General Scanlation Guide

Made by Manticore#3017
Last edited 4. February 2023
Preface
Hello fellow scanlators and future scanlators, I've made a general and easy guide for people who
don't know how to properly and easily do a scanlation.
Of course it's not only a guide for new people but also for people who are already scanlators.
They can use this guide and add some parts to their working process or learn new few things.
Keep in mind that each scanlation group and each person works differently and does certain
steps differently. You will also have to adapt to their processes. Therefore this is only a general
guide and not mandatory! This guide is based for manga! (and mostly for Photoshop)
Workflow
Programs to use:
Use Photoshop, CSP(Clip Studio Paint) or Gimp (I recommend Photoshop)
Where to upload: Mangadex, Dynasty Reader, your own site
Guide - How to rip digital raws
Don't use Screenshots
Use:
1. Hakuneko
(For various free raw sites like [Link], [Link], etc)
(You can see on the site or in the application the supported sites.)

2. [Link] (like Hakuneko)

(You can see on the site the supported sites.)

3. For e-books purchased from Bookwalker

→ Ask AthK#0422 → buy the volume as a gift → send AthK the code and
AthK will rip it for you if you ask nicely.
Or:
3.1. Download the BW-downloader-chrome-v0.3.2.7z from this site.
3.2. Unzip the file.
3.3. Open Powershell or Cmd
3.4. Navigate to the unzipped folder with cd. For example:
cd C:\Users\*your user*\Downloads\Chrome-bin\
3.5. Type in:
.\[Link] --user-data-dir=c:\bw-downloader-profile --no-sandbox
3.6. Open [Link], log in and open the manga you want.
3.7. Press F12, select the Console
3.8. Type in:
window.i=0;setInterval(()=>{[Link].a6l.m
oveToPage(window.i);[Link](window.i);window.i++;},3000)
3.9. Go to C:\bw_export_data in your Explorer and there you will find your
images.
Guide - Buying physical raws
Methods:
● Use Tenso
● The site itself offers international shipping
● Go to japan and buy some there

Guide - How to rip physical raws

- Ironing board method

Guide - Scanning physical raws

Use a good scanner.
For example:
Scanner: Canon 9000F mkII
For normal pages, scan at 600 dpi grayscale to lossless PNG

Guide - Cleaning
It is important to understand that there are three types of cleaning.
There is denoising digital raws (+upscaling), bubble cleaning and cleaning physical
raws. Set the image to grayscale for black and white images.

Denoising(+Upscaling)
Denoising is an important step for good quality.
The raw will be denoised before being packed into Photoshop, CSP or Gimp!
When upscaling, the image should end up (as I recommend) being at least
1120x1600 and a maximum of 1680x2400 (A 7:10 format like mangas are).
If the raw is already big enough just leave it as it is.

Use:
Waifu2x-Caffe (You will need a Nvidia GPU for CUDA)
(Download CUDA from the official Nvidia site)
Settings:
- Denoise Level 1
- CUnet Model
- TTA Mode
You can adjust the processing speed if necessary, otherwise leave the rest of the
settings as they are.
It’s already so good that other programs are worse, so don't use other programs.
Other models are a bit less good but a bit faster. I recommend the CUnet Model.

Detailed guide
Bubble Cleaning
Create a new layer or duplicate the image layer to clean the bubbles.
Then just clean the bubbles properly.
If you are lazy and good with the Windows Terminal use this one.
Or use a linux system and the terminal.
(You will need a Nvidia GPU for CUDA)
(Download CUDA from the official Nvidia site)

Cleaning Physical Raws

To learn how to properly clean the pages, the guides from Bakkin (for Photoshop)
and tabv (for Gimp) are very helpful.
You can automate the straightening process with this and the page cropping process
with this.
(I recommend you to use Anaconda or a linux system for the automation processes.)
You can also use Waifu2x-Caffe with almost the same settings as in the denoise
section but with a level 3 denoise to clean up the images a bit.
To simplify the process with layers, layer creating, renaming, folders, etc on many
pages you should record actions and then apply them again and again.

You can also read this guide, which is like the Bakkin guide only in long and messy.

Guide - Redrawing
For redrawing can be used, besides Photoshop, CSP (or Gimp) but it should then be
exported into the format the typesetter wants it in.
To simplify the process with layers, layer creating, renaming, folders, etc on many
pages you should record actions and then apply them again and again.
I recommend using a drawing tablet with a pen.
To learn how to properly redraw, this guide from Bakkin is very helpful.
Look closely at the pixels to redraw precisely and perfectly!
You can also read this guide.

Spot Healing Brush Tool (CAF): To quickly and easily redraw things.

Pen Tool: To quickly and easily draw normal and curved lines.

Clone Stamp Tool: To easily copy patterns and things from the image.

Gradient Tool: To draw gradients.

Things you couldn't redraw can be covered up by the typesetter.

Here are some patterns. (Just download the .pat, double click on it and you will find
the patterns in photoshop in the patterns section.) Scale the patterns to find the right
match.
Here are some screentones.
Guide - Translating
Don’t use machine translation (Google Translate, DeepL, and other automated
translation tools without any competency in Japanese language and grammar), if you
are going to release something. You will end up with significant translation errors and
frequently misinterpreted text. MTL only gives the appearance of a proper
translation, but an incorrect translation will be incorrect no matter how much you
“correct” the English. Don’t use [Link] either.

Readers don't always know everything about, for example, Japanese culture, so
write notes for the readers.
For SFX-Translation you can use this.
Translate the text in the order you would read the manga and then write it down in
that order as well. Don’t forget punctuation!

Japanese is not the same as English so use this Jap-En Style Sheet and study it.
If you have really studied it, I have nothing more to say here.

