SELF PUBLISHING - RESEARCH BRIEF - PRINTING/FINAL

Final Design (mockup)

To get a feel for what the final design is to look like I created a digital mockup which shows it flicking through the pages. This helped me to see whether the pages work well once away from the InDesign, which it did seeing it in this format made me rethink the place for some of the images so I went back and fiddled around with them until I was happy with it.

Printing Process 

Stage 1 - Photocopying 

Before printing, we both decided on paper to use for the zines. We wanted to use standard G.F. Smith Colorplan paper but we thought that this wouldn't have been true to the DIY aesthetic that we wanted the zines to have. Instead, we found so bulky newsprint paper which has good texture on it which again adds to the overall style of the zines. For the front cover, we used some standard 100gsm coloured stock which gave the book some structure as the inside pages were rather flimsy.  

To produce the final copy of the zine, Rob and I decided that we should use the university photocopiers to reproduce the zines, this being true to the DIY culture of zine making. This is also the first time myself and Rob have used these methods of reproduction within zine making so the process was trial and error. 

Front cover - £1.50
Newsprint - £2.00

Once we understood the settings to use on the photocopier it was easy to scan in each master page on to the selected paper, this was added to the manual tray so that we didn't jam the printer. The same was done with the covers. I was really impressed with the outcome of the print from the photocopier - as it is 100% Kyan this means the image appears as lots of very small dots which is similar to RISO. The photocopying also means that not every page is accurately placed so there are some quirks which again adds to the DIY aesthetic. I can also see how easy it would be to do a large print run as all you have to do is put in how many copies of each page and then it fires out the pages, this is something that I will be doing more of in the near future. 

Master pages - £2.00
Finals - £3.00

Stage 2 - Pagination 

• While printing I made sure I sorted out each page into the right order so that they could then be folded and bound. It was important to keep them in order at this stage as it would have taken a long time to reorder the pages after. 
• As the zine is 20 pages long this meant that there were only 4 pieces of paper to order not including the front cover. 
• Once printed I then folded each page by hand as the folding machine was not in use making sure that it was as accurate as possible. 

 
Stage 3 - Cutting and Binding 

• Once I had folded all of the pages I used the bookbinder (stapler) to accurately staple all of the pages together. 
• I used a majority of standard staples but I also found some hocked staples which add makes the binding method slightly more interesting, I liked the final outcome of these ones the most. 
• The pages weren't all flush so I used the large cutter to make sure all the pages were neat and tidy to finish it off.