# Korean Webtoon Graphics

> The full-colour, vertical-scroll comic that Korean web portals made standard in the 2000s and smartphone apps took worldwide. Each episode is one column read by scrolling: panels come one at a time, spaced by long gutters of white, black or tinted ground that pace time, suspense and reveals. Clean line art, cel shading, airbrushed glows and 3D-assisted backgrounds carry the story, with typeset dialogue in rounded balloons and drawn sound words, often out in the gutter.

- Period: 2002–present
- Where: East Asia, Global / networked
- Origin: South Korean web portals. Korean webcomics had appeared since the 1990s (Wikipedia names Han Hee-jak's Uninhabited Island, 1996, as the first), and those on Ch'ŏllian's 'Webtoon' site (2000) still used page layouts modelled on printed pages. Heekyoung Cho dates the first Korean webcomic in the vertical form to Sim Seung-hyun's Pape and Popo's Memories on a Daum group blog (2002), read by mouse wheel. Daum had opened its webtoon section, World in Comics (Manhwa sok sesang), in August 2002, and Kang Full's Sunjeong Manhwa there (from 24 October 2003) made the format popular; the government's KOREA webzine, unlike Cho, calls it the first to adopt vertical scrolling. Naver Webtoon followed in 2004, then smartphone apps, and from July 2014 Naver's LINE Webtoon carried translations worldwide. The style was born on the portals and blogs of the early web, but traded that web's crowded pages for long empty gutters. Wikipedia calls webtoons the digital form of manhwa, Korean comics on whose art Japanese manga had a strong effect; the atlas holds neither manhwa nor manga yet, so the webtoon has no parent
- Branch: Digital native
- Also known as: Webtoon, 웹툰, Vertical-scroll comics, Infinite-canvas comics
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/webtoon/

## Use it with care

Series characters and artwork, such as those of Tower of God, Solo Leveling or Lore Olympus, belong to their creators and platforms; draw original characters, and do not trace or closely copy a working artist's panels or signature look. Korean webtoon creators have opposed AI-generated webtoon art: from 2 May 2023 some 60 'AI Webtoon Boycott' strips filled Naver Webtoon's Challenge Comics section for amateurs, and over 200 cartoonists said on social media that they would join, calling AI that learns without the original creators' permission theft. Label generated images as AI-made and never present them as a webtoon artist's work.

## How it works

- Lay out each episode as one continuous single-column strip, about as wide as a phone screen and read top to bottom by scrolling: no pages, no spreads and no grids of many small panels.
- Use the gutter as a clock: open long empty stretches of white, black or tinted ground between panels to pass time, change scene or hold back a reveal, and let the gutter's colour set the mood of the whole episode.
- Give each screen one beat, then stretch a panel far taller than it is wide when the reader should scroll through a fall, a tower or a slow descent, so that scrolling works like camerawork in a film.
- Colour everything digitally in full colour: clean line art and cel-shaded figures with soft airbrushed glows and gradients, over detailed backgrounds that are often built in 3D.
- Set dialogue in a comic font inside rounded balloons that may float outside the panels, the one to read first placed highest; move captions, monologue and drawn sound words out into the gutter.
- Draw for the phone and the weekly instalment: art and text must read at phone width without zooming, and a turning point may carry music, sound or a short animation.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Column grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/column-grid/) (defining)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (occasional)
- [Broken grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/broken-grid/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Sequential narrative](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/sequential-narrative/) (defining)
- [Generous white space](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/generous-white-space/) (defining)
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (characteristic)
- [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (occasional)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (defining)
- [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (occasional)
- [Dark ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dark-ground/) (occasional)
- [Pastel](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pastel/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (characteristic)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Gloss & highlights](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gloss-and-highlights/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (occasional)
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Comic & cartoon](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/comic-and-cartoon/) (defining)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [3D render](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/3d-render/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Web & CSS](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/web-and-css/) (defining)
- [App & OS interface](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/app-and-os-interface/) (characteristic)
- [Motion & broadcast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/motion-and-broadcast/) (occasional)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (characteristic)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (characteristic)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (occasional)

