They look fine and readable to me.

I think they are great, though I would be curious to see what they look like without the black line around them, or with the black line at a different opacity, or even at a different color (maybe a shade of brown). It's just a little distracting to me since it stands out so distinctly.

we really need the black line, maybe not for this scene, but for brighter scenes

Alright, was just a passing thought for me. They are completely readable as is *which I forgot to mention*

Maybe if the black line was just a touch thinner, not much thicker than the lines in the font. Especially since there aren't really any thick outlines around the characters and so it draws some attention away from them. That would be my only suggestion.

Other than that, I think it's perfectly readable and perfectly gorgeous. :) Don't see too many comic artists using backgrounds in their bubbles, and this one is subtle, antique-looking, classy, and... good. (Ran out of adjectives.)

How about a dark gray line, rather than a black one? That would make it stand out a bit less in dark scenes, but would still make it pop enough in light ones.

Also, they look good, other than the lines. Definitely better than plain white, fo' sho'.

Also, maybe something other than a smooth line? Maybe something a bit more...granular. As in, still a round bubble-shape, but a little wavy rather than totally smooth?

Looks nice! I think the bubbles could change style, giving variation in the tone of voice, perhaps?

They DO fit a lot better. Easy to read as well. I'd say keep them :)

Well, as far as the ''bar'' setting is concerned this works just fine, but I wonder if it could apply to all scenes?

This looks great, fits the style and era of the comic itself, and yes, it is readable still.

You should use another outline (maybe you´re using illustrator or something like that for these?).. something charcoal-like. In my opinion the digital outline don´t fit with the Paper look.

Very readable and I think they fit the atmosphere very well, don't need to change the color at all.

Aside from the awesome artwork, my advice for the speech bubbles would be to put more effort in lining out the text to decently fit the bubble (or vice versa). Right now it seems like you made the bubble and slapped a bunch of text in there. Play around with font size to get a sentence in a bubble while still being readable and try to use as much of a bubble's space as possible. There's lot of empty space in them right now and to solve that I would actually make the bubbles and the text smaller, but that might be personal preference.

Another thing you might want to try with stylized speech bubbles like this is maybe lower to opacity of the text just a little bit so the text blends better with the style it's surrounded by.

I'm afraid if I lower the opacity, it won't be as readable. But I'll take what you've said about the placement and size of the text into consideration.

General rule of thumb is to be able to fit a lower-case "O" in between the text and the border all the way around.

I would make the contour of the speech bubbles a lighter color, I think the pure black is overpowering when taken with the soft lineart and coloring of the characters, maybe a brown would work better? I like the parchment-like filling on the inside though, I think it works well!

yeah, brown sounds like a good color

I say they are fine just the way they are, the black border is needed, as it gives a clear definition to the bubble... the only place I see these having a little more trouble looking good is against a light background, dont know if that will be common or not, but against this kind of background, its a dead ringer!

brown sounds like it could work

looks very readable to me :3

looks fine to me, and adds a touch of atmosphere even to the bubbles ^^

I definitely like this a lot more, it goes well with the warm tones & time period. It doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, and the text is still easily readable with the texture. I dig :)

I would keep these, the big bright white bubbles harm the suspension of disbelief.

I think these work well. What makes them, for me, is the noise inside the bubble. The parchment-y texture makes the bubbles not so stark looking.

They are perfect!! I reaallllly like them! So fancy~

looks great

good

I think it looks just fine, certainly readable and fits the atmosphere well.

I'd turn down the oppacity on the background in the bubbles, they're a bit too much, nice touch but they need to make the speechbubble more "white" and clear". It doesn't interrupt the reading much but it does serve as an annoyance in long terms, not in ways of getting tired or annoyed with them. But because it will ask more of the eye and make the person concentrate more. But if you just turned the oppacity down a bit it will be just fine.

I like the look of it, definitely, though I think now the text looks a bit insubstantial in comparison. Maybe use a slightly larger font so it fills more of the bubble?

Nice not to have plain white speech bubbles though, didn't realize how bland they looked until you tried this.

