Ahhh Zines! The smell and feel of them fresh off press, the aura around their stapled pages, their cult following. A self-publishing niche driven by the determination of creative brains seeking continual reinvention and a desire to put ink on paper in an age where print is supposedly finished. All of this rocks our world.
Increasingly we are seeing zine printing being used for self-promotion portfolios, by businesses looking to reach a new audience and as a vehicle for photographers to self-publish images from a recent trip. Ultimately there are very few rules for zines – you choose the layout and we’ll print it!
At the heart of our process at Ex Why Zed is the Print Journey.
5 steps where you can enjoy comprehensive guides, illustrated articles, captivating videos and insightful blog posts. These resources empower you to make well-informed decisions about design and styling, propelling your project from an initial idea to a zine you love.
➡️ To get started, here is our Get Inspired Hub for inspiration about design, styling and print choices.
“this is one of the most inspirational creative videos I’ve ever watched, cant wait to get printing….” @energypimpin
Sit back, grab a notebook and we will methodically guide you through the entire process. Our fun and informative video highlights how zines have proved the perfect solution for artists, small presses and independent publishers to promote their creative work.
We give an in-depth oversight in to size, paper and binding options then showcase illustration, photography, poetry, music and skate zines dissect the winning combinations.
We get it, you have never printed anything before? Don’t worry, we have! Our friendly and patient team will guide you through the whole process.
Is printing and binding a zine at Ex Why Zed easier than it is on the library photocopier? Absolutely, but you knew that already, right!
For a deep dive into our paper choices, sizes and binding check out the Styling Hub in our Print Journey.
or kick back and enjoy our video Understanding Paper Types for Zines
>> The three basic paper finishes are Silk, Gloss or Uncoated.
Silk is slightly shiny, gloss is bright and, well, glossy and uncoated has a softer, matt finish.
Choose 90-170gsm for your inside pages.
As a guide: 90gsm is super thin like photocopier paper. 115gsm and 130gsm are the choice for 99% of zines we print. These are thick enough that images don’t show through. Next up is 170gsm, a bulky thick paper that will feel glorious when your reader is flicking through.
You can have the cover and inside pages onto the same weight, this is called a ‘self-cover’ zine. For example, all of the pages from the front to the back would be 115gsm Uncoated.
Choose a weight between 170 and 350gsm.
• 170gsm is a thick paper.
• 200 and 250gsm are lightweight card, flexible and easy for the reader to open.
• 300gsm is the standard card choice for zine covers. It is a nice weight card.
• Pick 350gsm if you are after a super bulky feel. 350gsm is best saved for zines larger than A5 or it can be too rigid to open.
If you choose 200gsm or more for the cover, then ALWAYS laminate the cover to prevent the ink cracking. This is especially crucial if the cover is on uncoated. Without lamination your zines will look tatty when they arrive.
Grab yourself one of our free printed sample packs. Fill in our form or ping us an email on hello@exwhyzed.com
When choosing a size format, we can print any size up to A3 portrait (staple bound) or A4 landscape (stapled and perfect bound). A3 is 420x297mm and would be a formidable size zine. A4 is 297x210mm. US Letter is 279x216mm and we can of course print that too.
A4, A5, 210x210mm and A6 are most economic but we can print all bespoke sizes too. There is a pricing cut off at A4 so for zines larger than A4 and up to A3 they have to be printed onto our B2 press which has higher set up costs.
For something larger or a little more bespoke, check out our Newspaper Printing options.
There are generally two ways to bind your zine: wire stitching or perfect binding.
In the wire stitching process, the sheets are printed, folded in half and bound with two staples on the spine.
Our second option is perfect binding where the text block is trimmed to size and the cover is glued on with a square spine.
The rule of thumb is wire stitching works for up to 40 pages. For 40 pages or more, perfect binding will produce a more polished looking Zine.
Get inspired with our showcase of recent zine projects.
These are real life case studies printed for real people, not naff images of what a zine might look like. Yep, you’ll have seen these on the funny, cheap websites.
“Ex Why Zed have been printing So Young since the very first issue and are key in the development of the magazine and how it looks. We were fairly clueless when it came to getting the work ready for print when we first started four years ago but the team at Ex Why Zed patiently walked us through the process and more or less gave us a free Indesign tutorial along the way. By issue three we were getting it right first time which they appreciated as their hard work with us had paid off. The print process now consists of a few emails back and forth and before we know it the boxes are on our doorstep ready for launch day. We caught up with the team about their ethos and the future of independent publishing.”
Josh and Sam, Editors of So Young.
We have done our best to give you a huge wealth of information on this page and in our guides but here are some frequently asked questions to help you get your work into print.
