What is a .clip file?
Clip Studio Paint Document · Design · Celsys · 2012
A .clip file is a Clip Studio Paint document, the standard tool of manga, comic and anime-style illustrators. It stores layers, vector lines, 3D pose models and animation timelines in one working file.
What is a .clip file used for?
Clip Studio Paint (formerly Manga Studio) dominates digital comics: its .clip format keeps everything editable, from pen-pressure vector strokes to panel rulers, speech balloons and frame-by-frame animation.
The format is proprietary to Celsys and no other editor opens it, so sharing means exporting: PSD for other paint apps (layers survive), or PNG/JPEG for finished pages. Files sync across devices via Clip Studio's own cloud.
What opens a .clip file?
The .clip format opens in the following apps, grouped by operating system. If one app does not work, try another from the same list.
Windows
- Clip Studio Paint
macOS
- Clip Studio Paint
Linux
- No native option; use an exported PSD/PNG
Open a .clip file step by step
- Confirm the file really is a .clip. Drop it into the WhatFileType identifier, which reads its signature in your browser without uploading anything.
- On Windows, open it with Clip Studio Paint.
- On Mac, use Clip Studio Paint.
- On Linux, try No native option; use an exported PSD/PNG.
- Still stuck? Convert the .clip to psd, which opens more widely.
Why can't I open my .clip file?
Almost always because no installed app understands Clip Studio. Install one of the apps above, or convert the file to a format your existing software already reads. If double-clicking opens the wrong program instead of nothing at all, the file association is set to the wrong app rather than the file being broken.
The other possibility is that the file is not really a .clip at all. Drop it into the file identifier to check it by its bytes instead of its name. Nothing is uploaded.
How to convert a .clip file
You can convert a .clip file to psd, png, jpg, tiff using a conversion tool or the export menu of an app that opens it.
Clip Studio has no fixed magic number, so there is no signature table on this page. Its bytes alone do not prove the format: identification relies on the extension, the structure of the content and the program that created it. The magic-numbers reference lists the formats that do carry one.
Frequently asked questions
What is a .clip file?
A .clip file is a Clip Studio Paint document, the standard tool of manga, comic and anime-style illustrators. It stores layers, vector lines, 3D pose models and animation timelines in one working file.
How do I open a .clip file without Clip Studio Paint?
You cannot; no other app reads the format. Ask for a PSD export, which keeps the layers, or a flat PNG. Clip Studio Paint itself has a free trial if you need one-time access.
Can Photoshop or Procreate open .clip files?
Not directly. Export from Clip Studio Paint to PSD; both Photoshop and Procreate open that with layers intact, though vector layers become raster.
What is the difference between .clip and .psd for comic work?
.clip preserves Clip Studio's special layers (vectors, rulers, 3D models, animation); .psd is the interchange copy that other software understands but flattens those extras.
Related formats
Sources
Details on this page were checked against authoritative references. How sources are ranked and what is deliberately left out is set out in the methodology.