Making Zines Is Easy with the Right Tools

Scoring, folding, saddle stitching, and Coptic binding—everything you need to know to start making your own zines and hand-bound books at home.

Transcript

Tonight we’re making zines. Everything I’m putting together today is from Castle Grief—the creator of Calarrath and a ton of original D&D-inspired solo RPG content. Very excited to play these.

Scoring

A scoring board is the single most important tool. You push your paper up against the ridge at the top, score at 5.5 inches, and you’re set. The score creates a millimeter impression in the paper that makes folding dramatically easier—the pages want to fold instead of fighting the fold. It also keeps more structural integrity at the crease so pages are less likely to tear.

I used to make and sell a ton of notebooks and zines pre-COVID. When you’re cranking out a hundred a day by hand, trust me—a scoring board is non-negotiable. Once you’re in the zone, you slot a ruler in, line your edge up, and just go.

Saddle Stitching

The other essential tool is a saddle stitch stapler (Bostitch brand, got mine at Walmart). The technique: push down gently first to pierce the paper, then give it everything you’ve got in one swift push. This keeps the pages aligned and prevents the staple from shifting.

For spacing, I use my fingers instead of a ruler—three fingers down from the top, three fingers up from the bottom. For thicker zines (15+ sheets), I do three staples. For a bi-fold, two is plenty.

I banged out all five zines including print time in about 30 minutes.

Printing Tips

It depends on your file and printer. Sometimes you can print a PDF as booklet and it just works. Sometimes you have to lay it out yourself. I’ll cover that in a future video when I make a zine from scratch.

Coptic Binding a Poetry Book

My wife’s poetry book needed a hand-bound copy—we forgot to keep one for ourselves when we did the original run with the hand-marbled, dyed covers.

I’m using a hole-punching jig that aligns your pages so you can bust through the holes fast. The included awl isn’t great, so I use a sail needle and a rock—a purpose-driven rock with a notch carved in it for the needle to sit in. Not just any rock.

The binding itself is straightforward: you start in the middle, stitch up to one end, come back down, then go the other direction and meet back in the middle. You need about three times the width of your book in thread. I’m using waxed archival thread from Maine Thread Company—overkill, but it’s for my wife.

The only thing to watch for with thick thread is not piercing through your own thread bundle on the return pass. Tie it off with a box knot, seal the back with a heated letter opener to melt the wax, snip with baby scissors, and you’re done.