Software · In development

Smee Comic Builder

The tool for putting your comic pages together and lettering them yourself. You bring the art; Smee Comic Builder handles the page, panels, lettering and export files. It does not draw or generate art for you.

  • Alpha

Coming to Steam for Windows. Mac and Linux versions are planned.

See it working Roadmap
Smee Comic Builder editor with a five-panel comic page, balloons, a sound effect and the Lettering tools
The editor: a five-panel page with art, a caption, speech, thought and burst balloons, and a sound effect.

Real captures

See it working

Recorded in the current alpha build. The sample comic was drawn in code with simple shapes.

  • Add a speech balloon and drag its tail. The base slides along the balloon to follow.
  • Double-click and type. The balloon fits itself around your words.
  • Add a sound effect, then change the word, colour, rotation and arch.

What works today

You bring the art

Smee Comic Builder is in alpha and changes often. Features may change before release.

Start a book

  • Pick a format: Digital page, US Print Comic, Manga (right-to-left), Magazine, Flyer, Playing card, Tarot card or a custom size.
  • Page size, bleed, reading direction and export settings are set for you, and a live-area guide shows where words are safe.
  • Add story pages and covers (front, inside front, inside back, back), and reorder, duplicate or delete pages.

Lay out your pages

  • Ready panel layouts (thirds, five, six, wider left or right, bigger top or bottom) or one panel at a time.
  • Move, resize and layer panels by hand.
  • Bring in PNG, JPG, WEBP, GIF, TIFF or PDF art. A multi-page PDF fills your story pages for you.
  • Pictures stay inside their panel; move and resize them with handles.
  • Give pages a base colour, a two-colour blend or a dot or square texture.

Letter it

  • Speech, thought, whisper, burst, caption and box balloons.
  • Double-click a balloon and type. The balloon fits itself around your words.
  • Drag a tail by its tip and its base slides along the balloon to follow; bend a tail from its middle.
  • Join balloons, round them from square to bubble, change fill, line and text colours, and add a drop shadow.
  • Sound effects you can size, stretch, rotate, arch, colour and shadow.
  • Lettering fonts made in-house, including Smee Lettering and Smee Ransom cut-out letters, plus a few free open-licence comic fonts.
  • Keep your script open beside the page while you letter.

Export

  • PDF, CBZ and PNG pages, plus a front-cover file sized for online stores.
  • Bleed and bleed colour carry through to the files.
  • Book details (title, series, issue, creators, rights holder, language) are written into the files.

Work without worry

  • Undo and Redo for nearly everything.
  • Your book is only written when you save; an autosave copy is offered back after a crash.

Seven languages

  • Use the interface in English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese or Russian.

Screenshots

A closer look

Screenshots from the current alpha build.

  • Smee Comic Builder start screen with the format menu, New project and Load project buttons
    Start screen: pick a format, start a new book or open one, and choose the interface language.
  • A burst balloon lettered in Smee Ransom cut-out letters, zoomed in, in Smee Comic Builder
    Smee Ransom cut-out lettering in a burst balloon, zoomed to 200%.
  • A WHOOSH sound effect selected on the page with the SFX tools open in Smee Comic Builder
    A WHOOSH! sound effect with its SFX tools, zoomed to 200%.
  • Smee Comic Builder Export panel with book detail fields and PDF, CBZ, Store cover and PNG buttons
    Export: book details, then PDF, CBZ, Store cover or PNG.
  • A tarot card page with rocket art and a caption in Smee Comic Builder
    Tarot card format, with art and a caption.
  • A playing card page with robot art and the Format panel open in Smee Comic Builder
    Playing card format, with the Format panel open.
The five-panel sample page as it appears in the exported PDF, including bleed
The page as written to the exported PDF, with bleed.

From the editor to the file

What you letter is what you export

The same page as written out to PDF. Bleed and bleed colour carry through, and the live-area guide stays out of the file.

Software roadmap

The road ahead

Milestones in order. No dates: each one ships when it is ready.

  1. Now

    Steam alpha testing

    The core book builder (formats, pages, panels, art, balloons, sound effects, export) is being tested.

  2. Step 2

    Fonts

    100+ free, commercial-safe lettering fonts, plus a Smee Comics spell-symbol font made in-house.

  3. Step 3

    Wraparound cover builder

    Front, spine and back as one cover, with printer presets.

  4. Step 4

    Book (prose) mode

    Lay out text-led books as well as comics.

  5. Step 5

    Balloon and lettering upgrades

    More balloon shapes, tail styles and lettering controls.

  6. Step 6

    Pro tools

    Masking, effects, master pages, custom font import and print-ready PDF.

  7. Step 7

    5.0.0 beta

    The feature-complete beta.

Planned: buy once, with standard updates free. Details will be confirmed before release.

Coming to Steam

Want to hear when it lands on Steam?

Email us and we’ll let you know. We use your message only to reply.

Email hello@smeecomics.comBrowse comics