<p>The color varies <em>widely</em> based on multiple factors:</p>

<ul>
<li>Lighting</li>
<li>Paper type (I'll get there in a minute)</li>
<li>Scanner type and quality</li>
</ul>

<p>Therefore, I can't 100% give you a color estimate (it could be anything from very light yellowish-gray to very dark gray).</p>

<hr>

<p>As for paper types. There are also several types of paper that could be used for printing manga:</p>

<ul>
<li>Newspaper-like paper, which is thin and has a slight gray shade.</li>
<li>Recycled paper, which is yellowish in composure and often has little "grains" in it.</li>
</ul>

<p>There are probably a whole lot more, but that's the prominent two I know of.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-02T21:04:14.863Z
The color also varies depending on the weight and thickness, if it's coated (books typically aren't coated, but photo books are), and if it's [acid-free](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid-free_paper) (not as yellowing as non-acid-free papers). It's better to go to an actual printer for a sample and use that sample as reference.
кяαzєя
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-15T16:31:05.830Z
Age is also a factor. The manga I bought most recently is Hunter x Hunter vol. 37, in which the paper is bright white. My first ever manga was a used copy of the same series vol. 1, in which the paper is *very* yellow. They seem to change with age, and the exact coloration depends on the factors you mentioned, as well as things like environment, usage, yadda yadda, we could go on all day.
Austin Overton
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-02T19:58:01.283Z
2015-05-10T03:17:51.177Z
2015-05-10T03:17:51.177Z
Madara's Ghost
<p>Magazines like Jump tend to use 85% recycled paper for their pages.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/pXvlSjfg.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pXvlSjfg.png" alt="85%" /></a></p>
<p>These tend to be cheaper than ones collected in published volumes. The color of these pages may very by publisher, but Jump tends to use green, yellow, and pink for their pages. The pages are cheaply made in order to keep costs down and because it's expected to have them be thrown away afterwards. Thus they are not suitable for long-term storage as they are fragile, vulnerable to deterioration from moisture and light.</p>
<p>As mentioned before the print paper used for magazine is mostly recycled. Usually when creating recycled paper, there is a process called de-inking is used. This involves bleaching to remove the ink and and dark spots or other imperfections like dirt. However as more recycled paper is involved in the process, the process becomes harder and more expensive. In order to save costs, coloring is used instead to mask the dark spots and other imperfections.</p>
<p>If you look at the sides of magazine you'll notice the pages are colored differently. The idea from the publishers is to vary the colors and keep things interesting and sometimes also separate different genres from one another.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/V0kwe3gtm.webp" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/V0kwe3gtm.webp" alt="look at the layers" /></a></p>
<p>You can't tell in scans because they artificially adjust the levels to clean them up, so often times the page colors go in noticed.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/cwbxeVug.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/cwbxeVug.jpg" alt="https://www.maruoh.co.jp/meioh/business/paper/" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-15T18:03:30.553Z
2024-11-15T18:03:30.553Z
кяαzєя
<p>Solution: I also had this question, but I ended up having to make color combinations, print them out, and compare them to physical copies of manga I had. The closest color combination I was able to make was:
(R, G, B) = (238, 230, 201).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-05-19T22:28:39.807Z
2021-05-19T22:28:39.807Z
user60703
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/AJaqBTq8.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/AJaqBTq8.png" alt="used hex code E4DAC9 for the colot " /></a></p>
<p>ik I'm 3 years too late but I was trying to do the same thing for a project, I did this in Figma using E4DAC9 as the color, and used this tool to add grain: <a href="https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1138854718618193875/noise-texture" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1138854718618193875/noise-texture</a></p>
<p>the borders look drawn by hand because I used a paint tool with a brush that looks like a lead pencil and I just made different patches and cropped out a part that I liked out of the patch and saved it as a PNG. Then set that as the image for the border (stroke setting in Figma) and set the stroke to the tile setting at 100%.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-11-15T09:13:19.473Z
2024-11-15T09:13:19.473Z
chanu
<p>The background color of a manga paper when scanned online is changed by the scanlators to white (#FFFFFF).</p>

<p>However, this is not the background color in an actual manga book. the color in the manga book looks little grayer in the paper.</p>

<p>What I am trying to do, is to publish a manga online with the same real background color.</p>

<ul>
<li>What is the best estimation of that white-gray color?</li>
<li>What are the manga papers made of? They are not the same as a normal white printer paper. </li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-01T23:19:55.163Z
Every paper will scan to be a different color (and thus, different hex code) based on the scanner and paper quality. Plus, not all manga will be printed on the same paper. Regardless of that, though, this is off-topic and would be better suited on a graphic design or manga writing forum, so I'm voting to close as off-topic.
Cattua
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-01T23:30:15.923Z
@Eric I am trying to create a manga magazine and I need to know the background color of a usual shonen manga. an assumption of the color is fine. as long as it is very close to the real paper background color... my question perfectly fits in the manga-production category
shnisaka
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-02T00:05:42.170Z
@shnisaka Manga paper comes in all kinds of sizes depending on a publisher's specifications. The color of the paper does not matters as most pages in manga are monochrome (like with newspapers). Glossy paper is typically use for color pages as the colors come out better on that type of paper.
кяαzєя
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-02T19:25:15.660Z
@shnisaka Note that we are discussing this question in chat here: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/8340058#8340058
Mysticial
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-03-02T19:25:54.507Z
@shnisaka as it stands now, your question is not a very good one and too localized to help anyone. In print, the color of the paper is determined by the paper stock used. You cannot find a specific color of a paper by the hex code. Print media goes by CMYK (Cyan Yellow Magenta Black) color, while media that appears on computers screen goy by RGB (Red Green Blue, Hex are RGB), because that's how colors are displayed by computers screens. However it you want to ask about the type of paper used for manga, that is a perfectly fine question and you can edit your current question to reflect that.
кяαzєя
<manga-production>
What is the color of a manga paper?
# What is the color of a manga paper?
Posted by: username_0 on 2013-03-01
The background color of a manga paper when scanned online is changed by the scanlators to white (#FFFFFF).

