How to make a speech bubble
Type the line, pick what kind of voice it is, and point the tail at the speaker. The bubble grows around the words, so the text always fits.
- Type or paste the dialogue. A line break in your text starts a new line in the bubble.
- Choose the bubble type, then a shape. The shapes are the same balloons that Konyomi letters its chapters with.
- Set the text size and the line length. A short line length gives a tall bubble. A long one gives a wide bubble.
- Point the tail with the direction pad and set its length. A thought bubble gets a trail of dots instead.
- Download a transparent PNG for any drawing app, or an SVG to scale it without blur. Add your panel first if you want to place the bubble on your art.
What each bubble means in manga
Speech. An oval or soft box with a tail means a character says the line out loud. The tail points at the mouth of the speaker, or toward the speaker when they are off panel.
Thought. A cloud with a trail of small dots carries what a character thinks and does not say. Many manga also show thoughts as text with no bubble at all.
Shout. Spikes mean a raised voice: a shout, a scream, a sudden surprise. Bigger spikes read as louder. A black burst with white text reads as rage or menace.
Whisper. A dashed or dotted outline means a low voice, a secret, or a voice that fades away. Letterers often use a smaller text size with it.
Narration. A box with no tail belongs to the narrator. Use it for a place, a time, or a line from someone who is not in the scene.
Vertical text. Japanese manga sets dialogue in columns from top to bottom, read from right to left. That is why manga bubbles are tall ovals. Switch on vertical text and pick Zen Maru Gothic for kana and kanji.
Lettering tips
- Keep one idea in each bubble. Split a long speech into two bubbles that touch.
- Readers follow bubbles in reading order. In a right-to-left manga, the first bubble sits at the top right.
- Leave space between the words and the outline. A crowded bubble is hard to read.
- Check the text at the size it will be printed or shown on a phone.
Keep going
Common questions
Is the speech bubble generator free?
Yes. It is free, it needs no account, and it adds no watermark. The tool runs in your browser, so your text and pictures stay on your device.
Can I download a speech bubble with a transparent background?
Yes. Without a panel, the PNG has a transparent background and three times the preview resolution. The SVG file is transparent too and stays sharp at any size.
Can I put the bubble on my own drawing?
Yes. Add a PNG, JPEG or WebP picture under 5 MB, drag the bubble into place and set its size. The PNG then contains your picture with the bubble on it.
Does it support Japanese vertical text?
Yes. Switch on vertical text to set the words in columns from top to bottom, read from right to left. Choose Zen Maru Gothic for kana and kanji.
Can I use the bubbles in a comic that I sell?
Yes. The bubbles you make are yours to use. The fonts are under the SIL Open Font License or the Apache License, which allow commercial use of the images.
Paste a story and Kon draws the chapter: panels, bubbles and the same faces on every page.