Produce and share a Zine - do something with your photos!

And arrived, I'm pleased with colour reproduction, zine needs more work, as I was constrained by Mixam's test zine size/pages, but the proof of the colour element was good, so I'm pleased.


Like to see a video of how it looks. Quite fancy having a go myself.
 
And arrived, I'm pleased with colour reproduction, zine needs more work, as I was constrained by Mixam's test zine size/pages, but the proof of the colour element was good, so I'm pleased.

I wanted to do a test for my latest sheep zine - my first using Affinity Publisher. The problem was that Mixam only do the sample zines in portrait orientation and I wanted mine in landscape. What a faff trying to convert the Affinity file to the other orientation. I thought it would be dead simple to flip it on its side in one go. Not so... In the end I gave up. Made a new file in the desired orientation and copied and pasted each page across!

Now uploaded and awaiting delivery. :)
 
I wanted to do a test for my latest sheep zine - my first using Affinity Publisher. The problem was that Mixam only do the sample zines in portrait orientation and I wanted mine in landscape. What a faff trying to convert the Affinity file to the other orientation. I thought it would be dead simple to flip it on its side in one go. Not so... In the end I gave up. Made a new file in the desired orientation and copied and pasted each page across!

Now uploaded and awaiting delivery. :)
I had exactly that problem with Scribus and had to do the whole thing again, that was painful too :)
 
Another part of the Affinity Publisher learning exercise is what I'm doing at the moment. Putting together a book of text with accompanying pictures. Oh the joys of grappling with text flow and text wrap. :D

Although it's more fun than writing the text - which is what I ought to be doing first! :exit:
 
Another part of the Affinity Publisher learning exercise is what I'm doing at the moment. Putting together a book of text with accompanying pictures. Oh the joys of grappling with text flow and text wrap. :D

Although it's more fun than writing the text - which is what I ought to be doing first! :exit:

I did this to create a sort of travelogue of my recent holiday on Skye. I found the trick to be write the text in word, then copy it en-masse into the first text box, then add and link text boxes as you need them, allowing the words to flow through. Ended up being quite painless. If you need to add in an extra text box, it's simple to just amend the linking allowing the text to re-map.
 
I've just received 3 zines from 'Another Place' - and I have now pre-ordered the next 3 zines in the series. If you want to see a quality zine then buy one of these, they are beautiful, and certainly gives ideas on production values, layout and just overall quality - something to aim for!

https://anotherplacepress.bigcartel.com/category/zines
 
I did this to create a sort of travelogue of my recent holiday on Skye. I found the trick to be write the text in word, then copy it en-masse into the first text box, then add and link text boxes as you need them, allowing the words to flow through. Ended up being quite painless. If you need to add in an extra text box, it's simple to just amend the linking allowing the text to re-map.

That's what I'm doing. It didn't take long to get the hang of once I'd consulted the help pages. Using master pages is also useful to make global alterations. I'm well pleased with Affinity Publisher so far.
 
I've just received 3 zines from 'Another Place' - and I have now pre-ordered the next 3 zines in the series. If you want to see a quality zine then buy one of these, they are beautiful, and certainly gives ideas on production values, layout and just overall quality - something to aim for!

https://anotherplacepress.bigcartel.com/category/zines
I've had a couple of zines/books from them in the past and they are nicely produced and reasonably priced. (y)
 
So are we going to do this again?
New thread or continue this?
New theme or keep it open? New photos or old ones?
Longer deadline because Virus, or force people to work to one?

For me,

Happy to go again,
Not sure about thread. Lots of useful info here but unsure how to pick up new people who might be interested (do we want too many with cost of posting to lots of people?) I think probably keep the same thread but maybe update the OP with a catchy new title, as well as a link to the latest exchange "rules" and participants.
Happy to have an open theme - I think being forced to a theme/subject would put me off if I didn't like it.
Suggest a deadline of December 1st to post out, to give folks a bit longer. Whilst some have lots of free time, I'm up to my ears and would appreciate a longer lead. That would give me 6 months to shoot, and 1 month to build. However if we're talking about using existing images, I could cobble something together sooner. Personally though, I like the idea of shooting *for* a project rather than doing it after the fact. The current situation makes that difficult.

Unless we have a theme of "My Isolation 2020" :)

Ideas?

Tagging previous folks as well as those who have exressed an interest in the thread and may have stopped getting alerts to it. (Apologies if you were hoping to be forgotten, I won't tag you again!)
@sirch @Ed Sutton @Mr Perceptive @flook999 @Allan.H
@Jelster @mossienet @myotis @Solo man @Topsy @ChrisR @Baloo
 
If it's a December 1st deadline remind me in October or November!

No set theme for me, please. Apart from an inability to think up how to do it I enjoyed the variety of zine subjects first time round.

Maybe set a page count and possibly format for the zines?

Agree that too many involved has the potential to make post and packing expensive.
 
I have no interest in shooting someone else's theme unless they are paying me to do it :)

I tend to shoot "projects" anyway, at least outside the studio, so any deadline from 3 months and onwards would be OK, I have a couple of ideas already on the go which need developing (ie more photographs) which whilst difficult atm, is not impossible. One theme I'm working on is in two parts with the second being impossible to develop under current conditions, but I wouldn't necessarily shoot that for this project anyway.

