Comments on: Free Comic Book Scripting Software

By: ekimmak

ekimmak — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:51:34 +0000

Strange. While working on my novel in MS Word, I used heading styles on the chapter titles. Whenever I dragged the scrollbar, it would tell me which chapter I was in, but can’t seem to find it now. And this is the third time I’ve tried to make this comment.

By: Comicbookguy117

Comicbookguy117 — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:16:50 +0000

“If you’re on a Mac and willing to drop a few bucks, Scrivener is a great option. Completely unstructured, it will “compile” your document into a script, a novel, a screenplay, or whatever you need. It lets you work however you like, and then produces the output you need, when you need it.”

This sounds absolutely perfect for me. But I’ve got a PC. Is there an equivalent peice of software for PC?

By: ekimmak

ekimmak — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:23:07 +0000

Hang on, I think I found a way around that… just need to remember it.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:14:55 +0000

“I tried CeltX and I really didn’t like it but I’m a novel writer, and not a comic book writer.” Yeah, I think CeltX’s extra features are a lot more useful for comic book writers than novelists.

One thing that I’d like to be able to do in Word but haven’t yet figured out is how to link multiple chapters into the same document without staring at a 70,000+ word document every time I want to edit something. (IE: I can do Page Up and Page Down very quickly with my keyboard, but I’d really love the equivalent for Chapter Up and Chapter Down as well).

By: K Perry

K Perry — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:29:29 +0000

I tried CeltX and I really didn’t like it but I’m a novel writer and not a comic book writer. There are plugins for MSWord and while they aren’t free, they are much better than CeltX. I bought a macro program for MS Word called WIZARDS FOR AUTHORS and it is the best tool ever for writers.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:57:46 +0000

How can you save the script as a .pdf? I’m not seeing that. (Do you have one of the paid versions?)

I did find the save-as-HTML feature, which is pretty clean.

By: jnyx

jnyx — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:27:44 +0000

I have been using Celtx for 2 years and recently found you can save the comic script in .pdf format (this is done within the software) which allows it to stay in comic format when printing and emailing it to illistrators or editors. As long as the person has adobe they can open it.

Also, if you have “readers” reading the dialog (for editing reasons), just adapt it to “stageplay” and they can focus on reading the dialog without gettin confused with panel description. I love this software, especially thr google gadget for adding reference images for my artist (so she luvs this software as well, makes collaborations much easier).

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:21:44 +0000

Paint.NET is free, but it's not as good as Photoshop, though.

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:38:50 +0000

B. Man once showed me Paint.NET, but I never really got into it. Is there anyway you could show me examples of works done with Paint.NET?

By: ikarus619x

ikarus619x — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:50:30 +0000

What about free comic art software?

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:28:14 +0000

Can you do notes on the title page? That might be one way you could take notes that aren’t related to any particular page.

By: Ragged Boy

Ragged Boy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:17:47 +0000

I’m currently using Celtx to organize my story for Showtime. I still doubt that I will actually type my script here, but I find it very useful for organization.

I don’t like that it wants me to write a page for each note that I make.

By: B. Mac

B. Mac — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:23:29 +0000

Hmm. I haven’t had any problems with that yet, Dforce. I include the panel count at the end of the paragraph of page description. Does that help?

By: Dforce

Dforce — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:00:28 +0000

B. Mac,

When, in Comic format, finishing a page that was labeled, say “(six panels),” is there any way to make it so that the next page you work on doesn’t automatically say “(six panels)” too, or do you have to guess how many panels its gonna take before you begin work on it? (The auto labeling only affects typeset view, though, so its not terribly annoying, but still…).

By: Cadet Davis

Cadet Davis — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:23:31 +0000

You can see an example of this in action by registering for a free Celtx Studio membership and then checking out our sample script here. Does this look easy to read and comment on?
My impression is no. 1. It's too hard to find the script here.
2. I didn't want to include my notes on each of the characters. I want my reviewers to evaluate my script. That's what a publisher will see, not these character notes.
3. It's annoying that people have to sign up before they can start commenting. Is that really necessary?
Here's how I would recommend doing it instead. Save your Celtx script as an HTML file, and upload that instead to a site like MediaFire. Then people can download your script pretty easily, and then you can give out easy links like this. Then we can handle comments through something like Microsoft Word.