Help with formatting and page order for printing/photocopying

[skylar frances]

I'm in the process of making my first zine. I have all of the content
done - 20 individual pages, 5 signatures, I believe it's called. I'm
making a quarter page sized zine.

Now, I have each page cut out as a loose ~4.25in x 5.5in page, so that I could rearrange the order and work on the layout.

The trouble here is figuring out how to position things for photocopying
and printing. I thought I had the gist of the ordering the first time,
for both the back and front sides of each paper to be copied. I thought I
had all of the pages in the right orders so that when I compiled them
together it would be in the correct order and working nicely.

I've printed my zine out, in what I thought to be the right formatting
to work nicely, twice now, and both times I've failed. I thought I
should ask for some help before I end up printing more paper that won't
end up being used for this zine.

Can anyone help a newbie out?

Edit: I think I've figured it out... Let's see if third time really is a charm!

[kath]

if this helps, sometimes it's useful to fold up a practice one and write numbers/something on it (eg page#s), then unfold and you can see how/where the text needs to go for the one you're printing. or what I try, print out the text, cut up the paragraphs/words etc then fold the page and stick the cutout text onto it. do this for the whole thing. then print that (unfolded) - this is then the master for the photocopying, then photocopy how ever many copies I want and fold them up. keep the master unfolded in case you want to copy more (I put into a folder with plastic sleeves)

[Roberto Holanda]

i do what kath says, and even everything gets right! even hold fold up versions for 8 / 16 / 32 pages for future references. hope you release your zine and trade with us! humm, even can send to you, skylar, a copy of one of my folded zines cutted and one uncuted, to you see how I do. cheers, Roberto Hollanda

[skylar frances]

I appreciate it guys! I ended up just staying up late last night until I figured it out. I pretty much had my previous attempts correct, except a couple of pages were mirrored of how they should have been. Pays to double check, I guess!

But I've made a little legend for myself in the future now, and I have my first completed zine, and pages to be photocopied to make more!

[Harley R. Pageot]

Yeah, it would just be:

Page 1 front:
20 1
18 3

Page 1 back:
2 19
4 17

Page 2 front:
16 5
14 7

Page 2 back:
6 15
8 13

Page 3 front:
12 9

Page 3 back:
10 11


Which is why divisors of 8 are better for quarter-paged zines. That way you're not wasting any paper.