In short, I'll shoot my own stuff and I'm not bothered whether it's a long or short deadline :)

In terms of participants, I think perhaps a cap on numbers at say 20 (here's hoping) as whilst postage costs are relevant, at least that way you're not paying more for the zines (at least not at mixam)
 
No set themes or formats for me, and not bothered about deadlines, I'm flexible with those. P&P may be more expensive with more people but the cost of the zine will be cheaper, I don't mind either way, anything thats less than the cost of a tank of petrol for a fun project is good value! We could arrange a Cheshire based meet this time to do a zine swap, thus saving on postage but obviously incurring fuel and beer costs!!!

I'm looking to up my production values next time.
 
We could arrange a Cheshire based meet this time to do a zine swap, thus saving on postage but obviously incurring fuel and beer costs!!!

Sounds like a thoroughly good idea.
 
No themes or format for me either, I have 3 on the go at the moment none are finished yet and because of the current situation one won’t be finished for a while.
The deadline of December sounds good as I might have at least one of them done.
 
I think we originally suggested doing he next one September/October time to avoid it getting lost in the Christmas fervour but if people want to go for December then I'm fine with that. Personally I'd like to keep it as open as possible and just let folk do whatever they want, it seems more in the spirit of zines to me. If there were some way of organising it I'd do away with the date too :) but I can't see a way of making that work.

I suspect it's better to start a new thread and link back to this one, it just means that any new comers don't feel lost at the end of a long thread..

I'm going to do a zine of the better images from my Covid shots, just for posterity but would probably do something else for this if its towards the end of the year.

A meet up would be good (y)
 
How odd. Mixam have sent me six 'free' proof copies of my sheep zine. Colours and text all look fine. Now to see if I can monetise the real thing!
 
yes I got 4 when I did a proof, seems to be just think of a number :)
Probably close to the truth.

I know from my involvement getting magazines printed the printers usually supply a few more than was ordered. They call them 'overs'. I guess they print a few more to allow for cock-ups.
 
I now have a PDF of my zine, ready for the next swap and have a couple of questions...

  1. When I look at the preview or proof PDF on the Mixam site I can see feint white lines on the pages, mainly on the cover around the blocks of text. Is this normal? They don't appear in the source PDF.
  2. How do I order a proof of the zine? I'd like to see a copy of it to make sure it looks as expected before buying the whole lot.
Thanks. :)
 
I now have a PDF of my zine, ready for the next swap and have a couple of questions...

  1. When I look at the preview or proof PDF on the Mixam site I can see feint white lines on the pages, mainly on the cover around the blocks of text. Is this normal? They don't appear in the source PDF.
  2. How do I order a proof of the zine? I'd like to see a copy of it to make sure it looks as expected before buying the whole lot.
Thanks. :)
Can you screen shot the whiteline thing?

To proof either order a 'free' 16 page tester [https://mixam.co.uk/sampletest] (only in A5, portrait, with limited paper options though), or lash out on a single copy (hint: keep adding one to the order and see if/when the price goes up - might as well get a few proofs as one for the same money).
 
Can you screen shot the whiteline thing?

To proof either order a 'free' 16 page tester [https://mixam.co.uk/sampletest] (only in A5, portrait, with limited paper options though), or lash out on a single copy (hint: keep adding one to the order and see if/when the price goes up - might as well get a few proofs as one for the same money).

I'm in the process of re-uploading the file (which take a million years to process before I can see it!), but I'll get a screen grab when it's there.

I looked at ordering a single copy, but it seems to be the same price of £24 for anything between 1 & 25 copies as far as I can tell. I presume I should be using the Booklets option?
 
I looked at ordering a single copy, but it seems to be the same price of £24 for anything between 1 & 25 copies as far as I can tell. I presume I should be using the Booklets option?

That's about the way it is unless you do a 16 page free copy. Booklets/magazines/brochures all seem to be the same at Mixam.

If you only want one copy and it's A5 give doxdirect.com a go. Print quality and paper will be a little different to Mixam but it'll give you a good idea how it'll look for less than £24
 
Not that it really matters, I imagine most interested people are watching both threads

Probably why I didn't notice this was the round 1 thread. :LOL:
 
This is an example of the lines in the preview - they appear around the text on my front and read covers. There are also lines in a grid on the proof PDF, but I'm assuming they're a standard feature of the proof format?

The lines on the preview are feint, but still there. They don't appear on my PDF original though.

I might upload a shorter 16-page version to nab a free copy as proof of concept...

Mixam lines 2.JPG
Mixam lines.JPG
 
This is an example of the lines in the preview - they appear around the text on my front and read covers. There are also lines in a grid on the proof PDF, but I'm assuming they're a standard feature of the proof format?

The lines on the preview are feint, but still there. They don't appear on my PDF original though.

I might upload a shorter 16-page version to nab a free copy as proof of concept...

View attachment 292599
View attachment 292600
I've nothing like that showing on my proofs. I'd check in whatever software you're using there's no border being applied to text frames. Or check the output settings aren't displaying something they shouldn't.
 
Back
Top