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🚀 DIY Guide: Making a High-Quality Saddle-Stitched Zine at Home
Think you need a print shop to make a good zine? Think again.
Yusuke Nagata
January 07, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
Happy New Year! Let’s take lots of photos and make tons of zines this year.
I already kicked things off by making some new zines🔥
This time, I printed it at a copy shop (like FedEx Office or Staples) and bound it myself. But honestly, if you have a printer, you can make one entirely at home too. So in this edition, I’m sharing how to make a high-quality zine at home.
If you’ve ever wondered what tools you need to create a pro-level zine at home or how to saddle-stitch your own zine, this should be a helpful guide for you.
*Explore These Zines in Detail
Stolen Walls of Tokyo – Tokyo’s sticker bombing zine
THE NEXT STOP – New York subway zine
Table of Contents
🔔 Announcement: Let’s Meet at ZINE FEST TOKYO on January 11!
I’ll be at ZINE FEST TOKYO on Saturday, January 11, in Asakusa, Tokyo. The new zines I’m introducing in today’s newsletter will also be available there, so if you’re around, come say hi!
This edition of ZINE FEST TOKYO is going to be the biggest one yet, with over 500 exhibitors. Many of my friends from Japan and abroad will also be showcasing their work, so I’ll share some highlights from the event in a future newsletter.
📍 Event Details
📌 Event: ZINE FEST TOKYO
📅 Date: Sunday, January 11, 2025 | 12:00 - 17:00
📍 Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Industry and Trade Center Taito Building, 5th & 6th Floor (5 min walk from Asakusa Station: Google MAP)
💰 Admission: ¥500 (cash only at entry)
🧃 How to Make a High-Quality Saddle-Stitched Zine at Home
Here are the two zines I made this time. One is a collection of photos taken in the New York subway, and the other features Tokyo’s sticker bombing scene.
*Explore These Zines in Detail
Stolen Walls of Tokyo – Tokyo’s sticker bombing zine
THE NEXT STOP – New York subway zine
For both the cover and inside pages, I used matte coated 135kg paper, which is probably equivalent to 80lb Dull Text in the US. This gives the zine a sturdy feel rather than a flimsy finish. Using thicker paper makes the zine look and feel more high-quality.
So, how do you make zines like this at home? Let’s go through the process step by step.
🖨️ Inkjet vs. Laser Printers
First things first, if you’re making a zine at home, you’ll need a printer. To be honest, before I got into photography, I never even owned a printer. And before I started making zines, I had no idea there were so many different types.
I own an Epson SC-PX1V(SC-P700) inkjet printer, which I use for photo printing. But for making zines, inkjet printers are not the best option. Here’s why:
Photo inkjet printers are optimized for high-quality prints, which means they work best with premium paper.
Ink is expensive, and printing is super slow.
If you’re making a 32-page zine, printing one copy can easily cost over $10—probably even more when you factor in ink costs.
Of course, if you have the time and budget, you can go this route. But if you’re printing multiple pages at home, a laser printer is the way to go.
Laser printers use toner powder, which is heated and fused onto the paper. This makes them ideal for bulk printing. Plus, papers like 80lb Dull Text, which I used for this zine, are often designed specifically for laser printing.
You can get a decent home laser printer for around $300, so if you want the convenience of printing zines at home instead of ordering from places like Mixam every time, investing in one might be a good idea.
🧀 Tips for Creating Print Files for Saddle-Stitched Zines
When ordering from a print service like Mixam, you can simply submit your files as individual pages, and they’ll handle the imposition for you. But if you’re printing at home, you’ll need to create the imposed layout yourself.
For saddle-stitched zines, each sheet of paper contains four pages, so you have to arrange the pages properly to ensure they’re in the correct order after binding. This means converting your layout spreads into printer spreads, as shown in the diagram below.
I usually design my zines in InDesign, so I looked into how to set up imposition using InDesign. There are also some great tutorials on YouTube explaining this process, so if you’re using InDesign, I recommend checking them out.
That said, creating print files can be a real pain—especially when it comes to handling color. Converting from RGB to CMYK can mess with the colors, and color management can get pretty tricky. I still have a lot to learn in this area, but I plan to cover it in a future edition of this newsletter.
🍿 Always Do a Test Print Before Printing in Bulk
Alright, once your print file is ready, it's time to actually print your zine. Since I haven’t bought a laser printer yet, I saved my files onto a USB and printed them at ACCEA in Shinjuku, which is basically Japan’s version of FedEx Office or Staples.
One important thing to remember here: don’t print 10 or 20 copies right away. Always start with a test print. When you actually print it out, you might notice weird layout issues, incorrect settings, or unexpected color shifts. There’s always something you didn’t catch on screen.
Print a test copy, make adjustments, and even if you think you’ve nailed the final version—do one more test print. If it looks perfect on paper, then go ahead and print the full batch.
I once made the mistake of assuming my file was perfect and ended up printing 100 copies of a messed-up version. Lesson learned…
🥑 Folding, Stapling, and Trimming Your Zine
Once the printing is done, it’s time to put everything together. Carefully fold each sheet in half and stack them in order. Then, use a saddle-stitch stapler to bind the zine.
I bought a saddle-stitch stapler in Japan, but it’s surprisingly tricky to staple perfectly along the fold. For this zine, I had to make do with what I had, but I recently ordered a better saddle-stitch stapler from the US, so I’m looking forward to testing it out when it arrives.
With saddle-stitched booklets, the middle pages tend to stick out slightly because of the paper thickness. Plus, if you’re using a laser printer, it typically doesn’t support borderless printing. So if you want a clean, edge-to-edge look, you’ll need to trim off the excess margins with a craft knife.
Of course, if you had an industrial paper cutter, you wouldn’t have to trim everything by hand. But since I don’t have the budget (or the space) for one, I’m sticking to cutting each zine manually with a craft knife—one copy at a time.
You can still cut it neatly by hand.
🍄 The Best Part About Making Zines at Home? It’s So Easy to Get Started!
For the subway zine, I handwrote the title on the cover.
And now, here they are—two freshly made zines. The photos might not do them justice, but they turned out amazing. Using thick paper was definitely the right choice.
I’m also really happy with how the laser-printed pages came out. Even with matte paper, laser printing fuses the toner with heat, creating a subtle sheen.
Like I’ve said before, a zine is not a book. It’s not meant to have the fine art feel of a hardcover photo book—it should feel like a zine, and that’s exactly how this print turned out.
One of the best things about making zines at home is how easy it is to test print and tweak things like colors and layout.
Instead of ordering 100 copies from a print shop only to be disappointed, you can refine and adjust your zine until it looks exactly the way you want.
Sure, it takes a bit of effort, but it’s not an all-day process. If you’ve ever thought about making a zine at home, I definitely recommend giving it a shot. And if you do, let me know—I’d love to feature your zine in my newsletter! Feel free to DM me on Instagram!
🕺 See You Again Next Tuesday
That’s it for this week’s edition. Thanks so much for reading all the way through! And the zines I introduced today are also available online. Feel free to check them out!
Stolen Walls of Tokyo – Tokyo’s sticker bombing zine
THE NEXT STOP – New York subway zine
See you again next Tuesday!
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