Intro

Hey-hey!! This is my new guide for TIPS of the Month contest – the Techniques for Using Rulers & Special Rulers guide! And, basically, this is going to be a full-guide to all the rulers present in Clip Studio – we will review every ruler, their preferences and ways of using. And in the video you can check out the full demonstration with recorded explanation and subtitles - everything for your convenience! ^-^

I am so sorry for some lags in the video - I could not find the reason of that, I was rerendering it with different corrections about 10-12 times, but it's no use

Chapter 1 – Ways of Adding | Editing Rulers

First of all, we need to understand how to start working with rulers, and there are several ways to proceed.

1.1 Add a Ruler

The main way of adding rulers is to open the Ruler sub-window and add the rulers to the canvas by selecting the needed one.

Pay attention to the layer you are currently on – the rulers will be placed on the selected layer, though you can easily move them to a different one by simply dragging the ruler icon from one layer to another.

1.2 Edit Rulers

In the upper menu you can find the Layer ---> Ruler/Frame sub-menu which gives you access to many rulers related actions. So, you can create a selection from your ruler, delete it, make it visible or invisible, make it visible on all layers because by default it can be seen on the layer the ruler is on only; and many other things. Although, these functions are combined with several functions for working with frames – “Divide frame borders equally” and “Combine frames”.

Also, you can access the same window by clicking the right button of the mouse on any layer – the Ruler/Frame bar will be there as well.

1.3 Snapping

These three buttons on your screen are essential if you want to work with rulers. They are located in the quick access upper bar and I recommend you to keep the first and the second ones activated all the time. Here is what they do: while the first button is activated, your strokes WILL work with standard rulers and will be snapped to them; and the second button makes the same for the special rulers. If they are deactivated none of your strokes will “notice” the rulers on the layer. The third button does the same but for the Grid tool. We will get back to it a bit later.

Chapter 2 – Main Rulers

Now let’s take a closer look at the rulers themselves.

2.1 – Linear Ruler

This might be the simplest ruler among all – you build it by simply clicking on the place you need and dragging the mouse while holding the button. And so you create a line your strokes will stick to. There are plenty of ways to use it – but the main goal you reach with this ruler is a perfect line, strict and straight line.

2.2 – Curve Ruler

With this ruler you can place several dots of the ruler path, so they make a curved and complex shape. This is a perfect tool for those who are not good at drawing long smooth curves.

2.3 – Figure Ruler

Just like the Figure sub-window, this ruler consists of prepared shapes for your convenience. Regretfully, people can hardly draw perfect shapes like circle with their bare hands, so this ruler is a savior. Here you can choose from Ellipse/Circle, Square/Rectangle and Polygon/Rounded Polygon. Such shapes like Rectangle and Rounded Polygon can be customized – for example, you can control the level of their corners’ rounding.

2.4 – Ruler Pen

A stable brush that draws with rulers. A nice tool for cases when you need to draw perfectly same paths but on different layers and with different brushes (in case the vector functionality doesn’t give what you need). The Post Correction switch regulates the level of the ruler smoothing after you finish drawing it.

2.5 – Special ruler

Special ruler is a set of unique rulers that will save you up to hours of work. The list of its starts with the Parallel Line. When you place it on your canvas, you will see three parallel lines. But those are not the ruler’s borders – now you can actually draw parallel lines across whole canvas, and this three-lined look just helps you to define it among others.

Parallel Curve – basically, this the same ruler, but mixed with the regular curve ruler. So, now you can draw complex curved and parallel lines across the canvas. By the way, with this ruler the program allows you to choose its shape – will the corners be sharp, smooth, or will you draw them using the Quadratic Bezier aspects?

Multiple Curve – once again, this is the same ruler as the previous one but with some additions. For example, now the ruler recognizes when it makes a turn, and so it will make an effect of bending – amazing decision for drawing hair, ropes and ribbons.

Radial Line – basically a dot that makes all your strokes lead towards it. A great option for drawing light source or manga/comics action effects.

Radial Curve – an interesting combination of the standard curve and the Radial Line. Now you can build your own path the stroke will go towards the radial point.

Concentric Circle – with this ruler you can build a circle or an ellipse of any shape and draw multiple parallel and perfect in terms of each other shapes. They will have a common center and so they will lie perfectly on the canvas.

