Ligne claire
Also called Clear line
A drawing style of uniform-weight outlines, flat colour, no hatching and no drop shadow, where every object in the frame is drawn with the same attention.
Near it
Hatching
Corporate illustration
Flat designWhat it is made of
| line | "clear strong lines sometimes of varied width and no hatching" | Wikipedia, "Ligne claire". Read whole, 2,247 words, 2026-09-11. A TERTIARY SOURCE THAT FLAGS ITSELF: the article carries the banner "This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources", dated November 2008 and still there. Quoted as what it is |
| contrast | "contrast is downplayed as well. Cast shadows are often illuminated" | Wikipedia, "Ligne claire". Read whole, 2,247 words, 2026-09-11. A TERTIARY SOURCE THAT FLAGS ITSELF: the article carries the banner "This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources", dated November 2008 and still there. Quoted as what it is |
| colour | "the style often features strong colours" | Wikipedia, "Ligne claire". Read whole, 2,247 words, 2026-09-11. A TERTIARY SOURCE THAT FLAGS ITSELF: the article carries the banner "This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources", dated November 2008 and still there. Quoted as what it is |
| background | "a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background" | Wikipedia, "Ligne claire". Read whole, 2,247 words, 2026-09-11. A TERTIARY SOURCE THAT FLAGS ITSELF: the article carries the banner "This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources", dated November 2008 and still there. Quoted as what it is |
| who made it and who named it | created and pioneered by Herge, the Belgian cartoonist; "The name was coined by Joost Swarte in 1977", which the article footnotes to Dafna Pleban, "Investigating the Clear Line Style", ComicFoundry, 7 November 2006 | Wikipedia, "Ligne claire". Read whole, 2,247 words, 2026-09-11. A TERTIARY SOURCE THAT FLAGS ITSELF: the article carries the banner "This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources", dated November 2008 and still there. Quoted as what it is |
| AND THE PRIMARY EXISTS AND WE DO NOT HOLD IT | David Pinho Barros, The Clear Line in Comics and Cinema: A Transmedial Approach (Leuven University Press, 2022), described in the article as "the first monograph entirely dedicated to the clear line" | NOT HELD AND UNREAD. Named here so that the next person knows what to get rather than reaching for the same tertiary. Every claim above is sourced to an article that says of itself that it needs better sources, and an entry that hides that is doing the thing this wiki exists not to do |
Where it came from
The Franco-Belgian tradition, named retrospectively by Joost Swarte in 1977 for the manner of Hergé's Tintin.