Ian Worth planned his zine the way some people plan a hike. Before he had shot a single frame for it, he asked us what 50, 60 and 70 pages would cost, so he could picture the layout and the budget while he was still out in the field. A few months later he was holding 30 Days Vol. 1, a square photo zine of the coast and woodland of southwest Wales. This is how it got there, in the order it happened.
Early April: a form, a sample pack and an honest warning
Ian’s first message came through our website form. Our first reply set out how we approach photobooks and photo zines: silk or gloss for the closest match to the screen, with uncoated as a softer option that soaks up ink and can flatten contrast. We also told him, plainly, that printed colour never matches a screen exactly, and that we would print the best possible version of his files.
He asked for a sample pack that morning. It arrived, in his words, “super quick”, and inside was a minimalist photobook by another photographer that stopped him. He wanted his own to have “A minimalist feel that concentrates purely on the photography.” So we priced his zine on that book’s exact spec: 210 x 210mm, a matt laminated 350gsm silk cover, 170gsm silk pages, perfect bound. Finding a spec by touch is a very good way to do it. If you are unsure what you want, hold the options first.
That evening Ian asked for the extra page counts. He planned to spend the next five or six weeks shooting, and knowing the price of each extent let him build the sequence with the numbers already in mind.
Late May: files, greens and a first copy
Ian came back with two PDFs and an admission: he was new to InDesign. His greens looked bluer and less saturated in the PDF than in his edits. That is normal. Bright colours mute when they convert to CMYK, and we suggested lifting colour balance, brightness and levels in Photoshop to put the energy back. Our checklist for print-ready PDFs covers the export side.
He had settled on 58 inside pages and wanted a single printed copy first, for two jobs: checking the layout and running a pre-sale for his YouTube audience, where he shares laid-back photography adventures and practical tips. When the files reached us, our reply opened with “Superb photography!” We were also clear that this first copy was for the layout, not a colour match to the final run. Ian apologised for all his questions; we told him to keep firing them over.
Early June: the first look inside
The copy reached him in early June. Ian’s verdict: “it looks awesome mate”, and he was “really pleased with how it came out”.
The cover is a dark close-up of rippled sand, with his name and the title set small in white either side of a fine rule. All the colour waits inside. Wind-bent trees dissolve into fog. A sheep peers out of the hollow of a mossy trunk. A puffin poses against a soft green blur, sea cliffs catch a fiery sunset, and pink and green aurora pours over castle ruins.
Our notes on the zine kept coming back to range. Long-range landscapes give way to close-ups of wildlife, then to ethereal overhead views of the coastline, and the handheld, tripod and drone work blend so smoothly that you stop trying to guess which is which. Ian organised the edit by subject and location, using single-line captions on otherwise empty pages as chapter openers, such as Waves Dance Painting the Coastal Canvas before the cliffs. Generous white borders give each picture the stillness of a print on a gallery wall. The colour is exceptional, and the whole thing plays like a photographer finding his own way of seeing a place he loves.
Late June: pink skies and a change of press
With the pre-sale wrapping up and going well, Ian raised one worry. In the aurora shots, the wide areas of pink looked a little flat, and the transition into the night sky showed banding. We checked his export first. He had used PDF/X-1a:2001 with FOGRA39, the profiles we recommend. We talked through how image size and dot gain behave in print, then offered litho: more expensive, and the best possible quality.
He took it, keen, as he put it, “to get the very best quality print”. He also chose to keep the artwork he had already proofed rather than reworking it: “Otherwise, I will never get the project finished.” A 5mm spine carries his name and the title, which makes a pile of copies look like a small library.
Mid July: the boxes arrive
We printed on our Heidelberg litho presses and warned him the zines would probably turn up in a big red van. When they did, Ian wrote:
“Just to let you know, I’ve received the zines, and they look great, I’m glad I went down the litho route.”
Ian, landscape photographer
The story has a neat loop. A sample book in our pack gave Ian his spec, and 30 Days Vol. 1 has since gone out in the sample packs we post to other photographers.
Ian’s spec is a 210mm square, perfect bound, its 58 text pages printed on 170gsm silk beneath a matt laminated 350gsm cover; cost one like it through our photography zine printing.
Thinking of something similar? Price your page counts before you shoot, choose your paper by feel, and treat big areas of smooth colour, such as night skies, as a reason to ask about litho. Our thoughts on what makes photographic pages print well go deeper. Then do what Ian did and ask for a sample pack to rummage through.
PaperbacksA5, 44 pages, perfect bound£246for 100
Product cataloguesA5, 28 pages, stapled£166for 100