2.6 – Perspective Ruler

A ruler that most of artist always use – you can put limitless number of points and draw amazing and physically correct landscapes, architecture concepts and other drawings. And you can also add this ruler through the mentioned Ruler/Frame bar, but only a 1/2/3 point(s) ruler at a time. The main difference between a 1 point perspective ruler and the Radial Line ruler is that you still can draw in different directions with the perspective one.

2.7 – Symmetrical Ruler

Another artists’ favorite – create wonderful patterns using up to 16-pieces symmetry and implement them to your artwork. For example, you can quickly draw just 2-3 different butterflies and distort them in a way they look like dozens of different ones.

Chapter 3 – Guide Ruler

Although you can find the guide ruler in the same list of rulers, I skipped it on purpose because I wanted to talk about it a bit more. So, one of the most demanded functions we all want to see in Clip Studio Paint is centering (or positioning) of objects relatively other objects and the canvas.

Regretfully, we have no idea when this new system parameter will be added to the program, and thus it causes a certain discomfort, especially if you are a logo or a merch designer.

But while we are waiting for it to be added, I’d like to share a small tip that involves the guide rulers.

First, add at least two of them to your workspace. You can do this from the Create Ruler tool, sure, but there is a faster way if you need only one or two. To use this method, make sure the ruler (View ---> Ruler) is activated and simply drag the guide ruler from it (click and drag) like you can see here:

The Guide ruler is also available from the Special Ruler list.

Once done, you will notice that the guide ruler can only be perfectly vertical and horizontal, and that it is endless.

Now comes the fun part – due to its nature, you can control the position of this ruler on the canvas. Go to the Operation window and click on this ruler. You will notice three new bars in the Tool Property window that represent the axes and the angle. Since our canvas is 5000x5000, set the Center X of the vertical guide and the Center Y of the horizontal guide to 2500. Now they cross in the center of the canvas.

I took the butterfly from earlier to demonstrate you how it works. You should simply put the image in a way a small cross in its center lies perfectly on the crossroad of the guide rulers. There is an important note: if your canvas has an even number of pixels – you will have a one pixel error since the canvas simply doesn’t have this “middle pixel”.

And that’s all – now your object is located perfectly in the center, and you can do the same trick if you need to locate it perfectly in any other part of the work – simply choose the needed pixel of crossing.

And if you have any doubts about the fact the object is centered, you can switch the Grid on (View ---> Grid) and make sure the distances from the opposite edges of the canvas to the borders of the object are identical.

It should also be mentioned that the guide rulers can be deactivated. Meaning they will still be visible, but they will not make your strokes follow them. Simply press on this tiny button and your ruler will change its color which means it has been deactivated.

Chapter 4 – Grid

And since we have already turned the Grid on, let us talk about it as well since it can also be deemed as a ruler. Here are several ways of how you can work with it:

1. Remember the three snapping buttons? Get back to them and activate the third one. From now on all your strokes will deem the Grid as a ruler and will go according to its lines.

2. You can move the grid along with the side ruler by opening the Move Layer ---> Move Grid window and dragging it.

3. You can customize your grid (as well as other rulers) in the File ---> Preferences ---> Ruler/Unit window. There you can choose the colors the active and non-active rulers, grid etc., as well as change the opacity of all the rulers.

4. In the View ---> Grid/Ruler Settings you can choose the positioning of the grid, the sizes of its cells (the Gap parameter) and the number of the divisions each cell has.

Chapter 5 – Custom Rulers

Although there are not so many of them in the assets catalog, you can still find some extremely useful and interesting rulers made by Clip Studio users.

Here is a couple of those I got interested in.

The first one (Spiral ruler (Five petals) 五花弁螺旋定規) is rather simple but elegant. It is a flower-like ruler. With this in your arsenal, you can draw simple petals or patterns since it makes an interesting volume effect if you draw through the whole ruler.

The second one (部屋定規) is so massive I couldn’t believe something like this could’ve existed. At a first glance it might look like a typical box that represents a shape of a room, but if we turn the visibility of the rulers on you will see that this room is a perfect field of perspective with a whole grid of active rulers.

On top of that – if you scroll down to the layouts you will see that all its elements are customizable – these red and blue lines are in fact 3D objects that can be used as a hint for objects you want to place in your room. The walls and the ceiling can be moved and changed in sizes as well as the room’s area. This material is a perfect combination of two of Clip Studio’s unique advantages – a diverse set of rulers and the 3D objects workspace.

Conclusion

As you can see, the ways of using the rulers are limited by your imagination only. I hope my rulers full guide was interesting and my examples of using were clear. See you soon in a new guide!