Activity Guides
Making a Zine
What is a Zine?
A zine (pronounced “zeen,” short for magazine or fanzine) is a small, independent publication usually in a small booklet format, made by hand, photocopied, or shared online. A great thing about zines is that they are easy to make and inexpensive to produce. Zines are often created by individuals or small groups and are typically distributed in small quantities, through local communities, events, or online platforms.
How to Make a Zine
The simplest form of a zine is a one-page zine, which can be printed on a single sheet of paper and folded into a small 8-pages booklet. You can create a one-page zine by drawing, writing, or collaging on a single sheet of paper.
This wikiHow article is an illustrated step-by-step guide to making a zine. It’s a great starting point for creating your first zine. And if you prefer a video tutorial, How to Make a Zine by Austin Kleon, is a short and fun introduction to zine-making available on YouTube.
You can also use some of the tools listed below to create a zine digitally and print it out. And if you’d rather just use ready-to-print zines, you can find them in the Zine Library.
Illustration by 1pagedungeons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Zine Making Tools
- p5.(gen)zine by Munus Shih and Iley Cao is an open-sourced and friendly p5.js library for zine-making.
- The Electric Zine Maker by alienmelon is a printshop and art tool for easily making and printing zines.
- Zine Arranger by Nash Hight, arranges multi-page PDF files into a printable zine layout.
Zine Collections
- Tiny Tech Zines
- Zine Libraries of The World by Barnard Zine Library
Submit Your Zine
Go to the Zine Library to submit your zine and explore the full collection.
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