About this release
Clip Studio Paint is a drawing application built by and for people who draw, and it is especially strong for comics, manga and illustration. The brush engine is the heart of it, with pen, pencil, ink, watercolour and airbrush tools that respond to pressure and tilt with a natural feel that is the reason so many illustrators moved to it, and a brush system deep enough to build any tool you cannot find.
The comics tooling is what sets it apart from a general painting application. Page and panel management for a whole book, ruler and perspective tools including a working perspective ruler that snaps strokes to vanishing points, dedicated tools for speech balloons and lettering, and the tone and screentone work that manga relies on. A whole multi page project lives in one file with a story structure.
The EX edition is the top tier, and this is that edition. It adds the multi page book management that the lower Pro edition lacks, batch export of a whole book, and a frame by frame animation timeline for producing short animation from the same drawing tools. Vector layers coexist with raster ones, so line art can be drawn as editable vectors while colour sits on raster layers beneath.
What it does
- Natural brush engine with pressure and tilt for pen, ink and paint
- Deep, customisable brush system for building any tool
- Page and panel management for a whole multi page book
- Perspective and ruler tools that snap strokes to vanishing points
- Speech balloon, lettering and screentone tools for comics
- Vector layers for editable line art alongside raster colour
- Frame by frame animation timeline in the EX edition
- Batch export of a whole book in the EX edition
- 3D reference models for posing figures and blocking scenes
- Large included brush, material and tone libraries
Changes in this version
- Improved brush engine performance at large canvas sizes
- Reworked animation timeline in the EX edition
- Better vector layer handling and line correction
- New included brush and material sets
- Faster batch export of long books
What the package contains
- Clip Studio Paint EX offline installer
- Included brush, material and tone libraries
- 3D reference model set
- All interface languages
- Readme with the install order written out step by step
Installation notes
Follow these in order. Most reports of a failed install come from skipping a step rather than from the package itself.
- Disconnect from the network before you begin.
- Extract the archive to a short path such as C:\Setup.
- Run setup as administrator and let it finish.
- Apply the included licensing step so the EX edition activates.
- Launch once and confirm the EX features such as page management are present.
- Reconnect if you want the online material library.
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 10 version 22H2 or Windows 11 |
| Processor | Intel or AMD 64-bit multi core |
| Memory | 8 GB minimum, 16 GB for large canvases and animation |
| Graphics | GPU with current drivers |
| Storage | 5 GB free |
| Input | A pressure sensitive pen tablet or display strongly recommended |
Things worth knowing
- A pressure sensitive pen tablet or display is what the whole application is built around, a mouse wastes most of it.
- The EX edition is the one with multi page book management and animation, confirm those features are present after install.
- The online material library needs a connection, downloaded materials work offline afterwards.
Questions about this title
What does the EX edition add over Pro?
Is it only for manga?
Do I need a drawing tablet?
Can it really animate?
What people are saying
The ink brushes feel right in a way nothing else does. EX page management runs my whole book in one file.
The perspective ruler snapping strokes to vanishing points saves so much time on backgrounds.
Get a pen display. This software on a mouse is throwing the best part away.
Listing information
This entry is catalogued under Graphics & Design and carries the tags below. Language coverage is Multilingual, 12 interface languages, and the supported platform list is Windows 10, Windows 11. Version 5.0.4 is the current catalogued build, last checked 4 days ago, and the entry has been in the index since it was added 2 years ago.