Brown is not always going to work with the surroundings, if the main color of the scene is not with yellow hues. Try to focus the color (like, if there is snow, make the borderline of the text box some blue) if you can.

It does add to the atmosphere, and is also readable to me. It doesn't detract at all from the story imho.

they're perfect rukis

I personally like this a lot better, the bit of color makes the bubbles fit into the scenery better.

Though it's true you may have to change the color depending on the color of the background on occation.

I love the style of the bubbles, but I think a different font might be a better fit to both the bubbles and the style of the comic in general. I'd suggest an oldish-looking, easy to read serif font. Maybe something like Century Schoolbook.

I think this style of the speech bubble works quite well with the style of the story. I'm not much of a comic buff but I know that the style of the speech bubble can give an edge to the character who's speaking. If it's kind of old and yellowed like this, it makes me think of more serious and dramatic characters. But from the scenes I've seen so far, it fit well enough.

Its better, but a little odd. It looks a little too........sharp?

I find that shapes, colors, and textures can take the place of the volume, tonal quality, and emotion in a comic. If you can incorporate subtle visual characteristics in your speech bubbles you might be able to better describe the type of voice a character has as well as what their mood is. Squares are masculine, ovals feminine, pink colors can mean flirty, reds anger, fancy textures as ritzy talk, or a rusty weathered look for a more rustic character.

I think it looks good. The font is easily readable and I like the parchment kinda look to the space behind it. Also much better than just bright white. It blends with the artwork quite well.

I think the style of the speech bubble fits well with the setting of the story. If anything, you could make them a bit more opaque so that more of the background shows but really I like them this way just fine.

This style definitely goes with the atmosphere, I don't have any trouble reading it either. I think you made a good choice!

I think the brown colour of the speech bubbles blends extremely well with the background, artwork, theme, and atmosphere. You have a theme of soft, light colours going on here, a lot of brown and red, and the colour of the speech bubbles seems to coincide with that very, very well. It does make a liiiiittle bit harder for me to read, though. Now obviously, since it isn't white, this isn't the "standard" for speech bubbles, and I'm honestly far more used to reading white speech bubbles, but this is cool, too! It really comes down to if you want to be stylish and clever with your work here or if you want to stick to the standard. Either one works fine for me. :)

I actually really like these bubbles quite a bit more then the other with how well they bend. They stand out but its not in your face like the old ones

Nice and readable, and they fit the atmosphere of the comic sterlingly! I'd say it's a go.

Just leave them like this. They are simple enough so its easy to read and they're not eye-stabbing. Keep the brown.

I think the color of the speech bubbles is good, but the black lining around them throws you a bit out of story, as your chars are not lined in ink.

Not really sure how else to explain it, and I think if you made them lighter it would put to much focus on them and not the full spectrum of your work and story.

it looks just fine as is, the only thing i can think of is the others comments about the black outline, other than that its just about perfect

I think it's great, it fits very well.

To me, at least, they look great. The color and texture fit with the setting, and give it a little more "personality", rather than the generic white bubbles you find in most comics.

I like everything about 'em except the font. The simple san-serif font you're using would work in a more modern comic, but a more medieval comic needs something a bit more "period" and handwritten. Handwritten lettering does a better job of the dialog seeming like it's the voice of a character (warmer, more passionate, more personal); typeset lettering sounds like the voice of the narrator (less expressive, drier, colder). That doesn't mean awful uncial fonts or impossible-to-read gothic fonts or (God help us) Comic Sans. If you make a change, make sure it's readable at the resolution you're publishing the pages at, some fancy fonts don't scale well.

A few suggestions that I think would look good in mixed-capitalization (i.e. not all-caps):

Stud Normal : http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....nts/stud.0.zip
Augie : http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....ts/augie.0.zip
Colophon DBZ : http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....colophon.0.zip
Handwerk : http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....handwerk.0.zip

These are a little looser than the "typeset" style of fonts, meaning they're wider per-letter. You might have to adjust your balloon size to make room; again, be careful that at the final rendered size they're looking good.

