Page Layout and Panels

There is no "Page Layout" setting in ComicInk, and no Grid / Dynamic / Cinematic switch. If you have been told to change one — by another AI tool, a tutorial, or a blog post — that setting does not exist here.

That is not a gap in the product so much as a different design. The shape of a page comes from the script: how many panels the page has, and what each panel's description says. Change those and the page changes. There is nothing else to set.

How to get the look you want

Fewer, wider panels read as cinematic. A page with three panels, each described with wide framing, produces a filmic page. Write descriptions like "wide establishing shot, low horizon, the city stretching to the edges" and you get a letterbox panel.

More, evenly-sized panels read as a grid. Six or nine panels on a page, each a similar kind of shot, gives the formal, steady rhythm of a grid page.

Mixing panel counts across pages creates pace. A six-panel page followed by a one-panel page makes that single panel land hard. This is the main rhythm tool you have, and it costs nothing to try — editing a script is free.

One panel is a splash page. Give the page a single panel and describe it as the full-page image it is.

To change any of this, open the Advanced Script Editor, and add, remove or rewrite panels. You can also ask Sidekick — "make page 4 a single splash panel" or "split page 2 into six panels" — and it will restructure the script for you.

What the layout terms mean

These are real comics terms. They describe pages, not settings, and they are worth knowing because they are how artists talk about pacing.

Grid — every panel the same size in a fixed matrix, usually 3×3 or 2×3. Watchmen is drawn on a nine-panel grid from beginning to end; the regularity is the point, giving the story a steady, inevitable beat.

Dynamic — panels vary in size, shape and angle, and art sometimes breaks out past the borders. Panel shape carries meaning here: a tall narrow panel slows a moment down, a tilted one puts the reader off balance. This is the default grammar of modern comics.

Cinematic / widescreen — wide, short panels, fewer to a page, with the story spread across more pages. Often called "decompressed" storytelling. It reads like film, and it costs more pages to tell the same events.

Splash — a single image filling the whole page. Used for arrivals, reveals and endings.

Montage — overlapping fragments sharing one background. Good for compressed time, memory, or a rush of events.

Art styles are a separate thing

Layout is the arrangement of panels. Art style is how the drawing looks, and that is a setting — chosen when you create a comic, and changeable later. ComicInk has twelve:

American Comics · Manga · Manhwa · European BD · Cartoon · Realistic · Noir · Watercolor · Digital Art · Vintage/Retro · Chibi · Pixel Art

There is no style called "Modern Graphic Novel". For that kind of look, American Comics, Noir, Realistic or European BD are the closest. See choosing an art style.

Why there is no layout switch

A layout setting would have to decide panel shapes before knowing what is in them, and a page's shape should follow its content — a fight page and a conversation page want different structures even in the same issue. Describing the panels you want gets you closer to the page you imagined than picking a preset would, and it works at the level where you are already making decisions: the script.

Updated on: 13/09/2026