ADV / NVL Text Layout vs Manga Lettering
ADV／NVL（ノベルゲームの文字組み） / 漫画の描き文字
ADV / NVL Text Layout comes from Games and Play and Manga Lettering from Lettering. One is layout and the other style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
ADV / NVL Text Layout
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The visual novel has two named text layouts, of which ADV mode presents dialogue and narration one line at a time, generally in a window at the bottom of the screen. NVL mode presents several lines at once in a window that takes up the entire screen and starts a fresh page at marked breaks. The Ren'Py documentation defines the pair in exactly those terms.
Manga Lettering
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In Japanese manga, sound effects and even the feel of silence are drawn as pictures, from a booming don to a hushed shiin. Hand-lettering turns the texture of a sound into line weight and shape, dissolving the border between image and word inside the panel.
| ADV / NVL Text Layout | Manga Lettering | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1990s– | 1930s– |
| Family | Games and Play | Lettering |
| Kind | Layout | Style |
| Cues | In ADV mode a wide window stays at the bottom of the screen and holds one line at a time / In NVL mode the text fills the screen and the lines already read stack upward / An NVL page break clears the whole stack at once and the next page starts empty / Choices behave differently in each mode: NVL puts them directly after the current text instead of on a full screen menu | Sound drawn as shape / Weight matched to texture / Placement crossing panels / Even silence written (shiin) |
| Best used for | Choosing between the two layouts when building a reading app that advances dialogue one line at a time · Presenting a long monologue or letter as an accumulating page rather than a sequence of screens | Comics and paneled ads where sound must be written inside the picture · Still images given the flow of time without captions or balloons |
| Type | Fix the line spacing and put the speaker's name at the head of the line. Give each speaker a distinct name colour so the voice is legible at a glance. | Line weight and edge shape carry the hardness of the sound |
| Composition | In ADV mode pin the window to a band at the bottom and leave the art above it. In NVL mode give the window the whole screen and stack lines from the top. Decide the lines per page before anything else. | Lettering straddling panel borders and figures, following the reading path |
| Material | Lay a translucent window over background and character art, dark or light enough that text survives whatever is behind it. Pick speaker colours by the value that separates them from the background. | Written with the same pen as the art, reversed white against solid black |
| Caution | Stacking lines in NVL mode without inserting page breaks pushes text below the bottom of the screen where it cannot be read. | Setting sound effects in a ready-made typeface keeps the hardness and speed out of the line, leaving a note floating above the drawing. |