Im gonna second that. Stud Normal would be wonderful with your comic, Rukis

I throw in a few more, I think fit the timeframe/theme of the comic:
Kelmscott Regular: http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....kelmscot.0.zip
Goudy Medieval: http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....goudymed.0.zip
Bridgnorth: http://www.themeworld.com/cgi-bin/p.....bridgnor.0.zip
And I have to agree with Beer, Arial is way too modern for this theme.

i like the inside bubble, but the lines are half n half

I can read the words just fine, and I think that the bubbles fit the comic theme rather nicely!

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not too thrilled about that font considering the theme of the comic itself. If you're going to retroactively change the text bubbles...
Please understand, I mean this purely in a constructive way.

Since it seems to me that they were changed already, I kinda think it's pointless to say that I approve, but I do nonetheless .o.

I like the bubble background, but maybe a bit more translucent?
I unno, just suggesting.

Ah ha!
There we go; much better :D

Readable, and interesting.

I'd go with the suggestion to change the outline of the bubbles, to colours fitting every individual scene. It's a really good idea, makes the bubbles less dominating.

I think a slightly wider light-center to the bubble would add to readability. Overall, I like how it adds to tone and presentation. The only other future concern I'd have is making sure there's no darker browns in there as it might blur into the black on certain words or situations.

Just make sure the text isnt off center? that third bubble is. Im sure this is just a test example anyway

Those speech bubbkles are better. They better fit in the whole comic.

They look OK, I'm agreeing with the outline that it should be thinner and I'd make the texturing just a -little- lighter, myself, to still keep the feel of it and overall shading not be as harsh white but not detracting from the readability of the text, it's right on the edge of starting to make it less readable for me.

the new speech bubbles are perfect...

Perfectly Legible.

I like the speech bubbles, it adds a certain....... thing to it. I think they look very nice :3

They fit greatly, Rukis. No problems to read, and well for the Backgrounds and the atmosphere.

I agree, fits the atmosphere perfect. Do you have also a testimage for outdoor scenery to compare?

Okay a bit lighter would be better but the texture is quite good.

If it were me doing this, I would change the font, it doesn't fit here. And I would do the black lines around the bubble less visible, they disturb.
But, the texture looks much better. :)

I do like the antique paper look of the new bubbles, it's a great change. If you can rough the black lines with a filter so they look more "scratched on", that would further spiff them up. The smooth digital borders are out of place with everything else on the page. If they looked like they were drawn with charcoal, that would be best, I think. You can also experiment with actually hand drawing them instead of using a computer generated ellipse. If you'd like help finding a unique font that does not exist on anyone's default font list, I have about 10,000 at my disposal.

They look great to me and very readable. The only suggestion I would make to make it look a bit more stylish, would be to find a more interesting style of text; other than that, looks good ^^

The speech bubble looks awesome and easily readable. To me, I think it also fits the style of the comic. What I also love about it is that it's also very unique. Most people doing comics use the usual/default white speech bubble. ^.^
Hope this helps. :D

I actually like this better.

I was looking at how it looked without the black line, and I think the black line completes things. The more realistic track you are on makes the bubbles need to be toony, otherwise it looks too blended. I was almost going to say on the page without the black lines that the characters might look better if they had some lineart.

This fixes everything.

It definitely seems that the black lines around them are the only major thing taking them out of the rest of the elements. The font could do with abit of style to it so it looks like like Times New Roman

I like the choice of Arial(?) font, I like the simple readability.
I like the new texture, it blends the bubbles in with the work better, my hope is they print nicely too. :)
I do notice the lines are still a wee bit wobbly though. D:

I think thought bubbles, in general stick out too much.... maybe you could lower the opacity of the bubble itself (and not the font)?

That fits in with the colored art SO much better than the flat white/light color you've been using. Very atmospheric. I'd say possibly experiment a little with the outline; if you were doing the bubbles in Illustrator I'd say use the pencil brush for the outline and see how that works out. It's not the strong black that's the problem, I think, so much as it's very "crisp digital art" over a very painterly style of art.

looks a little too 'microsft wordart' like to me, maybe some transparency in the bubble background?

I made this really quick. Ideally they bubbles would be best made in Illustrator, but here's how I do it. :) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4901365/