I was dead set against digital zines until a friend showed me her process

For about 2 years I swore handmade meant paper only, no exceptions. I thought digital zines were just lazy PDFs that missed the whole point of the DIY spirit. Then my buddy Marie from Portland sent me a link to her latest zine she made entirely in Canva and Krita. She spent 3 weeks arranging collages, adding hand-drawn doodles, and even recorded herself flipping pages for a tiny video version. I read through it on my phone and honestly the layout and care she put in felt just as personal as any stapled booklet I've gotten at a show. She also told me she can print on demand now for like $4 a copy instead of doing 50 at a time and hoping they sell. Has anyone else gone digital after being a paper purist for a long time?

2 comments

2 Comments

richardrodriguez11d ago

Nah, I still don't buy it. The whole point of zines to me is the physical stuff - the weird paper textures, the staple job that's always slightly off, finding them buried in a record store bin. Digital files just don't hit the same. A PDF on a screen can't replace that feeling of flipping through something someone actually folded and stapled by hand in their kitchen at 2am.

the_kevin10d ago

Yeah I once found a zine about raccoons inside a pizza box at a laundromat.