How well Clip Studio Paint performs depends on the device as well as the layers in your work and which tools you use when editing.

Please find our recommendations for each category below.

Device

Devices running Clip Studio Paint should conform to at least the specifications recommended on the page below.

The more free space you have, the more stable Clip Studio will run on your device.

You can also expect better performance on computers that are built with SSDs to run Clip Studio Paint.

The higher CPU performance and more memory your device has, the better it will be able to handle large canvases or files with high numbers of layers.

Brushes will also run faster with more memory.

A good rule of thumb is that the more memory your device has access to, the better off you will be.

On computers, when using Clip Studio Paint’s 3D functions, it is better to have a discrete graphics board rather than use an on-board chipset, to reduce strain across the system.

Since graphics boards have nothing to do with drawing speeds or canvas sizes, CPU performance and memory are generally considered to be more important when optimizing your system.

Canvas

Leaving multiple canvases open will consume memory, so we recommend saving and closing canvases that you do not immediately need.

The larger the canvas (number of pixels), the more strain it will put on your system when editing.

It’s best to avoid painting with large brushes on a larger canvas than you need.

The smaller the height and width values are, the smaller the load on your system.

If you only change the Resolution, without changing the height and width values, there will be no difference to the strain on your system.

When using units other than px, such as “mm” or “in”, the smaller the height, width and resolution values, the smaller the load on your system.

However, since these units are generally used for artworks that will be printed, if the values are too low, it will affect the image quality when the work is printed.
Please consider carefully the appropriate size and resolution for the work you are creating.

In the case of webtoon files, if you increase the number of page divisions, the area of each canvas will become smaller, which, in turn, will reduce the amount of memory used.

Also, you can also reduce the strain on your system by reducing the number of layers per page by dividing pages.

Tools

Please see the following if you would like to use your own brushes or customize the default brush settings.

・Increasing Brush Size and Gap parameters has a large effect on brush speed.

・Setting the type of Color mixing to Running color, or turning off “Process after brush stroke” for the Watercolor edge setting has a large effect on brush speed.

・The more of the other brush parameters you use, the larger the impact on brush speed will be, so we recommend that you only enable the parameters you need.

・Using a grey or monochrome layer for your brush tip shape is recommend to reduce the load on your system.

Use a grey or monochrome layer when creating monochrome or two-tone brushes.

・If the image size of your tip shape or texture is too large, it will put a lot of strain on your system, so please keep this in mind when creating new brushes.

When your tool’s Stabilization value is high, any lines you draw will lag behind the cursor. This is not because your CPU is under any strain, but

because the tool is waiting for more input in order to correct any shaky lines, as it works by correcting the points input into your tablet.

Layers

If you set a layer folder’s blending mode to Through, your machine will be less efficient in terms of memory and speed, so we recommend you set it to Normal unless you need to merge with layers outside the folder in question.

For layers including raster layers outside folders, the display will be more responsive if you set the blending mode to Normal.

Coloring with vector layers creates lots of lines with complex vector shapes, which will put a lot of strain on your system.

We recommend you use vector layers for line art, and raster layers for coloring.

Erasing on vector layers with a transparent brush or an eraser with “Vector eraser” turned off creates lots of transparent vector lines, which will put a lot of strain on your system.

We recommend that you edit the shape of your vector lines using the Correct line tool, or erase parts of lines you don’t need with a layer mask or eraser with “Vector eraser” turned on.

Application

・If the app is unstable after using it for a long time, please save your work, close the app and reopen it.

・If the app feels sluggish as you work, it may be using a lot of memory due to saving too many undo levels.

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