Avoids: Modular grid, All-over field, Horror vacui, Flat hierarchy, Monochrome, Halftone & Ben-Day dots, Paper & letterpress bite, Misregistration & overprint, Abundant decoration, Typography only

Palette: #ffffff, #1b1b22, #f6d5c3, #ff7aa8, #3d8bfd, #0f1a33

Typefaces: Comic font in rounded balloons (typeset digital comic fonts in rounded-rectangle or oval balloons, the one to read first placed highest; this follows English-language practice: Blambot's Smack Attack in Walter Ostlie's WEBTOON lettering guide), Drawn sound words out in the gutter (large, drawn into the artwork and moved out of the panel), Captions set loose in the gutter (as in Kang Do-ha's The Great Catsby, 2005, whose monologue sits outside the panels), Korean fonts from Sandoll Cloud (in April 2014 Daum gave artists serialising on its World in Comics 365 Sandoll Cloud fonts free, so they could use them without font-copyright worries; Sandoll is the South Korean foundry behind Malgun Gothic, Nanum and Apple SD Gothic Neo)

Known for: Sim Seung-hyun (Sim Sŭnghyŏn), Pape and Popo's Memories, on a Daum group blog from 2002, which Heekyoung Cho calls the first Korean webcomic in the vertical form, read with the mouse wheel; in the later Pape Popo (Daum, 2009) each episode holds all its panels in one long pastel gutter of light peach or pale pink; Kang Full (Kang P'ul), Sunjeong Manhwa (A Romance Comic), Daum's World in Comics, from 24 October 2003, which made vertical scrolling the format of Korean webtoons; his A Neighbor (2008) makes the reader scroll to find the daughter that the print edition shows on the facing page; Yang Young-soon, 1001 (Paran.com), which formalised the vertical arrangement of panels, and Kang Do-ha, The Great Catsby (Empas, 2005), which sets the monologue outside the panels in the gutter; Go Yeong-hun (Ko Yŏnghun), Changma (Rainy Season, Daum, from October 2009), whose long, dark gutters of thick straight lines draw the rain; Horang, A Song of Clouds (2009–10), with songs that play during the episodes, later released as an album; SIU (Lee Jong-hui), Tower of God, Naver Webtoon from 30 June 2010, in English on LINE Webtoon from July 2014; Yoon Tae-ho (Yun T'aeho), P'ain (A Country Pumpkin), Daum, July 2014 to August 2015, whose episode 53 (April 2015) shows divers descending to a shipwreck in one panel about 1:8 in width to height, seen whole only after scrolling down several times; Lee Dong-gun, Yumi's Cells, Naver Webtoon, 2015–2020

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Influenced by: [Early Web Vernacular](https://stylogeny.com/styles/early-web.md) (1994–2004)
- Influenced by: [Story Manga (Postwar Japanese Comics)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/story-manga.md) (1947–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [French Post-War Visual-Gag Poster (Savignac, Villemot, Morvan)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/french-gag-poster.md) (1948–1979), 59% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Internet Ugly & Meme Vernacular](https://stylogeny.com/styles/internet-ugly.md) (2003–present), 56% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Métal hurlant Science-Fiction Comics (Mœbius, Druillet & Les Humanoïdes Associés)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/metal-hurlant.md) (1974–1987), 54% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Natural Wine Label Art](https://stylogeny.com/styles/natural-wine-label.md) (2007–present), 54% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [VTuber Avatar and Stream Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/vtuber-graphics.md) (2016–present), 52% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover (Cartoon Couple Cover)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/illustrated-romcom-cover.md) (2016–present), 52% alike

