ZonBoards

Today we are printing a zine, from a PDF!

I've found one of my biggest problems with printing zines, specifically games I have found on Itch.io that don't offer physical copies, is getting them into a "printable state"

This state, is a Booklet file!

All a booklet file is, is an organization of the pages so that when they are printed out, front and back, and folded, they create a zine. The best example of this is printing front and back 8.5 x 11in sheets, stacking them, and folding them.


Today we are using the miniatures game Death Cut In Stone by Midnight Publishing. You can find it here.

A PDF is laid out to be readable on a computer, or tablet... obviously. But when you go to print that, you just get a big stack of paper with either 1 page (A single page of the game) or 1 Spread (Two of the pages of a book, on one sheet) on each. If you fold the spreads in this way, it will be all out of order.

Booklets solve this issue by reorganizing the pages into spreads, and creating a Signature: a printed sheet folded multiple times—typically into 16, 32, or 64 pages—that acts as a single unit in bookbinding. Our zines count as 1 Signature. In a normal book, you would have many of these back to back sewn together.


For our Booklet file, we want page 1 (Or front cover), and the last page (Back cover), say page 32, on the SAME sheet. That way, when you fold it, the front cover is on the front, and the back cover is on the back. Simple! This would mean that on the REVERSE of this sheet, we need page 2, and page 31. This is where it starts to get confusing, and why we need a tool to turn all these pesky pages into a Booklet for us!

There are a lot of paid tools out there, and Indesign and all that, but we are making these at home on the cheap, so here is the solution.


The Javascript Booklet Creator


Upload your -Single Page- PDF (Not spreads). Most of everything else can stay untouched, unless you need bleeds, padding, or paper changes. But for now, this should be good enough to get us a print!

I uploaded Death Cut In Stone, and it spit out a document in the correct order. Horrah!

Next up is physically "Binding" this zine. The whole purpose of this post is absolute ease, and lack of materials, so we are keeping it as simple as possible.


We have our Booklet printed. Take the whole stack, even them out nice, and fold them over in half, all at once. You can do this sheet by sheet if you'd like, but it's a pain. Don't worry if the middles stick out, they will, because the middle spreads will be pushed out by the spine thickness. We'll fix this in the next step.

Fold it nice and flat as possible, I have a nice bone paper folder, but you can use your fingers, or a wooden ruler or anything that wont tear up the sheets as you press down on the spine to flatted out your fold. I am told a plastic knife or spoon works well!


Time to staple it! Lay the book inside-down. I have this nice booklet stapler I got off Ebay for 20$. Its vintage and has a ridge so the booklet alighns the edge well. It's nice, but unnecessary. A longer stapler is nice, so it can reach to the centerline you folded, but you can make this work with any random stapler. You may have to roll the cover so that it doesn't hit the inside of the stapler and you can reach, but were doing this quick and dirty so it will survive!

With two staples in, fold the book back and now its... a book! But- we can make it even nicer. We have this white border (because our printer always prints smaller than the paper) and we want a "Full Bleed" (Ink goes to the edge of the pages) book!


This is hard to do with scissors, but possible. A metal ruler, box cutter, or exacto knife works better. I have a fancy paper book cutter as I do a lot of these, but thats not what were doing today. Quick and Dirty! DON'T CUT YOURSELF. If you are worried about the very sharp knife, ask for some help, or just use a big pair of scissors.

The important part here is to lay the book down and keep it squished. Line your Metal (Plastic or wood you may gouge with the knife) along the edge of the print of the front page. See all those pushed out and poorly aligned pages on the edge? This is where we fix them!

Press the ruler down hard so it doesn't slip, and use the edge to cut with the knife, The best way to do this is let the knife to do the work. It needs SOME pressure, but if its sharp, just drag it along a few times, and it will slowly slice through all the pages. Use a cutting mat or cardboard below this is important, you'll cut into your table otherwise.

Notice here the page numbers get close to the edge. This is what we call "Creep", where the inner pages Creep outwards as the spine gets thicker. When we cut the edge off, we lose some of these inner pages, and more the thicker the book gets. We can adjust for Creep in programs like Indesign, but for now, Quick and Dirty! Works well enough.

Repeat on the top and bottom and BOOM We have our ink right to the edges, and a beautiful little book!

Great write up, Zon! I have found that the old-style wooden rulers that have a metal edge embedded on one side and a rounded edge on the other can act as both a paper folder and a cutting guide and are pretty cheap too. Pacific Arc has them, but they can also be found in most office supply stores. Always appreciate your posts

Those rulers are great! I had a wonderful old wooden one for a long time... I think my mom stole it from me. (I may or may not have stolen it from her first.)

This metal one is from a woodworking Combination Square. Essentially a ruler inside of a sliding 45* angle for making nice angles and cuts.

I pick them up at a tool thrift shop or goodwills now and again, and pull them out of the angle holder. Sanding them down makes for a very sturdy and nearly indestructible ruler!