Infinite Canvas
インフィニット・キャンバス / 2000– / Layout / Reading on the Web
Scott McCloud's name, given in Reinventing Comics in 2000, for a way of laying out webcomics. The screen is treated as a window onto one unbroken surface rather than as a page, so panels can run in any direction for any distance. Because the medium measures time with space, the gap between panels becomes the pace of the story.
A surface far taller or wider than any paper format, with no page break anywhere in it / The story slowing where panels drift apart and quickening where they crowd together / Panel runs that step down like a staircase or wind into a spiral, arrangements a page could not hold / One panel dwarfing its neighbour many times over, a range no fixed format would allow
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Designing a vertically read comic as a single continuous surface instead of a sequence of pages · Pacing a long explanatory piece by controlling the distance between its beats
- Type
- Keep dialogue and narration inside the panels rather than pushing them into captions outside the frame. Use one family and let size carry volume.
- Composition
- Never break for a page, only for the story. Stretch and compress time with the distance between panels, opening the widest gaps in the quietest passages.
- Material
- Carry the background through the gutters so the surface reads as one drawing. Signal where the reader currently is by shifting the ground color or pattern.
- Caution
- Expanding in every direction at once because the canvas allows it leaves readers with no idea where to go next; settle on one direction first and add branches only after the spine holds.
- Further study
- McCloud 本人のサイトに残る infinite canvas の解説と実験作 / 『Reinventing Comics』(2000) の該当章 / 縦スクロール前提の漫画がコマ間の距離をどう使っているか
Related entries
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/infinite-canvas
- Markdown
- [Infinite Canvas — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/infinite-canvas)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/infinite-canvas">Infinite Canvas — IndexStyle</a>