## Sources

- Heekyoung Cho, 'The Webtoon: A New Form for Graphic Narrative', The Comics Journal (18 July 2016): https://www.tcj.com/the-webtoon-a-new-form-for-graphic-narrative/ (vertical layout as the main difference from print; Ch'ŏllian's 'Webtoon' site, 2000, still in print page layouts; Sim Sŭnghyŏn's Pape and Popo's Memories, 2002, as the first Korean webcomic in the vertical form, and Kang P'ul's Sunjŏng manhwa on Daum, 2003, which triggered its popularity; the long pastel gutter of Sim's Pape Popo, 2009; gutters longer than panels whose length marks time and whose colour sets the tone; Ko Yŏnghun's Changma, 2009; text moved into the gutter in Kang Toha's The Great Catsby, 2005; Yun T'aeho's 1:8 panel in P'ain, Daum, 2014–15, likened to film camerawork; songs in Horang's A Song of Clouds, 2009–10; full colour dominant from the start; LINE Webtoon in the US, 2014)
- Seo Bum Gang, 'Webtoons a New Era in Media', KOREA webzine, April 2024, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism / Korean Culture and Information Service: https://www.korean-culture.org/eng/webzine/202404/sub01.html (Kang Full's Sunjeong Manhwa on Daum's 'World in Comics' in 2003 as 'the first to adopt vertical scrolling'; Yang Young-soon's 1001 on Paran.com; Kang Do-ha's The Great Catsby on Empas; one-handed reading on small screens)
- Wikipedia, 'Webtoon': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webtoon (Han Hee-jak's Uninhabited Island, 1996, as South Korea's first webtoon; Daum Webtoon 2003, Naver Webtoon 2004; one long vertical strip per episode; usually in colour, unlike most East Asian print comics; music and animation in some episodes; LINE translations from July 2014)
- Chung Ah-young, 'Webtoon's backgrounds created in 3D', The Korea Times (10 February 2014): https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/entertainment/shows-dramas/20140210/webtoons-backgrounds-created-in-3d (Kakaa Studio's 3D backgrounds for full-colour webtoons, in two-tone, gradation and oil-paint styles)
- Walter Ostlie, 'Letter Your Webtoon Like a Pro: Balloons, Fonts, and More', CLIP STUDIO TIPS: https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/articles/3751 (rounded-rectangle balloons, balloons outside panels, the first balloon placed highest, text sized for phone reading, Smack Attack font)
- Wikipedia, 'Tower of God': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_God; 'Yumi's Cells': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yumi%27s_Cells; 'Solo Leveling': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo_Leveling; 'Lore Olympus': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lore_Olympus (creators, platforms and dates of the exemplars); 'Yoon Tae-ho': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoon_Tae-ho (Yoon Tae-ho, 윤태호, McCune–Reischauer Yun T'aeho)
- Shin Jin-a, '강풀·윤태호와 성장한 20살 다음웹툰, 8월1일부터 카카오웹툰', Financial News (20 July 2021): https://www.fnnews.com/news/202107200926547691 (Daum's webtoon section opened in August 2002 on Media Daum as 만화속세상, 'World in Comics')
- Watcha Pedia, 'Sunjeong Manhwa' (Kang Full, book edition): https://pedia.watcha.com/ko-KR/contents/b41DYER (serialised on Daum from 24 October 2003)
- Wikipedia, 'Manhwa': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhwa (webtoons as the digital form of manhwa; the strong effect of imported manga on the art and content of manhwa)
- Park Ji-ae, '다음, 웹툰 작가들에게 산돌구름 폰트 365종 무료 지원', Financial News (16 April 2014): https://www.fnnews.com/news/201404161115219377 (365 Sandoll Cloud fonts free for webtoon artists on 만화속세상, to use without font-copyright worries; before, artists bought fonts themselves and cleared font rights for print and other secondary uses); Wikipedia, 'Sandoll Communications': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandoll_Communications (South Korean type foundry; Malgun Gothic, Nanum, Apple SD Gothic Neo)
- Seo Ji-eun, 'Creators boycott AI-generated webtoons on Naver', Korea JoongAng Daily (10 June 2023): https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/business/creators-boycott-aigenerated-webtoons-on-naver/11866608 (some 60 'AI Webtoon Boycott' comics in Naver Webtoon's Challenge Comics section from 2 May 2023; over 200 cartoonists intending to join; AI that 'learns without seeking permission from the original creators')

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Korean Webtoon Graphics”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/webtoon/