Chocolat Vanilla Fansub

 1. Scanlation introduction

https://mangadex.org/

What is scanlation?

Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from the copyright holder. The word "scanlation" is a portmanteau of the words scan and translation. The term is mainly used for Japanese manga, although it also exists for other languages, such as Korean manhwa and Chinese manhua. Scanlations may be viewed at websites or as sets of image files downloaded via the Internet.

2. History of scanlation

- 1970s-1990s: The scanlation community is centered around a few large groups. Early groups distribute offline. Later groups are organized through IRC or usenet.

- Mid 2000s: The community is centered around release announcing sites that track many groups.

- 2007-2019: Groups "speedscan" popular titles and distribute through aggregation and online reading sites. 

In this era, raws were leaked three or four days before the magazines containing the new chapters went on the newsstands.

Like new chapter of One Piece shows on on Friday, while the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine is published on Monday. WSJ gets sent out to stores early so they can stock it for release day. Those one involved in the process can scan or sometimes take pictures of the chapter and then upload the raws online. This action is illegal and some of them were arrested, but it doesn't stop early raws coming out.

-2019-present: Manga Plus (stylized as MANGA Plus by Shueisha) is an online manga platform and smartphone app owned by Shueisha that was launched on January 28, 2019. Manga Plus offers free manga for free, which delivered a heavy blow on speedscan groups as the community criticized them for scanlating manga which are already free. And nowadays, there is no "speedscan"  group left.

3. How to scanlate a manga

1. Scan raws or finding raws

2. Cleaning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOt2T0tmJhM

3. Translating

4. Proofreading

5. Redrawing

https://youtu.be/jRX17vR0sXs?list=UUgz-Ex1DDtZVTqdFzZu8PEw&t=55

6. Typesetting

https://youtu.be/I6yYSoazdec?list=UUgz-Ex1DDtZVTqdFzZu8PEw&t=8

4. Legal or illegal

Scanlations are often viewed by fans as the only way to read comics that have not been licensed for release in their area. However, according to international copyright law, such as the Berne Convention, scanlations are illegal.

4.1. Moral gray area

Scanlation has always found itself in a moral gray area. While publishers and other professionals tend to see scanlation as copyright infringement and a threat to sales, fans and scanlators defend their actions by pointing out that scanlation helps raise awareness of lesser known Japanese titles that might otherwise go unnoticed. In some cases, scanlation helps build hype for a popular series before its release. Scanlators often scanlate unlicensed manga, something many fans consider completely acceptable. There are even rumors of publishers deciding which manga to license next based on the popularity of scanlated manga.

Most groups were in good standing with publishers and dropped projects as soon as they were licensed, much to the dismay of leechers of course (like when Toriyama's World dropped Naruto after Viz licensed the manga in 2003). Many translators and editors who worked in the scanlation scene during this period would go on to work in the U.S. manga industry. In fact, one of Toriyama's World's translators actually worked for Tokyopop. Scanlation during this period was more novel, and some even thought of it as something artistic.

Scanlation began its deeper descent into the legal grey area in which it finds itself today. As more groups formed, the community's old ideal of scanlation as a means to introduce lesser-known manga to fans was replaced by the cheap notion of it as a way to get free manga. Some groups formed simply to continue work on licensed series dropped by other groups.

Even worse, as time passes, the newer readers usually think manga is free and newer scanlators would like to have some profits from their scanlating works. Many of them think it is right for them to get some money for something they worked on (editing/translation). As a late-born, probably many of them don't know the original ideal of scanlation.

5. Is it profitable?

Most scanlators do it for hobbies and for free. However, aggregator sites (kissmanga, mangapark, ...) leech the scanlated manga, without scanlators's permission, and host them online so that they can make money through Ads. Scanlators themself also translate manga without the permission of authors and publishers, so it is hard to argue against aggregator sites.

While most scanlators do it for hobbies, a not small number of scanlators also do it for money, for example, via donation. Nowadays, some aggregator sites even work together with some scanlation groups so readers will have need to pay to read the latest chapters for some popular series.

Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanlation

https://www.insidescanlation.com/history/