If you haven’t already seen it, do also watch our feature length Definitive Zine Printing Guide
Our Ex Why Zed YouTube channel is packed with 1-2 minute showcase snippet videos giving you a great visual overview of zine styles and watch our FAQs video for smaller more manageable pointers.
Absolutely, you can contact our customer service team for any questions regarding your zine printing needs. Find us on 01206 766647 or hello@exwhyzed.com Our patient experts can guide you about the range of paper size options including custom ones you can use, depending on what you want to achieve. Any questions, do give us a shout, remember we are here to help on email, phone and live chat.
A zine (pronounced “zeen”) is a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine. Zines can include comics, personal essays, political views, fiction, DIY tips, articles about music or movies, poetry, reviews – anything under the sun!
If you are not familiar with the concept of zines, they are DIY self-published booklets with their own underground subculture devoted to making, selling (though usually not for much), and trading them. Many different sectors embrace Zines are a way of gaining exposure, prominence and for swapping ideas within niches. Zines culture has traditionally been a space where people from marginalised identities and subcultures can get their voice out there without being censored. Zine culture has punks, gamers, queer people, anarchists, people of color, working class folks, feminists, teen girls, neurodivergent people, lowbrow artists, poets and more. Zines are weird, wild, wonderful, and can contain just about anything that can be made out of paper, ink, and staples. And the best part is, whether your zine is mundane, niche, strange, or incomprehensible, there’s an audience for it in the zine community.
We have three basic choices for paper type:
We print the majority of our Zines’ inside pages onto either 120gsm uncoated or 130gsm silk. This is thick enough that images dont show through too much and feels quality.
If you’d like a thicker cover then go for a 300gsm stock.
A4, A5, 210x210mm and A6 are most economic but you can push the boundaries and choose any bespoke size too! Maybe 254x203mm (or 10×8) will work best for your photography? We can print up to A3 portrait (an imposing 420mm high x 297mm wide) and A4 landscape (210mm high x 297mm wide).
Wire stitching is a little bit of print jargon for ‘stapling’. To confuse things even more it can also be known as ‘saddle stitching’. Let’s stick with stapling though if that’s easier 🙂
If you have an A5 zine then we print it onto A4 sheets, fold them in and put two staples along the left-hand edge to bind the sheets together.
Saddle stitched zines are the most popular because they’re easy to make, versatile and cheap to print. With this method, the pages are folded and bound with staples in the middle. However, depending on the binding you choose, it may reduce the number of inner pages you can use.
The perfect bound method of binding will give your publication a square spine and professional looking finish.
For further advice follow our perfect binding set up guides.
Lamination is a thin film that we apply over the top of your printed cover to give it more longevity and to prevent scuffing and ink cracking. It only adds around £4 to the total cost but really helps your zines arrive looking in pristine condition.
Choose from matt, gloss or soft-touch.
Matt Lamination works best with silk and uncoated covers. This is a our recommended go-to lamination choice. However, we would suggest using gloss lamination if you are aiming for a super shiny, high impact cover. Soft-touch has a velvet, illustrious feel but does attract finger marks REALLY quickly so best not eat your lunch before reading! In recent tests a soft-touch laminated zine ended up looking like we’d eaten a bacom sandwich off it within minutes – stick to matt or gloss instead.
ALWAYS LAMINATE THE COVER IF IT IS 170gsm OR MORE (especially on uncoated). The short answer: when paper is printed, the ink sits on the surface. When it is then folded to make your cover the ink can crack. While you should never judge a book by it’s cover, this cracking will look unprofessional. Lamination is a thin layer of protection which prevents the ink cracking. Win win. It comes in matt, gloss, soft-touch or anti-scuff. Our advice would be to stick to matt or gloss, the other two are awful 🙂
Our process is quick and efficient. We aim to deliver all digitally printed zines up to 500 copies within 3-5 working days. If you are going for a longer print run then we will litho print it to bring your cost per zine right down. Best to allow 7/8 working days. Bespoke additions like fold out pages, premium papers and finishes will extend the timeframe.
Three of our favourite wire stitched zine specs:
A5 Portrait Booklets
4pp Cover onto 170gsm Uncoated
24pp Text onto 100gsm Uncoated
Full colour print throughout
Trimmed, collated and wire stitched
Makes for a great compact zine. Small enough to read on the tube. Uncoated pages are crisp and robust.
A5 Portrait Books
4pp Cover onto 30gsm Uncoated
Matt Lamination to outer
56pp Text onto 115gsm Uncoated
Full colour print throughout
Trimmed, collated and perfect bound
For a more substantial, book-like zine to showcase more of your work.
