Once upon a time, there was a program called Manga Studio. Rings any bells? No? That’s okay, by this point, only old-school artists will remember the previous name of software known as Clip Studio Paint.
For many years, CSP has been a go-to program for illustrators and artists, both amateur and professional. After I acquiesced it myself, it’s no brainer why. First, it comes with a 30 days-free trial, which allows you to test both the Pro and Ex versions to your heart content. Second, the purchase process is very quick and easy; if you don’t own a credit card or a debit card that manages either USD or EUR, you can buy the program using your Paypal account.
Clip Studio Paint is a software that adapts to your needs, rather than the other way around. i.e: the pen pressure configuration, the auto-color feature, filling lasso, the color palette (you can configure and own more than one), the color slide, color history, neutral color (allows you to pick up to four colors and automatically produces a palette, smoothly transitioning between them), the color aprox it’s ideal for finding tones and if you’re bad with poses, they got 3D modes you can use for reference.
Wrong color? You can change it with a click. Want to apply a half-tone? What about a border effect? Same thing. It’s pretty fast and easy.
CSP also comes with a wide catalog of downloadable materials, whose quality is NOT determined by whether or not they’re paid. I, for example, got some killer brushes and patters for free.
Wanna share your art in the CSP cloud? You can. What about making your own Fanzine? Done. Directly Publishing in Kindle? Uh-huh. You can convert your illustrations to E-pub format as well. All this for 50 USD (CSP Pro) and 219 USD (CSP EX) respectively.
No, don’t panic. Calm down, pals. Clip Studio often has 50% sales, which take place around May-June and September-October, meaning: if you’re smart and patient you can get at the very least the Pro version for 25 USD, like I did.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that CSP comes in two formats: one-time purchase and, now, monthly fee. The monthly fee costs 1 USD.
If you’re paying for any program produced by Adobe, I don’t have to tell you how cheap CSP is in comparison, do I?
For iPad, you got a monthly price of 5 USD and annual price of 25 USD for the Pro version, and monthly price of 9 USD and annual price of 72 USD for the EX version. Still way cheaper than Photoshop, but you can go with Procreate if you want a cheap, one-time purchase and quality software (10 USD).
You can operate CSP in multiple devices. The con is that you can’t have the program open in two devices at the same time. And if you purchase, say, a CSP license for Windows, obviously it won’t work in Mac. If you want a Mac license, then buy a Mac license from the start.
If you aren’t interested in the Ex version, but change your mind after a while after purchasing the Pro version, don’t worry: you can upgrade for Pro to Ex. No need to purchase the Ex license anew. Upgrading only charges you the difference between princes, and if you upgrade during an off-sale, you can do it by half the price. Nice, right?
Now, to wrap it up, I’ll go like this: Clip Studio Paint kicks ass, and now you know why.