Mangaplay is a way to write stories then visualise them as a manga, comic or screenplay. There is a Chrome Extension that runs inside of Google Docs, or you can try it right here on the website with no installation required. The extension requires permissions only for the specific Google Doc via a Google Picker, with a Google Slides version coming soon. Your story and art lives in the browser.
Mangaplay turns plain text into visual storyboards instantly. No drawing required. You write your script in a simple markdown-like format and the preview updates in real time as a manga, comic, or screenplay layout.
There's no AI involved. It uses pure math-based text measurement to lay out panels like a typesetter would.
It runs entirely in the browser with zero setup.
Most storyboarding tools require you to draw or drag-and-drop assets. Mangaplay lets you go from words to visual page layouts as fast as you can type.
It is designed to work alongside your other tools. The goal is high turnaround, simply put, to get your story out there as quick as possible.
No AI generation. Just clean layout math. 100% human-made.
Writers, manga creators, and comic makers who want to quickly mock up storyboards without needing to draw.
Screenplay writers who want to visualise their script as panels.
Anyone collaborating with artists who needs a fast way to communicate page layouts.
If you can type, you can storyboard.
I was working on my manga Dorothy and kept hitting hurdles trying to communicate my vision. I found myself using MSPaint.exe constantly just to sketch out rough page layouts.
Eventually I built a simple tool to turn my writing into storyboards so I could explain myself more easily to artists and other writers.
That tool became Mangaplay.
Mangaplay is built with JavaScript and runs entirely in the browser.
It uses a custom text measurement engine to calculate panel layouts mathematically. No DOM reflow.
The whole application can run as a single HTML file. No server, no framework dependencies, no build step required for the end user.
Bun is used as the development runtime and bundler.
