how to make a simple zine with google docs and spectrolite (and riso print it if you want to!)
a zine for you! and a (free!) workshop at Short Run on Saturday at 2pm
Are you a writer, poet, artist, publisher, photographer and/or person in general who wants to make a zine or book yourself? It’s so fun, and way less difficult than you might imagine. Books and zines don’t have to be complicated, or big, or long, or professionally designed, or “perfect” in any way. It may seem like you need to be selected by a publisher, but really, you can be an artist publisher and make them on your own or with collaborators, and they can be about anything you’d like. (My friend and collaborator Amy uses this process to make her google doc diary into a printed zine every few months, just for herself!)
So here’s a FREE ZINE to teach you:
How to make a PDF with your pages using Google Docs.
How to lay out the pages for printing double-sided (this is called imposition) using Spectrolite, a free Mac app that we make as ANEMONE. (You just pick what paper size you’re printing on, and drag and drop your PDF.)
Tips for printing on a regular printer or copier.
Then, if you want (very optional!) you can read about how risograph machines work, how to lay out your PDF to get it ready to print on a risograph machine. This includes prepping the grayscale files the riso needs (this is called color separation) and printing on bigger paper.
Download the zine to read digitally… or get the print-at-home PDF (for letter or A4 size paper), print it double sided, fold it in half and make yourself a physical copy!
Pacific Northwest people, SHORT RUN is this Saturday, Nov 1!! Adam and I are teaching a free 40 minute talk/workshop at 2pm. We will demo all the skills: make a google doc, download it in PDF form, use Spectrolite to make the print files! AND THEN! To finish, you get to collate, fold and staple yourself a copy of this zine to take home.
Here’s a picture of the risograph printing-in-progress of the copies that we’re bringing to Short Run for the workshop. We printed 4-up on 11x17” paper, then cut the stacks in half before collating. (What’s 4-up? What’s collating? Read the zine or come to the workshop to find out!!)
Even if you miss the 2pm talk, sneak up stairs to the Anemone Zine Production Tables in the hallway and make yourself a (free) copy of the zine. That will be open from 3-6pm (or whenever they run out - we made 150 copies which will hopefully be plenty).
Spectrolite is a free Mac app (sign up here if you want to be notified if there’s ever a Windows version)… Here is some big news: we are working on a new, standalone zine + book layout app and it will be Mac/Windows/(maybe Linux?)!
Also new at Short Run: prints of collages I made with Elizabeth Case when we made Crossing the ice among chasms together last spring.
Two different collages, printed on four colors of sure-to-fade-in-the-sun construction paper I found at a creative reuse store.
Short Run is 11am - 6pm at the Seattle Design Center in Georgetown. (New location!) Also, the new zines we just made will be in the swag bags for the first 50 people through the doors on Saturday morning.
Find us at Table 87 in the bottom left of the map, awash in the “sea of riso” with dear print pals including Taxonomy Press (who has a NEW TOMATO DIARY BOOK OMG!!!), Living Room Press, Zine Hug, BearBear, Secret Room, National Monument, Issue Press, Yewon Kwon, Paper Press Punch. That’s just the corner near us, the rest of the exhibitor list is also awesome.
Seattle / Pacific Northwest crew, hope to see you there!
—Amelia