However, this is not the background color in an actual manga book. the color in the manga book looks little grayer in the paper.

What I am trying to do, is to publish a manga online with the same real background color.

* What is the best estimation of that white-gray color?
* What are the manga papers made of? They are not the same as a normal white printer paper.
**Tags:** manga-production
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Every paper will scan to be a different color (and thus, different hex code) based on the scanner and paper quality. Plus, not all manga will be printed on the same paper. Regardless of that, though, this is off-topic and would be better suited on a graphic design or manga writing forum, so I'm voting to close as off-topic.  
> **username_0**: @Eric I am trying to create a manga magazine and I need to know the background color of a usual shonen manga. an assumption of the color is fine. as long as it is very close to the real paper background color... my question perfectly fits in the manga-production category  
> **username_2**: @shnisaka Manga paper comes in all kinds of sizes depending on a publisher's specifications. The color of the paper does not matters as most pages in manga are monochrome (like with newspapers). Glossy paper is typically use for color pages as the colors come out better on that type of paper.  
> **username_3**: @shnisaka Note that we are discussing this question in chat here: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/8340058#8340058  
> **username_2**: @shnisaka as it stands now, your question is not a very good one and too localized to help anyone. In print, the color of the paper is determined by the paper stock used. You cannot find a specific color of a paper by the hex code. Print media goes by CMYK (Cyan Yellow Magenta Black) color, while media that appears on computers screen goy by RGB (Red Green Blue, Hex are RGB), because that's how colors are displayed by computers screens. However it you want to ask about the type of paper used for manga, that is a perfectly fine question and you can edit your current question to reflect that.  
---
## 4 answers
### Answer by username_4 on 2013-03-02. Score: 13
The color varies *widely* based on multiple factors:

* Lighting
* Paper type (I'll get there in a minute)
* Scanner type and quality

Therefore, I can't 100% give you a color estimate (it could be anything from very light yellowish-gray to very dark gray).

---

As for paper types. There are also several types of paper that could be used for printing manga:

* Newspaper-like paper, which is thin and has a slight gray shade.
* Recycled paper, which is yellowish in composure and often has little "grains" in it.

There are probably a whole lot more, but that's the prominent two I know of.
> **Comments:**
> **username_2** (2013-03-02): The color also varies depending on the weight and thickness, if it's coated (books typically aren't coated, but photo books are), and if it's [acid-free](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid-free_paper) (not as yellowing as non-acid-free papers). It's better to go to an actual printer for a sample and use that sample as reference.  
> **username_5** (2024-11-15): Age is also a factor. The manga I bought most recently is Hunter x Hunter vol. 37, in which the paper is bright white. My first ever manga was a used copy of the same series vol. 1, in which the paper is *very* yellow. They seem to change with age, and the exact coloration depends on the factors you mentioned, as well as things like environment, usage, yadda yadda, we could go on all day.  
---
### Answer by username_2 on 2024-11-15. Score: 4
Magazines like Jump tend to use 85% recycled paper for their pages.

[![85%](https://i.sstatic.net/pXvlSjfg.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/pXvlSjfg.png)

These tend to be cheaper than ones collected in published volumes. The color of these pages may very by publisher, but Jump tends to use green, yellow, and pink for their pages. The pages are cheaply made in order to keep costs down and because it's expected to have them be thrown away afterwards. Thus they are not suitable for long-term storage as they are fragile, vulnerable to deterioration from moisture and light.

As mentioned before the print paper used for magazine is mostly recycled. Usually when creating recycled paper, there is a process called de-inking is used. This involves bleaching to remove the ink and and dark spots or other imperfections like dirt. However as more recycled paper is involved in the process, the process becomes harder and more expensive. In order to save costs, coloring is used instead to mask the dark spots and other imperfections.

If you look at the sides of magazine you'll notice the pages are colored differently. The idea from the publishers is to vary the colors and keep things interesting and sometimes also separate different genres from one another.

[![look at the layers](https://i.sstatic.net/V0kwe3gtm.webp)](https://i.sstatic.net/V0kwe3gtm.webp)

You can't tell in scans because they artificially adjust the levels to clean them up, so often times the page colors go in noticed.

[![https://www.maruoh.co.jp/meioh/business/paper/](https://i.sstatic.net/cwbxeVug.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/cwbxeVug.jpg)
---
### Answer by username_6 on 2021-05-19. Score: 1
Solution: I also had this question, but I ended up having to make color combinations, print them out, and compare them to physical copies of manga I had. The closest color combination I was able to make was:
(R, G, B) = (238, 230, 201).
---
### Answer by username_7 on 2024-11-15. Score: 0
[![used hex code E4DAC9 for the colot ](https://i.sstatic.net/AJaqBTq8.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/AJaqBTq8.png)

ik I'm 3 years too late but I was trying to do the same thing for a project, I did this in Figma using E4DAC9 as the color, and used this tool to add grain: <https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1138854718618193875/noise-texture>

the borders look drawn by hand because I used a paint tool with a brush that looks like a lead pencil and I just made different patches and cropped out a part that I liked out of the patch and saved it as a PNG. Then set that as the image for the border (stroke setting in Figma) and set the stroke to the tile setting at 100%.
---