We offer a range of binding options me when you print your zine. This includes saddle stitched zines or folded sheets bound with staples in the middle. Depending on the binding, you might need to add blank pages at the end of your zine.
Some popular options for zine binding include stapled binding (also known as saddle stitched binding) and perfect binding. Stapled binding is one of the most commonly used methods, especially for zines using single pages and up to around 60 pages. Perfect binding, where the pages are glued together at the spine, is a better option for thicker zines. Wiro binding is generally chosen when the zines need to lie flat when opened. A good online zine printing service will provide you with various binding options to choose from.
Try these print specs out:
A5 Books
4pp Cover onto 300sgm Uncoated
Matt Lamination to outer
92pp Text onto 115gsm Uncoated
Full colour print throughout
Trimmed, collated and perfect bound
or for a smoother, slightly shinier option…
A5 Books.
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Silk
Matt Lamination to outer.
72pp Text onto 130gsm Silk.
Four colour print throughout.
Trimmed, collated and perfect bound.
The rule of thumb is wire stitching for upto 40 pages and for 40 pages or more perfect binding will produce a more polished looking Zine. We CAN staple up to 72 pages but do expect it to bounce a little and not sit flat once the cover is opened. This gives it a charm though and aesthetically resembles an old-school zine that might have been photocopied and put together by hand.
Yes, ‘text’ pages is our common term for the inside pages of your publication. They can be filled with illustrations, photography, full colour artwork…or just text if it’s a poetry book.
A: Yes! The inside back cover of your zine can be used for additional content or even advertisements. Also, you may want to add blank pages, depending on the binding method you choose.
For the purposes of our quoting, we call a page one side of content. So, a sheet of paper has two pages – a front and a back. If you ask for a quote for 40 inside pages, that will be 40 pages of content, 40 pages in your artwork file / pdf and in the book 20 leaves printed on both sides.
The number of pages in a zine can vary greatly. Some people opt for a simple one-page folded zine, while others go up to 60 or even 80 pages. It really comes down to what story you want to tell. However, keep in mind, certain binding options, like saddle stitched or stapled zines, are more suited to certain page numbers. The online zine printing service you choose should be able to guide you on this.
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Yes! There are a whole host of brilliant sites out there dedicated to Zines and self-published books. Here are a few to whet the appetite:
Zine Wiki
Zine Distros
London’s (sorry to the rest of the world!) 20 best Zine shops
Village Bookstore – the place to get your Zine listed!
Self Publish Be Happy
Yes you can print a flat colour for the cover. There aren’t really that many paper mills who supply colour paper which we can print on and the ones that do, you know who you are, are really expensive and not great for an indie press. So, we recommend printing a flat colour as a background to act as a base behind grout artwork and achieve the same visual appearance. Works better on uncoated, there’s something not quite right about a flat colour on silk, it has a slight sheen which we find untroubling. The Matt finish and slight grain of uncoated lends itself better to overall background colours. Here is a video guide with some great tips showing how to print coloured covers for cheap: https://youtu.be/CX-lO0b78jw
We don’t advertise our prices online because we prefer to open up a conversation with you and find out a little bit about the project. Your artwork is unique and bespoke, so in turn, we will provide you a unique and bespoke print quote for your job. I am sure you will take no fun in looking at a boring spreadsheet with rows of bemusing numbers so we don’t put you though that.
Next you’ll need to set up the artwork for print. Dont be put off using Adobe InDesign – it’s easy! Have a read through our uber-helpful step by step file set up pages. The guides really do make the process much easier and will answer 99% of the questions you may have.
Indesign have a one week free trial but you could also try Affinity Publisher or Scribus (we haven’t used either so cannot vouch for them but increasingly our customers are starting to send artwork generated using these two programs).
For perfect bound zines (40 pages or more)
Our cover guide, templates and video tutorials
For wire stitched zines (40 pages or less)
Ultimately you’ll need to send us a hi res PDF with crop marks and 3mm bleed.
If you have any questions then please do drop us an email or call and we’ll be happy to talk you through it.
thought. chicken. egg. doodles. scribbles. drawings.
coffee .jackd. inspiration. art. mac. scan. illustrator.
photoshop. indesign. artwork. inkjet. proof. recline.
ponder. tweak. ponder. tweak. save .export. contact. discuss. quote. send. inbox. save. open. awe. smile. laugh. pagination. check. preflight. check. paper. ink. plates. print. bind. magazine.
Great question! Zine printing is the process involving the production of small-circulation, self-published works of original texts and images, which are usually reproduced through photocopying. Zines often cover an array of topics including, but not limited to, zine art, illustrated stories and photography zines.
