Are your zines hand done, cut-and-paste or desktop published...or both?

[Samantha Blythe]

How do you make your zines?

[star blanket river child]

hand done, definitely. I love the feeling of getting sticky from gluesticks and trying to figure out how to fit something on a page that I accidentally printed too large. it's frustrating and times, but so rewarding when you're done, and you can say, I did that, with my hands.

Though, I have nothing against desktop published, it looks so nice and neat, I just... like to really get in there and get dirty.

[twilight gecko]

gluesticks and double sided tape! yeah, i actually cut and paste from hand.. print some stuff, hand write some..

[St. Joshua Norton Press]

Mine are laid out electronically using something called LaTeX, which is typically used for laying out scientific papers. It's what I know, so it's what I use. I've had thoughts of making a cut-and-paste zine, though, just to try it out.

[W. Alan Fare]

I've always done cut-n-paste, but it's been a honed craft. I've used computer printers in the past, but now I've gone back to the old style. I like the look of simple typewriting and clip art and that's where I feel most comfortable, so that's going to be my medium for the time being.

[Amber / Culture Slut]

Cut and paste all the way!

[sandy]

My first few zines were cut&paste, but I prefer doing it electronically now. Both ways are fun, but computerness is more practical for me these days - smaller workspace, nosey cat, can work from different places without lugging around paper & glue. My head is still used to cut&paste, though. It's still weirds me out a bit, remembering that there's more flexibility with software. :)

[Katie Deee]

Cut and paste!!! I have started to write my zine by hand which I love. I couldn't do it all electronically.

[incurable hippie]

Mine are generally typed on the computer, then totally cut and paste for layout. Except my 50:50 zines which are handwritten.

[tim scannell]

cut 'n' paste
...'puter text print-out (various fonts)
paras from magazines i like...
ads...clipart...stickers from shops/grocery...
drawings...'puter art..paste all down and then
UPS/Mailbox for best copy-buy...
i got 37 zines copied for $5.48 (tax incl)
last week...viz., 15 cents/zine!!!!!
and their color/b&w copiers are REALLY
sharp...clean white against whatever else
you've pasted down...old b&w photos and
this week's magazine snippets are both
CLEAR!!

[raequel aka systris]

i format the text/images on computer, print and cut out the elements and paste them together. sometimes i have stuff that arent from the computer that i just stick on collage style.

[AniDay/WAY]

I'm doing my first one on the computer.
Drawings in Adobe with a tablet, and eveything else in Indesign. I am very much a fan of "undo".
Like Sandy, my workspace is limited and I like being portable ;-)

Though, in the future I might do the drawings in ink and then scan them.

[Mulnix]

The mock-up I do when designing and laying out an issue is cut-and-paste, but the entirety of the final draft is laid out in InDesign, and converted to a pdf format.


I've done cut-and-paste zines as well, and that process has its own merits, fer sure. You get a more organic look and feel you can't get with computer design. My goal is to eventually use both techniques together in an effective way.