workspace

By default, the Page Manager will appear in a tab separate from the currently open page.

However, the Page Manager can be kept in view, by placing it next to the Page. There are two ways this can be set up:

1. If the Page Manager and a Page is open on the workspace, click and drag the Page Manager’s tab over the top, bottom, left, or right side of the page. A red line will appear along whatever side the tab is hovering over. Once the the red line is visible, release the tab, and the Page Manager will lock into its new placement.

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Page Navigation

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Adjusting the Story

Now that we know how how to navigate around the story, let’s talk about the managing part of the Page Manager. Specifically, how to adjust the Story to fit any changes, planned or unplanned.

What I personally think is cool about the Page Manager is how robust it is. It is quite easy to rearrange pages on the fly, delete pages that are no longer needed, add new pages, and even add pages with different formats or file types!

Want to merge two separate pages into a spread? No problem!

Want to split a spread into separate pages? Easy!

Need to adjust the page dimensions? Done.

Need to re-adjust the entire setup of the Story? That can be done as well.

So, let us break down how to adjust the Story, using the Page Manager and the Story Menu.

Adding Pages

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Add Page (Detail): This option provides a little more flexibility when adding to the Story. In addition to having the option to set up the canvas and print guide different than what is currently in the story, multiple Pages can also be created. When selected from the Main Menu, the Add Page (Detail) dialog box will appear, which is a simplified version the New Page dialog box (minus the story information section).

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Deleting Pages

If there are too many pages in the story, remove them! To do this:

1. Select the Page to be removed in the Page Manager and then select. For multiple Pages, Ctrl/⌘+Click each Page.

2. Select Delete Page from the Story Menu.

When the confirmation dialog box appears, press OK to delete the page(s). Note that this cannot be undone; once the pages are deleted, they cannot be brought back.

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Importing Pages

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Replacing Pages

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Duplicating Pages

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Rearranging Pages

What happens if a new or imported Page was set in the wrong place on the Page Manager, or art was created before realizing the wrong Page was opened? Clip Studio makes it very easy to readjust Pages to their proper order. To do this:

1. Select the Page on the Page Manager. For multiple Pages, Ctrl/⌘+Click each Page.

2. Drag the Page(s) to the new position on the Page Manager. A red line should appear, noting where the Page(s) will be placed.

3. Release.

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Sorting Page File Names

While the page numbers may have been adjusted in the Page Manager, the Pages’ file names have not. For example, if Page 8 is now Page 3, the file name is still page 0008.clip.

Fortunately, it is possible to rename the files to match the new page numbers. To do this, select Sort Page File Names from the Story Menu. Once completed, a dialog box will appear, noting that the file names have been renamed.

Combining Pages

When covering how to set up a new Story in the program, I noted an option that each set of concurrent Pages could be joined together as a spread. Even if that option was not chosen when the Story was created, it is still possible to join two separate pages together into a spread.

** NOTE **

The two Pages must be concurrent in the Story (in the Page Manager, concurrent Pages are ones that are grouped together in a box).

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To combine Pages:

1. Select one of the two concurrent Pages from the Page Manager.

2. From the Main Menu, select Combine Pages… from the Story Menu. This will bring up the Combine Pages dialog box.

3. Set a gap (if needed) between pages by checking the Align Crop Mark checkbox, and entering a value in the corresponding text box. If the Pages are to meet Trim Line to Trim Line, check the box, and enter a value of 0.

4. Remove any blank layers from the separate pages before combining them, by checking the Delete Layer With No Drawing checkbox.

5. Press OK when done.

Once combined, the spread will contain two folders, marked left and right. Each folder contains layers that were from the original, separate page (minus any blank layers, if that option was checked on the dialog box), and a mask, blocking off the other half of the spread. These folders can be left as is (if the artwork from either side is to remain separate from the other, or the layers can be rearranged as needed to cover the entire spread.

Splitting Pages

It is also possible to split a spread into separate pages. To do this:

1. Select the Page spread in the Page Manager.

2. Select Split Pages from the Story Menu. This will bring up the Split Pages dialog box.

3. Checking the Delete Layer with No Drawing checkbox, if no blank layers are to be included with the separate Pages.

4. Press OK when done.

Once completed, the spread should now be separate Pages in the Page Manager. Any artwork that was on the spread will be split between the two Pages.

Changing the Page and Work Settings

A significant perk to working with Story Files is the ability to edit the page information in bulk (as opposed to editing each page’s canvas size, resolution, and/or print guide individually). This is especially nice when working on a large story (I certainly would not want to go through and change 100 pages one at a time. :) )

Clip Studio Paint provides two options to adjust the Story in bulk: by adjusting just the Page settings, or by adjusting both the Page and general Story settings.

Changing Page Settings

The Change Basic Page Settings functions is used when all that needs to be done is to change only the canvas and print guide information on one or more Pages in the Story. To do this:

1. Select a page from the Page Manager, for multiple pages, Shift+Click or Ctrl/⌘+Click each page. To select all pages, select the first page, then Shift+Click the last page.

2. Select Change Basic Page Settings from the Story Menu. This will bring up the Basic Page Settings Dialog box.

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