Zines | Foundations 101

Zines are independent publications produced in small batches and distributed in non-traditional ways. Zine-making resists mainstream media, ideals, and profit to offer an alternative, grass-roots mode of communication.

Creating Zines

Vice: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Zines
Creative Independent: How to Make a Zine
Jeff Phillip’s – big collection of resources
The Public: Comprehensive Guide to Developing, Making, Printing, and Distributing Zines
Video: How to Design a Photo Zine using InDesign
Graphic: Choosing the Right Binding Type
Video: Saddle Stitch Bookbinding Tutorial
Video: Kettle Stitch Bookbinding Tutorial

Zine-making Costs

Print on Demand Cost Comparison
The “Real” Cost to Plan, Shoot, Edit, Design, and Print a Photozine (Come Thru, It’s Lit example)
Book List focused on Zines & Independent Publishing

Image Credit

Suppliers

Red River Paper: 32 lb. Double-sided matte paper
Moab Paper: Entrada Rag 190 gsm Double-sided matte paper
Smartpress: Print on Demand, Free paper sample book
Newspaper Club (for printing newspaper-size zines)

“Indie Publishing: How to Design and Publish Your Own Book” by Ellen Lupton

An almanac from Worcestershire in c.1389, on sheets folded in different arrangements. There are many ways of telling time and predicting the future: the church’s liturgy, the farming year, the omens in thunder, astrology. The maker of this almanac shows them all, experimenting with words and pictures in various arrangements. He stitches the shapes and folds the edges of sheets into different designs for this varied information. MS. Rawl. D. 939. Anonymous almanac; copied roughly 1389; Worcestershire. Credit: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (credit)