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How to Make a Zine: A Complete Beginner’s Guide
How to make a zine from idea to finished copies: choose a format, plan the pages, make a master, print, fold, bind and share it. Clear steps and diagrams.
Read the guide →Quillfold Studio · handbooks for paper makers
Make zines that fold right the first time.
Clear, fully illustrated guides to folding, binding, printing and sharing zines. Every page order worked out, every stitch drawn, every template at actual size.
- 12 in-depth guides
- Original diagrams
- Free Letter and A4 templates
The one idea that changes everything
Half the pages go upside down. On purpose.
Most first-zine disasters come from one thing: the page order on the sheet is not the reading order. On a one-sheet mini zine, the top row is drawn upside down so it comes out the right way after the fold.
Once you see the map, you can make any zine. Our guides show the map first, then every fold.
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All 12 guides → 
Tutorial · 10 minutes
How to Make an 8-Page Mini Zine from One Sheet of Paper
Fold an 8-page mini zine from one sheet of Letter or A4 paper with a single cut. Page layout map, 8 illustrated steps, troubleshooting and a free template.
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Start here
What Is a Zine? Meaning, History and the Kinds You Can Make
A zine is a small, self-published booklet made for love, not profit. Learn what zines are, where they came from, the main kinds, and how to make your first.
Read the guide →From one sheet to a stack of copies
Fold your first zine
One sheet, one cut, eight pages. Learn the page map and the eight folds, then fill the pages with anything you like.
Mini zine tutorial →Bind and print it
Move up to booklets: page order for 8, 12 and 16 pages, duplex settings that work, staples and sewn bindings.
Imposition guide →Share it
Price it from the real cost per copy, trade, take it to a fair, place it in shops and libraries, or teach a workshop.
Selling and sharing →
Quillfold Studio Handbooks · Book 1
The Complete Zine Making Handbook
From one sheet of paper to a fair-ready edition. Every fold, cut and stitch drawn step by step, every page map worked out for you.
25projects
7bindings
60zine prompts
130pages, 8 × 10 in
See what’s inside Available soon on Amazon
More guides
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Layout
Zine Layout and Imposition: Page Order for 8, 12 and 16 Pages
Why zine pages are not in reading order on the sheet, and exactly where every page goes for 8, 12 and 16-page zines. Maps, a formula, layout tips and checks.
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Paper
Zine Sizes and Paper: Letter, A4, Half-Letter, A5 and Paper Weight
Every common zine size from US Letter and A4, how many pages each sheet makes, which paper weight to use in lb and gsm, and how paper grain affects folds.
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Binding
How to Bind a Zine: 7 Bindings Compared, from Staples to Stab Binding
Compare 7 ways to bind a zine: long-reach staples, the foam-board trick, side staples, pamphlet stitch, five-hole stitch, Japanese stab and rubber band.
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Tutorial · 15 minutes
How to Sew a Three-Hole Pamphlet Stitch for Zines
Step-by-step three-hole pamphlet stitch for binding a zine with needle and thread: hole spacing, thread length, the thread path, the square knot and fixes.
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Printing
How to Print a Zine at Home or at a Copy Shop
Print a zine double-sided without upside-down pages: duplex flip settings, booklet printing from a PDF, copier settings, cost per copy, paper and risograph.
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Ideas
Zine Ideas: 50 Prompts for Beginners, Students and Friends
50 zine ideas sorted by who you are making for: yourself, a class, a friend, your town or a cause. Plus how to shrink any idea into an 8-page zine plan.
Read the guide →About the studio
Small things, made properly
Quillfold Studio publishes the Quillfold Studio Handbooks, written under the pen name Margo Quillfold. The series makes clear, fully illustrated guides to making things with paper, for beginners who want to get it right the first time.
Every guide on this site is free, and every diagram is drawn for the studio. Nothing here is left as a placeholder for you to figure out.
More about the studio →