How to Make a Zine

Link to Google Drive folder with zine templates

In this tutorial, I'll be sharing how you can use this simple template to create a zine, and how to print it. You should know, however, that printing will take some trial and error, and you may have to adjust margins or image sizes in order for your zine to print perfectly and line up correctly front and back. For this reason, I would recommend printing your "experimental" copies in black and white as opposed to colored ink.

Let's get started! This tutorial will show you how to make an 8-page zine, which uses 1 regular sheet of printer paper (front and back) to print.

The first step is to decide how you would like to create your zine. In my case, I usually will use a digital platform, like the apps Phonto and Procreate on my iPad. You could also use Word, Publisher, or Google Docs. Additionally, I created my first zines on regular old printer paper with markers, paint, and colored pencils then scanned them in. If you choose to go this route and you don't have a real scanner, I've had good luck with the app CamScanner for iPhone, although it does require some patience to get the lighting right in order for the image to appear like a real scan.

Try to leave a bit of a border around each page, just to prevent printing issues. Images and text that go all the way to the edge tend to get cut off.

The most important thing to remember when creating your pages is to keep each individual page in the ratio of an 8.5 by 11-inch sheet of paper. This is the size my template is designed to work with, and it's important that you keep them this size for your zine to print properly. The template is made to print 4 8.5 by 11-inch pages per sheet, so each page turns out to be a quarter of the size of a regular sheet of paper. However, you can make each of the eight (total) pages 8.5 by 11 inches each, and shrink them down to the quarter-sheet size once you import the image to the template. This will allow for higher-quality images.

If you're going the digital route and are using a program that measures pages in pixels, try using 850 by 1100 pixels for each of your 8 pages.

Once you've created each page, save them as image files, like JPEGs or PNGs. Some programs will allow you to save them directly as this file type, on other programs you may need to take a screenshot and crop it. Then, you can use the template and a free online image editor (I recommend BeFunky, and that's what I'll be using in this tutorial, but you can use another if you prefer) to assemble your pages. Additionally, I would open up the site in two different tabs- one for the front template and one for the back. This will allow you to make changes to both throughout the process without having to start over. I'm using the pages of my Just Be Nice! zine here. I heavily utilized the line guides on BeFunky when designing mine- it made it really easy.