Why Zine, not book…

    You really want a book / but printing costs are prohibitive. I've done a few through on-line printers (small volume orders) and was never all that happy with them anyway. One I had printed by a local printer who let me supervise the process – offset. The only one I didn't actually lose money on. I've done four Zine-books now and am very happy with the results. One side note – I'm doing b&w performance photography for a theatre troupe now, and the Zines are for them, at cost.

 Where to go to make a Book-Zine… (Hey, it comes out as a "Book)

    • First, realize that Zines are printed differently than books – on large sheets that are then folded and chopped. This makes for more demanding layout restrictins. Easily followed. Many printers do both books and zines.

    * You will want a printer that offers (almost) as many options for Zines as they do their books. I find Mixam does a more thorough job there than any of the others I have checked out:

    • Pages: satin finish, I found only at Mixam, is a good book-like touch. 100lb paper is a must.

    • Ink: they all use the same ink, consistency in printing and quality control being the biggest issues. Mixam has been very consistent (so far always including their test-copy with the order).

    • Cover: most Zine printers offer only up to 110lb cover, while 130lb does a more book-like job, expecially if accentuated by including their heavy Gloss Lamination.

    • Size/configuration choices: most offer just a few basics, Mixam offers twenty some, including a slightly larger 8.75x11 option.

    • Mixam on-line pricing/order form is user friendly and slick, as is their file upload system.

    • A little more expensive than the others – but still much cheaper than books.

    * The result is, for all intents and purposes, a book. No wonder other printers hesitate to cut into their book printing by going there.

STEP I – on site, using Mixam as a guide

    • Go to their Magazines & Booklets/Zines page – you will find a form to fill in that automatically sets things up, including price.

    • Mixam will keep everything right there during the process.

    • Enter: # of copies / color or Grayscale / portrait or landscape / select 1 of over sizes

    * For an image book select coated both sides paper / Satin (nice paper) / 100lb wt (tried the 80, too thin)

    * For a Zine-book select "Perfect" binding

    • Estimate the number of pages / add cover-coated 130lb / I like the Gloss cover / Color or Grayscale

    • I do order the gloss lamination for the cover, making it more handleable

    • On the right you will see your price and can get shippint – all this is changeable at any point – I have ordered as few as three.

    • Below on the right download your template set for the size Zine you are ordering

    • W/b&w there is so often an issue of slight color tints to the results – Mixam is a great relief in that that has never been a problem. b&w is B&W.

I filled in a sample order for a typical b&w photography "book":

Notice printing cost is only about $10 a "book" – and that's only because the first one, if ordered alone, is about $60 bucks. With shipping you are at only about eleven bucks. And what you get is definitely more "book" than Zine.

Note. • I've done 160 pages and don't recommend over 150 max. That "book" is pictured below, a quality paper-back art book:

STEP II – put your book together… DOWNLOAD YOUR TEMPLATES AND BEGIN

    • What you will want is PDFs for the pages ( though quality jpegs will do), cover and spine. You need software that lets you follow the rather restrictive Zine template guidelines. Not as daunting as it sounds.

    • Affinity Publisher is free and does 95% of what InDesign does, but does that intuitively. Get it! or – if you prefer, download the new Canva Affinity version – it combines all the old Affinity apps into one. Also free! Links:

Canva Affinity (all inclusive): https://www.affinity.studio/download 

Individual Affinity apps (including Publisher): https://store.serif.com/en-us/update/universal-licence/ 

I use the Canva Affinity package, but it might be simpler to find video help learning this very intuitive thing using the pre-Canva independent version (and it is much smaller to install.

I won't go into many details other than a couple of tips:

    • Higher resolution images (close to 300dpi best) / high quality jpegs are fine

    • Any question you have has a video to explain in "Publisher" – the Canva version is a little behind on that

    • Set up (using the templates as a guide) with guidelines that let you know where your given positioning limits are OR get someone to help by "setting-up" the file.

    • Center according to guides, not page.

    • Even if you creat as a two-page set-up, export as single page PDFs – they will be conveniently numberd for simple one-shot drag-drop upload.

    • If you will have full bleed pages, set up bleed on your document. Avoid two page spreads unless you are pretty savvy.

    • Keep the Resource Manager dialog open for managing images.

    • When done, export to PDF separate pages - they will be conveniently numbered to select all / drag / drop on the on-line order page.

    • The Spine and both covers can be done in Affinity (or anywhere) separately and exported to pdf

Throughout the process, as long as you have your computer screen on a reasonable brightness, you will see a pretty accurate estimate of the results, on all the pages. Mixam makes double sure both they and you are satisfied before going to print.

LINK TO THE HOW-TO PAGE