zine sizes

[Jerianne]

I'm taking an informal poll. What size do you think a "small" zine is? What size is a "medium" zine to you? And what size is "large"?

[Eunice]

Large would be A4, medium A5 and small would be quarter size, A6. And minizines are those one page A4 sheet folded.

[kit feral]

Hm... I guess I think of small as anything under a quarter, medium as quarter sized, and large as half sized and up.

[James N. Dawson]

Actually the names used in Zine World never really gave me much of an idea of the zine size. I often had to flip around and find the guide that explained them. I may have remembered them a little better lately though. The sizes I remember from the Friedman's FS5 were standard, digest, half-legal, mini, micro-mini, tabloid and "odd" (going from memory). I've never bothered to learn A4, A5, etc., though I guess I should try to one of these days.

[NicoleIntrovert]

Anything smaller than Quarter is small, quarter up to 1/2 standard is medium, 1/2 legal and up for large.

[Jerianne]

We are, in fact, thinking of changing it. One thing I like about using S, M, L, etc is that this takes up much less space than writing out standard, digest, tabloid. So I think we are likely to continue using some sort of abbreviation system. Would it help if we printed a "key" every few pages throughout the reviews (instead of just on one page?

I do think it is interesting that some of you suggest quarter-size and half-size zines should be listed as the same size. To me, they should be different sizes. There's a big difference in an 8 page half-size zine and an 8 page quarter-size zine, in terms of how much content they can contain.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

You could use F (full page) 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/6 etc which would make it clear and easy to categorise whether they are on US sizes or A4

Jerianne said:

We are, in fact, thinking of changing it. One thing I like about using S, M, L, etc is that this takes up much less space than writing out standard, digest, tabloid. So I think we are likely to continue using some sort of abbreviation system. Would it help if we printed a "key" every few pages throughout the reviews (instead of just on one page?

I do think it is interesting that some of you suggest quarter-size and half-size zines should be listed as the same size. To me, they should be different sizes. There's a big difference in an 8 page half-size zine and an 8 page quarter-size zine, in terms of how much content they can contain.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

Basically:
A4 is about the same size as letter- a little longer and thinner
A5=half A4
A6= half A5 / quarter A5
A3= double A4

James N. Dawson said:

Actually the names used in Zine World never really gave me much of an idea of the zine size. I often had to flip around and find the guide that explained them. I may have remembered them a little better lately though. The sizes I remember from the Friedman's FS5 were standard, digest, half-legal, mini, micro-mini, tabloid and "odd" (going from memory). I've never bothered to learn A4, A5, etc., though I guess I should try to one of these days.

[Elaine]

I've heard it two ways, the PHYSICAL format of the cover being large (standard 8 1/2 x 11") medium (folded legal size paper) and small (8 1/2 x 11" paper folded twice). The other way is the thickness----a few pages = small, 20 sheets of paper being medium, and half an inch thick or thicker being large.

I don't know which one is considered the standard way of thinking, but I've seen it both ways here in the Midwest USA.