Solo Entrepreneur's Guidelines for Printing Zines
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Mabel Wynne, a seasoned DIY zine creator, offers valuable advice for those embarking on their zine-making journey. Here are some tips to help you create an affordable and authentic zine.
Binding
When it comes to binding, consider using simple and affordable methods such as folding pages in half and stapling along the fold with a long-arm stapler to create a booklet-style zine. Alternatively, you can hold pages together with rubber bands or thread/string for a handmade look. The folding technique can be customized—you can fold sheets in halves or thirds depending on the zine size and layout.
Finishing
Embrace the DIY aesthetic—zines traditionally use whatever materials are on hand (pens, markers, stickers, fabric, washi tape) to decorate and personalize pages. When using a photocopier or printer, remember to think about how your design will look when copied, ensuring clarity especially for black-and-white copies.
For digital zines, tools like Canva (free PDF export), Electric Zine Maker (printable zine builder), or flipbook makers can help polish and distribute your zine easily without printing costs.
Cost Reduction
To keep expenses low, use repurposed or ordinary materials like printer paper, scrap images, newspapers, and inexpensive art supplies. Photocopy your zine in black and white for cheaper mass reproduction; black-and-white xeroxing is a traditional and budget-friendly method. DIY binding instead of professional services cuts costs significantly. Utilize free and open-source digital tools to create and distribute zines online, reducing printing and distribution costs entirely.
Overall, the focus in DIY zine-making is on creativity, personal expression, and sharing ideas affordably, rather than on producing a polished commercial product. Binding with staples or folds, finishing with basic art supplies, and using accessible materials and photocopying keeps production low-cost and authentic.
For a comprehensive guide on the full production process and examples of binding and finishing, check out the video guide from Ex Why Zed. Mabel Wynne has also written an article discussing the full details of zine making, including managing finances and distributing zines.
Prototyping the end result can help reveal potential design issues before they become problematic. A printer can help arrange finishing steps, but they can also be done independently to reduce costs. The concept of creating a zine is subversive, as it allows ideas to be given physical form and shared directly with people. The process of creating a zine shares similarities with designing and building kits or hardware.
The binding of a zine can impact its layout and design. Some zines might benefit from professional production while retaining their core appeal. The binding options include saddlestitch, spiral binding, and others. The choice of binding can affect the entire document's layout and design.
Zines are DIY, punk- and hacker-adjacent by nature. The origins of 2600, for example, are in print, but oddball disk magazines demonstrate that a zine doesn't necessarily require paper.
In the DIY zine-making world, just like home-and-garden projects, repurposed materials and creative binding methods can help create an authentic and affordable lifestyle. Utilizing common office supplies, such as staples or rubber bands, can contribute to this aesthetic while keeping production costs down.
Zines can also be a digital extension of hardware projects, experiencing a similar ethos of subversion and sharing ideas through accessible digital tools, just as the hacker-adjacent 2600 began in print but evolved to embrace oddball disk magazines.
