You’ve got a stack of paper, a messy pile of ideas, and a pair of scissors that probably shouldn’t be trusted with fine motor skills. Making a zine is easy, right? Well, until you realize that how to fold a zine is actually a geometric puzzle that has defeated many a bright-eyed artist at 2:00 AM.
It’s tactile. It's messy.
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There is something deeply satisfying about turning a single sheet of $8.5 \times 11$ paper into a multi-page book. No glue. No staples. Just physics and a little bit of patience. If you do it wrong, your pages end up upside down or, worse, you've just made a very expensive piece of confetti.
I’ve spent years in the DIY scene, from the early days of Xeroxed punk flyers to the high-end Risograph culture of today. I've seen every mistake. The most common one? People think they can just "wing it" without understanding the orientation of the layout.
The Magic of the Eight-Page Fold
The most popular format is the "one-sheet wonder." It’s an eight-page booklet made from a single piece of paper. Most people think a zine needs to be a complex production, but this specific method is the backbone of zine culture. It's efficient.
First, lay your paper flat. Landscape orientation is best here. You’re going to fold it in half three times, but the order actually matters for the crispness of your spine. Fold it "hamburger style" (the short way), then unfold. Fold it "hotdog style" (the long way), then unfold. Finally, fold the outer edges into the center crease.
When you unfold everything, you should see eight distinct rectangles. This is your grid.
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Now, here is where everyone messes up: the cut.
You aren't cutting the whole thing. Fold the paper back in half (hamburger style). Use your scissors to cut along the middle horizontal crease, but stop once you hit the center point where the vertical and horizontal lines meet. If you keep going, you’ve just made two strips of paper. Congrats. You've failed.
Why Your Pages Are Upside Down
This is the technical bit. If you’re drawing directly onto the paper before folding, you have to realize that the top four panels are oriented differently than the bottom four.
Think about it. When the paper is folded, the "top" of the sheet becomes the "back" of certain pages. If you draw everything facing the same way, half your zine will be upside down. Honestly, it’s a rite of passage to mess this up at least once.
- Panels 1, 2, 7, and 8 (the bottom row) usually face "up."
- Panels 3, 4, 5, and 6 (the top row) must be drawn upside down relative to the bottom row.
Wait. Let me rephrase that. When the paper is flat in front of you, the top half of the page needs to be inverted. When you eventually pinch the center and "pop" the zine into its 3D shape, those inverted pages will rotate into the correct position.
Advanced Folding: The Accordion and Beyond
Maybe the eight-page fold is too basic for you. Fair enough.
The accordion fold (or "concertina") is great for narrative flows or long-form art. It’s exactly what it sounds like. You fold the paper back and forth like a fan. The beauty here is that you aren't limited by the "pop-out" center cut. You can make a zine that is three feet long if you have the paper for it.
I once saw a zine by an artist named Eleanor Whitney, author of Indie Publishing, who used a nested fold technique. It involved smaller sheets tucked into larger ones without staples. It was brilliant. It felt like a secret.
However, the more folds you add, the more "bulk" you create at the spine. If you’re using heavy cardstock, stop. Your zine will look like a bloated taco. Use 20lb or 24lb bond paper for the best results. Anything heavier requires a bone folder—a small, dull tool used to score the paper—to get those crisp, professional edges. Without a bone folder, use the back of a spoon. It works. It’s cheap.
Dealing with the "Creep"
When you fold multiple sheets inside each other (the classic "saddle stitch" style), you encounter a phenomenon called "creep."
Basically, the inner pages stick out further than the outer pages because of the thickness of the paper at the fold. If you have a 40-page zine, the innermost page might be an eighth of an inch shorter than the cover once you trim the edges.
Professional printers have software to compensate for this. You do not.
The solution? Either embrace the "shaggy" look—which is very punk rock, let’s be real—or use a rotary cutter and a metal ruler to trim the "face" (the open edge) of the zine after it’s stapled. Just watch your fingers.
The Finishing Touch
Once you've mastered how to fold a zine, you have to decide how to keep it shut. For the one-sheet wonder, the folds do the work. For larger zines, you need a long-arm stapler. Don't try to use a regular desk stapler; you'll just end up crushing the paper and bruising your palm.
A long-arm stapler allows you to reach the center fold of an $8.5 \times 11$ or $11 \times 17$ sheet easily.
If you want to get fancy, try "Japanese Hole Binding" or a simple "Saddle Stitch" with needle and thread. It takes five minutes and makes the zine feel like a lost artifact rather than a school project.
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Actionable Steps for Your First Fold
Don't overthink it. Grab a scrap piece of paper right now.
- The "Dummy" Zine: Take a blank sheet and do the 8-page fold. Number the pages 1 through 8 while it's folded. Unfold it. Now you have a template that shows exactly which way each page should face. Keep this template forever.
- The Bone Folder Hack: If you don't have a professional tool, use the edge of a plastic credit card to burnish your folds. This makes the zine lay flat instead of springing open like a jack-in-the-box.
- The Cut Test: When making the center cut, use a craft knife (X-Acto) for a cleaner line than scissors. Use a self-healing mat underneath so you don't ruin your kitchen table.
- The Master Copy: Always keep one "clean" version of your zine that isn't folded or stapled. This is your master. If you want to make copies later, you just throw this flat sheet onto the scanner.
Folding a zine is a physical skill. It’s about muscle memory. The first one will be wonky. The fifth one will be better. By the twenty-fifth one, you'll be doing it while watching TV without even looking at your hands.
The imperfections are the point. In a world of digital perfection, a slightly crooked fold is proof that a human being made something.
Go make something. Then fold it.