Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines.
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Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines. May I ask what programme you use for the design of pages with more text? Especially for #minizines ?
I only know Indesign for professional books, and my last mini #zine was drawn/written by hand, then scanned.
Any simple software recommandation just for a hobby? (And I don't have the money to pay Adobe-Stuff). How do you make your zines?
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Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines. May I ask what programme you use for the design of pages with more text? Especially for #minizines ?
I only know Indesign for professional books, and my last mini #zine was drawn/written by hand, then scanned.
Any simple software recommandation just for a hobby? (And I don't have the money to pay Adobe-Stuff). How do you make your zines?
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Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines. May I ask what programme you use for the design of pages with more text? Especially for #minizines ?
I only know Indesign for professional books, and my last mini #zine was drawn/written by hand, then scanned.
Any simple software recommandation just for a hobby? (And I don't have the money to pay Adobe-Stuff). How do you make your zines?
@NatureMC I use Affinity Publisher, which works in a very similar way to Adobe InDesign, but the big difference is that the Affinity creative suite, including Publisher, Photo and Designer, is now FREE!
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@impalcature @NatureMC
❤️ looks so simple! -
Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines. May I ask what programme you use for the design of pages with more text? Especially for #minizines ?
I only know Indesign for professional books, and my last mini #zine was drawn/written by hand, then scanned.
Any simple software recommandation just for a hobby? (And I don't have the money to pay Adobe-Stuff). How do you make your zines?
@NatureMC I’m trying to lean into an open source stack, so I use Scribus for page layouts. It’s been working so far, though things always need a little bit of manual attention
PS: who makes zines on your feed? I would love to broaden that specific horizon!
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@impalcature Thanks!
Do I understand it right that I need a readily designed pdf and this is something like a converter into different sizes?I'm searching for a kind of desktop publishing program: choosing typography, placing texts/Fotos/graphics, designing the pages ...
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@NatureMC I use Affinity Publisher, which works in a very similar way to Adobe InDesign, but the big difference is that the Affinity creative suite, including Publisher, Photo and Designer, is now FREE!
@StevenLawsonPhotography Great to hear, thank you! This can be also used for more than zines.
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@impalcature Thanks!
Do I understand it right that I need a readily designed pdf and this is something like a converter into different sizes?I'm searching for a kind of desktop publishing program: choosing typography, placing texts/Fotos/graphics, designing the pages ...
@NatureMC @impalcature
Someone in the comments on zine arranger posted this.
Might be worth looking into.
“ Scribus is pretty good! the UI is not as slick as InDesign but it also hasn't crashed on me which ID loved to do. It doesn't have the handy "print to booklet" setting built in but Zine Arranger more than makes up for that.” -
Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines. May I ask what programme you use for the design of pages with more text? Especially for #minizines ?
I only know Indesign for professional books, and my last mini #zine was drawn/written by hand, then scanned.
Any simple software recommandation just for a hobby? (And I don't have the money to pay Adobe-Stuff). How do you make your zines?
-
@impalcature Thanks!
Do I understand it right that I need a readily designed pdf and this is something like a converter into different sizes?I'm searching for a kind of desktop publishing program: choosing typography, placing texts/Fotos/graphics, designing the pages ...
@NatureMC @impalcature That's correct! ZineArranger just flips pages around to get them ready to print. For making the PDF, I used to just use LibreOffice Writer (a free program like MS Word), which really does a fine job. Recently I have started using Scribus, which is also free but is a little more toward the InDesign / MS Publisher route, where it's a bit more technical but you can get more in-depth with the layout
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Quite a lot of people in my feed create #zines. May I ask what programme you use for the design of pages with more text? Especially for #minizines ?
I only know Indesign for professional books, and my last mini #zine was drawn/written by hand, then scanned.
Any simple software recommandation just for a hobby? (And I don't have the money to pay Adobe-Stuff). How do you make your zines?
@NatureMC I use InDesign, since I need it for my day job, but have every intention to teach myself Affinity Designer so that I’m not dependent on Adobe
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@NatureMC I use Affinity Publisher, which works in a very similar way to Adobe InDesign, but the big difference is that the Affinity creative suite, including Publisher, Photo and Designer, is now FREE!
@NatureMC @StevenLawsonPhotography Woah, I did not hear this news that they had opened up publisher for free! I might have to second guess my software loyalties…
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@NatureMC I’m trying to lean into an open source stack, so I use Scribus for page layouts. It’s been working so far, though things always need a little bit of manual attention
PS: who makes zines on your feed? I would love to broaden that specific horizon!
@miksimum Thank you!
Examples: @StevenLawsonPhotography or @susankayequinn
The best way to discover people is by subscribing to hashtags. I subscribed to #zines
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@StevenLawsonPhotography Great to hear, thank you! This can be also used for more than zines.
@NatureMC It can, Affinity Photo is a very capable Photoshop-like program, while Designer is every bit as capable as Illustrator, and they all work beautifully together from the same interface.
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@NatureMC @impalcature That's correct! ZineArranger just flips pages around to get them ready to print. For making the PDF, I used to just use LibreOffice Writer (a free program like MS Word), which really does a fine job. Recently I have started using Scribus, which is also free but is a little more toward the InDesign / MS Publisher route, where it's a bit more technical but you can get more in-depth with the layout
@nash Thanks for explaining.
I just had a look into Affinity, someone recommended, that's more what I look for. -
@NatureMC I use InDesign, since I need it for my day job, but have every intention to teach myself Affinity Designer so that I’m not dependent on Adobe
@tylerzonia In former times, had InDesign for the job but since I'm freelanced ... Affinity Designer looks quite good.
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@NatureMC @StevenLawsonPhotography Woah, I did not hear this news that they had opened up publisher for free! I might have to second guess my software loyalties…
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@StevenLawsonPhotography Great to hear, thank you! This can be also used for more than zines.
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@NatureMC It can, Affinity Photo is a very capable Photoshop-like program, while Designer is every bit as capable as Illustrator, and they all work beautifully together from the same interface.
@StevenLawsonPhotography I will have a look at it!
On the other hand, I do love drawing mini-zines by hand on real paper. It feels so wonderfully liberating from AI slop and also my job, where I had to fill books and newspaper pages. 😎 I can allow myself to be a dabbling amateur again. 😁 https://ko-fi.com/s/700d3d3138
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@impalcature Thanks!
Do I understand it right that I need a readily designed pdf and this is something like a converter into different sizes?I'm searching for a kind of desktop publishing program: choosing typography, placing texts/Fotos/graphics, designing the pages ...
Zinearranger sorts pages of a PDF document suitable for creating various booklets. This is a quite handy tool for postprocessing.
E.g. Scribus for writing or the now free available Affinity suite (but which constantly phones home...)
Or if typography is on top and design second (and you're used to work with a markup language: Something based on LateX/conTeXt or perhaps Typst
https://javadibrahimli.github.io/blog/2026/i-tried-typst-and-actually-loved-it/