Guide - Proofreading
Should be a native english speaker or a second japanese translator to look over the
translation again
Look out for:
- Typos
- Weird/Wrong spelling
- Choice of words
- Missing words
- Missing punctuation
- incorrect meaning
- Try to shorten the text to fit in the bubble without losing the meaning
- Try to find if necessary different translations
Guide - Script
The script should look like this (for this manga chapter), if the translator has
translated like in the translation guide. Don't include the whole Japanese text! Don't
write unnecessary notes for the readers in it. (2. example) (Formatting)

Guide - Typesetting
For typesetting you can use TyperTools (v.1.4.4.) or Typesetterer.
Since I use TyperTools I will go a bit further into it.

TyperTools (Windows)
You can use my setup and fonts. To import my setup go to settings in TyperTools and
import them. (Don’t forget to install the fonts.) Import your script and select the line.
With the Magic Wand Tool or the Marquee Tool , select the area (usually
the bubbles) in which you want the text to be and then press CTRL + WIN.
For recentering, select the area, select the desired text layer and press ALT + WIN.

Fonts and Font choice

It's important when working on a series for a long time to use the same fonts over
and over again to keep it consistent.
Stick to the given fonts when your group or a person sets the fonts.
However, if you can decide for yourself, choose a good main font, for example CC
Wild Words. Change the font when the font is also changed in Japanese.
If the mangaka doesn't change fonts, you can stick to the bubbles and then always
change fonts on other types of bubbles.
For example:
- "Yikes" for yells / edgy fonts
- "Kristen ITC” for thoughts / thin fonts
Never use non-comic fonts and never use "Comic Sans", "Manga Temple" and
"Anime Ace"!

Here are more fonts and the Comicraft Font Sheet 2021.
Lettering
Don’t use text boxes! Use point text instead!
(Just click with the type tool on the image and start typing.)
Put all your text layers into a folder!

1. Font size
Don't overcrowd the bubble and leave your text room to breathe, but also don't make
font sizes too small so as it's difficult to read on smaller screens.
Sometimes a typesetter will need to work back-and-forth with the translator or
proofreader to ensure that text can be typeset properly by moving content around
different bubbles, or by adjusting the wordings to make things shorter or to make
long words easier to place.
1.1. Shaping
Try to make the text follow the bubble contour.
Use hyphens if needed. (More in the hyphens section.)

1.2. Centering
Center the text in the bubble. Center it based on the way it's centered for you. You
can hold down CTRL while you have the move tool selected to see how centered it
is, but don't rely on it too much and always center based on your eyes.

2. Leading
Leave it at “(Auto)” and use the (7.) justification instead.

3. Kerning
Set the kerning to "Optical".
Certain fonts have a strange kerning on "Metrics", like the font "SFToontime".
4. Character tracking
This is used to stretch or tighten the letters.
Sometimes, a font's default kerning is not very good, and some manual per-letter
tracking changes would be required. A common occurrence is with the font " augie".
There you need a character tracking of 60 for the ellipses.

5. Anti-Aliasing
Use only “Smooth” or “Strong”.
"Smooth" should be used as default. "Strong" can be used if the font is too thin
(instead of "Bold") or too soft.

6. Textalignment
Make sure the text is center-aligned.

7. Justification
Here you can set the “Auto-Leading” precisely. Use this option to set precisely the
leading instead of the normal and inaccurate option at (2.) Leading.

Crossbar I’s
Crossbar I’s are used in uppercase fonts for the pronoun “I” and initialisms only.

Hyphens
Hyphenate correctly. We hyphenate by syllables. It's best to consult a dictionary to
be sure to hyphenate words at the right places.
You can use this, this or ChatGPT to see how to hyphenate properly.
For example, “difficult” can be hyphenated as "dif-fi-cult", but not "diff-icult".
Punctuation
Don't put punctuation on the next line, put it after the last word.
If necessary, add strokes.

Rotating and Warping

Rotate the text when the text is rotated in Japanese. Don't rotate the text if only the
bubble is rotated and the text is not.
To warp the text select the type tool and press this →

Layer Style
Layer → Layer Style
There you can find different styles. I will describe the most important ones here.

→ Stroke
Add strokes to preserve the original style.

→ Pattern Overlay
Add patterns to preserve the original style.
Here are some patterns. (Just download the .pat, double click on it and you will find
the patterns in photoshop in the patterns section.) Scale the patterns to find the right
match. Here are some screentones.

→ Gradient Overlay
Add gradients to preserve the original style.

More guides are here, here, here, here, here and here.
Guide - Exporting physical scans or highly magnified digital scans
In Photoshop, go to: File -> Export -> Save for Web (Legacy)
When exporting, use 1680x2400 PNG-8 for black & white pages and 1400x2000
PNG full color (PNG-24) for color pages. Use the settings from the image.

Why? To keep the file size down.

Guide - Quality Checker

Be like a reader.
Look out for:
- Centering of the text
- Shaping of the text
- Typos
- Missing punctuation
- Missing typeset
- Missing redraw
- Missing words
- Typeset mistakes
- Redrawing mistakes
- Weird/Wrong spelling
- Weird meaning
- Choice of words
 - Hyphenate correctly
- Incorrect font
- Crossbar I
- Textsize (not too big, not too small)
- Check if the image looks straight and good
- Image size
- exported image format (.png)
- Dust in general
- Dust on blacks
- Dust on whites

Afterword
I hope you could learn a lot from this guide to do halfway good scanlations now.
If you have any ideas that could be added, feel free to let me know.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to contact me about it (like wrong content, typos or weird
spelling (since I'm not a native english speaker)).

Thanks for reading!