A Question for A Newbie Pertaining Scanlation Groups.

[Divercia007]

I've had this question on my mind for a while. How do you actually get into a Scanlation Group? How do you know if your good enough to even start to look for groups?
I've been playing around on Photoshop a lot and have been trying to learn how to typeset/clean. I really want to look at joining a group at some point, but just don't know if I'm good enough or what rules there are. Really, I started to play around with it as I really would like to try and help groups with faster releases and I have quite a good deal of time on my hands.
Thanks for any answers and tips are appreciated!

 

[Thoraxe41]

From what I know. Most groups have some kind of test that one does to see if they have what is needed. Should be able just to message a group and ask to take the test to check your skillz.

Check out this board. One of the first ones is offering training for even noobs.

https://mangadex.org/forum/13

 

[kn1000a]

Speaking as a typesetter:

Start out by learning what scanlators do with their work. Read up some guides and see what kinda trick people use. I started out solo and just relying on Anonblack's Typesetter series http://prettyanonymo.us/index.php/scanlation-resources/anonblacks-typesetting-guide/ (since I want to be a typesetter).

Then after some trial and errors, I go to different groups and check to see if they have any kind of tests available (usually they would link some kind of .rar folders on their Recruiting site). I would get that, and do a few pages myself. Self-criticism is key: Is this the kind of quality I want to read? If you don't know how it look, feel free to ask others for opinions (the MangaDex's Discord server is a good start). An alternative to getting these groups' Test files are doing the short art/comic strips artists on Twitter and Pixiv usually do. Ask for their permission and try to scanlate them into English then post them on Reddit/Danbooru/etc so people can comment on it if it looks bad. I have not try this but apparently it's pretty popular.

After knowing you are up to a certain standard, look for a group to start with. They will ask you to do their test and if you have past experience. It is better to look for a group with these qualities: 1) They do manga/genres you like and 2) They have minor/less popular manga. You will want to target these minor manga because they're not high priority and therefore a good starting point into scanlating. After proving yourself to always be up to the standard, then you can ask the group leader to transition yourself into more popular manga. Of course it varies cases by cases, but a popular manga would usually require you to be stricter with the deadlines and keeping the quality standard to the highest level.

Bottomline: It's fine to start out as a newbie. But even as a newbie you need at least the minimal skill to do scanlation. Learn from guides and from others. Once you get a grasp of how it feels, practice and then apply. You will learn a lot more through people in your group too. Good luck~