Favorite Zine format?

[Ro- The Apocalypse Girl]

I'm working on the first issue of a perzine and have happy little images of different format possibilites floating through my head. What have been your favorite formats to either work with or read- do you go more for the standard size zines, or mini zines or one-sheet zines or something else entirely?

[kelley]

some of my favorites are quarter and half sizes.. mostly because of how they feel in my hands. don't really know how to describe it. ;)

[TheUnrememberedOne/MorbidiaDrekk]

I like quarter and half sizes. Quarter size are great to take along in my purse so I especially like them, but half size are great for the amount of content they can hold... bigger pictures and more words.

[Giz]

fullsize easily get crushed in my bag, so I prefer the half/A5 & quarter/A6 size.
but all the others between it are fun too.

[Amazing Sunflower]

8 1/2 x 11 folded in half. (I guess that's 8 1/2 x 5 1/2...I have to figure out the dimensions every time!) They fit in my backpack well and are easy to carry around. They also fit in an envelope that can be mailed at the (US) letter rate if it's not too heavy.

Full size is just too damn big to carry around and that size gets really banged up in my backpack. They also cost more to mail. Anything newspaper zine is unwieldy.

Minis are really cute, but I often find that the size limits the content. Mini zines often don't seem very deep, as if the zinester had to cut down on content so the zine didn't get too big.

[wendy lee lynds]

there is something about "little" that is so darn appealing. something that fits in my hand. it's a visceral thing, i think. they are charming and adorable and somehow *very* precious!

[fantasmagoric]

Quarter-sized.
They fit nicely in back pockets.

[nicci mechler]

i like 1/2 size and smaller with cardstock covers or a cool hand sewn binding.
i usually one shot them, unless i feel the need to serialize. then that just means adding a #2, etc onto them!

[Hannah / Frothy Press]

I've fallen in love with 1/8th size (4.25" x 2.75") minizines lately. You can get a reasonable 16 pages out of one letter size sheet or double that and still spend less than fifty cents on each copy, and my favorite typewriter's font is condensed enough that I can squeeze a lot of text on one page. 1/8th size is not far off from a business card or credit card; it feels familiar and comfortable in my hand and fits easily in a pocket. I like that size for how-to zines and introducing people to a particular topic. It offers just enough space for an informative overview and some small clipart, graphics, or photos, and you can write, lay out, copy, and assemble the whole thing in an afternoon. I want to create a whole series of how-to 1/8th size minizines.

[Amy]

Quarter.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

Mine are usually quarter sized landscape orientated, but recently I've really got into square shaped zines, 1/6 of an A4 sheet for mini zines, or 1/6 of an A3 sheet for bigger ones. The children's lit zine I'm (still) working on is 1/6 A3, so it's the same size square as the longer side of a quarter sized zine.

[Harley R. Pageot]

Quarted-sized are my favorite just because they're small and easy to toss in a bag.

I might try experimenting with different formats for one-off zines in the future but my regular series will stay pretty templated.

[False Start Distro]

I do love the ease of stuffing a quarter size zine in my back pocket. I've made quarter size and quarter legal, and I like them both. Maybe quarter legal a bit more since it's not that common.

For really text-heavy zines, I don't mind half legal, but that's about as big as I like 'em. I think there was an issue of That Girl that was that size and it worked really well. Overall I prefer smaller size zines though.