There’s something about the dynamism and movement of skateboarding photography that just looks magnificent in print. Proper gnarly, high impact images, dropped in to your full colour pages.
So here’s the sketch: Ex Why Zed are specialist Skate Zine printers. We have a track record of producing great publications from your brilliant work. Check our case studies for ideas and inspiration.
We have compiled a feature-length, definitive video to methodically guide you through the entire process. This super informative video highlights how zines have proved the perfect solution for artists, small presses and independent publishers to promote their creative work. We detail the options available for size, paper and binding. We showcase illustrated, photography, poetry, skate and music zines and dissect the winning combinations.
Our almost infinite options on size, paper choices and number of pages give you the flexibility to create a completely unique journal of a weekend trip to a new ramp or a chunky memoir of an entire season.
Throw in a bit of snow or a fin and why not print a snowboard or surfing zine too for the off season?
Choose your best photos, add some credits or editorial, lay them out in Indesign and send us over the finished PDF. We’ll do the rest and within a few days your zines will arrive. Sick.
The very best layouts are often the simplest – so let your photography breathe and give it a whole page. Our Pinterest boards have some examples of previous zines we have printed with layout styles that worked well. Get inspired by what your peer group has achieved and look through some of our recent work below.
Not sure how many copies you’ll sell? Well once you’ve taken delivery then we’re always happy to tweet a link to a sales page to showcase your work and increase exposure.
We have been doing this a while now and have seen a lot of impressive publications come off our presses. To give you a head start with your zine printing, here are three print specifications which work well (and photos of them, see right). Each has its own characteristics which have proven to be winning combinations from a production perspective, cost per unit and most importantly, have reader appeal.
If any of our showcase options would work for your project, take a note of the spec and jump on our quote form to receive your bespoke quotation. Or ping us an email on hello@exwhyzed.fixed-staging.co.uk if that is easier.
Showcase 1 – a super smooth, lightweight zine, with a slightly thicker cover:
A5 Booklets
4pp Cover onto 170gsm Silk
40pp Text onto 115gsm Silk
Four colour print throughout
Trimmed collated and wire stitched
As a guide, you could print 100 copies of this for £2.24 each.
Showcase 2 – a cost-effective zine with all the pages onto the same thin uncoated paper:
A4 Booklets
60pp Self Cover onto 100gsm Uncoated
Four colour print throughout
Trimmed collated and wire stitched
As a guide, you could print 200 copies of this for £3.39 per zine.
Showcase 3 – an impressive, perfect bound skate book for an annual or large collection of rad content:
A4 Perfect Bound Book
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Uncoated
Matt Lamination to outer
88pp Text onto 150gsm Uncoated
Four colour print throughout
As a guide, you could print 1000 copies of this for £3.38 per book.
Showcase 4 – an ideal A5 professional looking solution for 40 pages or more:
A5 Perfect Bound Book
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Silk
Matt Lamination to outer
40pp Text onto 130gsm Silk
Four colour print throughout
As a guide, you could print 100 copies of this for £3.60 each.
Tweaks you could consider…
• Reducing the cover to 250gsm which also makes it easier to open.
• Choose gloss lamination for a shiny aesthetic.
Silk for a smooth appearance or Uncoated for a more tactile, retro feel.
• Increase the size to A5 to save you money and make the publication more ergonomic.
• OR increase to A4 for a larger area of content.
• Increase the weight of the inside pages to 170gsm making it more substantial and impressive for the reader.
• Stapling (wire stitching) can be done for upto 72 pages.
Enjoy looking through our showcase of recent skate zine printing.
We have done our best to give you a huge wealth of information on this page and in our guides but if here are some frequently asked questions to help you get your work into print.
We like to interact with our customers, find out about their projects and have a bit of dialogue rather than hide behind a massive, confusing spreadsheet on a website. We provide a bespoke quote for each and every job because your project is bespoke and unique.
Don’t get us wrong, our process is quick and efficient but we like to add extra value by starting a conversation with you first. Remember conversations? Yep, they are what happened before your phone was glued to your head! 🙂
For this reason we don’t list all our prices online but get in touch either in email or through our quote form and we will give you a bespoke quote.
Additionally there can be a day or two of amends required to the artwork before it’s print ready which we’re more than happy to help with but you’ll need to factor that in to timings.
Remember, we’ll need a hi res pdf file with 3mm bleed and crop marks on each edge to go ahead please. Sending it over correctly first time means we can go straight to print. Do have a last check through our file set up guides to make sure all the boxes are ticked.
Matt Lamination works best with silk and uncoated covers. We would suggest using gloss lamination if you are aiming for a super shiny, high impact cover. Soft-touch has a velvet, illustrious feel but does attract finger marks REALLY quickly so best not eat your lunch before reading!
Check out zine video guide here and we’ll talk you through the options with examples printed on each of the finishes. Still uncertain? Jump on our sample pack form and we’ll get some paper choices ij the post asap.
The max portrait size will be 420mm high x 297mm wide. The maximum square size is 297x297mm. The maximum landscape size is 210mm high x 297mm wide.
Yes, ‘text’ pages is our common term for the inside pages of your publication. They can be filled with illustrations, photography, full colour artwork…or just text if it’s a poetry book.
For the purposes of our quoting, we call ‘a page’, one side of content. So, a sheet of paper has two pages – a front and a back. If you ask for a quote for 40 inside pages, that will be 40 pages of content, 40 pages in your artwork file / pdf and in the book 20 leaves printed on both sides.
This video guide gives you a great showcase. The short answer: when paper is printed, the ink sits on the surface. When it is then folded to make your cover the ink can crack. While you should never judge a book by it’s cover, this cracking will look unprofessional. Lamination is a thin layer of protection which prevents the ink cracking. Win win. It comes in matt, gloss, soft-touch or anti-scuff.
Wire stitching is a little bit of print jargon for ‘stapling’. If you have an A5 booklet then we print it onto A4 sheets, fold them in and put staples along the left-hand edge to bind the sheet together. In some quarters, this is also known as ‘saddle stitching’. Let’s stick with stapling though if that’s easier 🙂