Hi, we’re Ex Why Zed! We are a reliable place to print your zine in London. We’ll even pay the delivery for you so the Zines will arrive the day after they leave us and we don’t charge for this.
Our zine printing service provides extensive print options. If you request a quote, we are keen to print your project so we will be back with a fast, custom quote. Our Maxim zines and quality max printing are standard from Ex Why Zed.
Start with planning your zine layout because this is critical to the effectiveness of your visual narrative. Consider the number of pages, whether you need to include a spine, and also the type of binding options you have. In most zines, use of stapled zines or saddle stitched methods are popular, as the pages are held together neatly. For the final touches, finalise your front cover design and if required, add a blank page or your content for the inside front cover.
A great place to start is the Styling Hub in the Ex Why Zed Print Journey.
The chosen paper weight largely depends on the desired final look and feel of your printed zine. Heavier paper tends to make the zine feel more high end and robust. However, a lighter paper is more cost-effective and easier to fold, which is ideal for single pages or brochure style zines. You can always contact our zine printing team to guide you through this or grab a sample pack to see in real life what the different finishes are.
We make it as easy as possible. Follow our print journey to style your zine, get a print quote, design the artwork then supply it to us for a free file-check.
At Ex Why Zed, we use a professional workflow for designing and printing your important work. Rather than throwing some JPGs at a screen then keeping your fingers crossed that what you have uploaded to a faceless website is correct (Yes, this is what the other cheap online websites, like to call ‘Good Customer Service’). We are always here to answer your questions and help you get past the pain points in your journey.
Yes, with photo zines, the layout plays a crucial role as it helps to guide the reader through the visual narrative. Pages should be visually balanced and photos should ideally be of high resolution. Whether printing in colour (CMYK) or black and white, keep a check on the tones and the 5mm bleed, if necessary. Always do a test print to ensure the images are clear and well-arranged.
Do grab a drink of your choice and take a few moments to look through our portfolio of previous zines.
A: First, you’ll want to finalise your zine design. Collect all your photos and creative content, and make sure everything is high-resolution, ideally at 300 dpi. Once your design is ready, upload your zine online to get an instant quote from a printer.
A: At Ex Why Zed we offer Account Managed, professional zine printing and will send over a bespoke quote for your unique zine. Within minutes one of our friendly team will send you a quote in the best email you will receive all day – packed full of helpful information to move the project forward.
A: The main options for zine printing include the size of the zine, paper type for both cover and interior pages, and whether you want it in black and white or full colour. We also offer custom sizes from A6 right up to a massive A3.
A: The length of your zine depends on your content. If the zine is going to be staple bound (wire stitched) then we print in increments of four pages due to the folding and binding process. A common size for zines is around 32 pages, but you can go smaller or larger based on your project. This is entirely dictated by your content.
For perfect bound zines, we need a minimum of 32 pages but over 40 works best and will give you a 3mm spine.
A: Ultimately all we need to print your zine is a high res PDF format artwork file. This ensures all your layouts and fonts are preserved and will look the same on our machines as they did on yours. Make sure to include a bleed area if your design goes to the edge of the pages.
All major programs have the ability to Save As or Export To PDF.
A: The paper for the inside pages can vary depending on the look and feel you want. Our three basic options are silk, gloss or uncoated.
If you would like to see them first and make an informed decision, do request a free, printed paper sample pack.
A: Yes, we offer the flexibility to print custom size zines. Choose any size from:
• 148x105mm to 420x297mm portrait
• 148x148mm to 297x297mm square
• 148x210mm to 210x297mm landscape
A: For high-quality photo zines, ensure all images are at 300 dpi resolution. This will help maintain sharpness and clarity when printed. Additionally, using silk or gloss paper can enhance the look of your photos. The coated finish makes the colours jump off the page and gives the reproduction extra sharpness.
A: We have no minimum order, making it easy to print even a single copy of your zine. The more copies you print, the lower the price per zine will be.
We can also print you a test copy initially so you can get a feel for the zine and make changes before the final print run. We just charge this test copy at our cost price to print, bind and ship it.
A: We haven’t got an in-house designer at the moment, but do take a look at these pages for ideas on designers to approach.
https://exwhyzed.com/finding-a-book-designer-on-fiverr/
https://exwhyzed.com/finding-a-book-designer-on-peopleperhour/
Or if you would prefer to work with an agency for a more tailored approach then these articles will help:
10 Agencies to Design Your Book For Print
We’ve done the heavy lifting for you and even written a design brief to send to a few designers you like the look of:
https://exwhyzed.com/design-brief-for-photography-book-artwork-for-printing/
Hope that helps!
