If this had been an MMA fight I would've gotten my ass knocked out in the first minute. I hinted in Sunday's post, by showing my new long stapler, that I may dabble in a zine or two . Nothing like Christian's Lovaitar, which I think sets the standard. Anyway, knowing nothing of how to create a zine I've been getting schooled lately.
First off, I've only recently discovered my printer can print booklets. Never knew cause I never needed to know.
Second, mine is not a automatic two-sided printer. (More on this later.) I have to do it manually. Paper can only beput into the machine four ways, so you think I'd figure it out within four tries. Oh no. No. No. I keep screwing it up, but I think I've got it now.
Third, font size. Again, not having any experience with booklet print I had no idea how tiny the font was going to print. I use a 9 or 10 font most of the time and that was way too tiny. Did 14. Still a little small. It seems 18 is the one to use. I'm using Times New Roman font. Now the smart thing to do would have been to print one page to test. Oh no. No. No. I kept printing the whole booklet.
Four, stapling. My stapler rocks. But I do not. It took me a few tries to get the pointy ends inside the booklet.
Five, page numbers. Still haven't figured this one out. I was planning on doing them on the edge of the bottom of the pages, but haven't figured out how to make them switch sides on alternate pages.
And lastly, no I am not going to say what I am working on because I'm just screwing around for now.
Back to the printer thing. I'm considering purchasing a new printer. One that is a little bigger and can auto print both sides. I was looking at a Epson Workforce 845. Any suggestions about this? Printer suggestions? Looking to keep it under 300 bucks.
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Awesome! I just got my long stapler in the mail last night along with colored card stock for covers. Now to do some experimenting of my own!
ReplyDeleteI printer which will automatically do booklet printing is great. I had a copier that would be that in my old job and I was great for making handy informational booklets for my on-call staff. No such copier in my current job. If I had one at home, I'd probably by contemplating 'zining like you. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to see what you've got boiling.
ReplyDeleteJust a note on fonts that may help you and others...
How "big" or "small" a font appears (regardless of type size) has most to do with the "x-height" of the type's design. Type is measured from the top of the ascenders to the bottom of the descenders, but the aspect (size of lower case x vs. upper case X) is different for all fonts. Take a look at this image and you'll see what I mean... http://awertzberger.com/type2/images/x-height3.jpg
All the examples on that page are the exact same point size and leading, but you can see how much "bigger" some of them appear (because their x-height aspect is relatively large compared to the rest of the font.)
It's one of the reasons I love Souvenir (the Moldvay BX typeface). It just sets up rather nicely and feels "big" even at relatively small sizes.
As for alternate side page numbering, I don't use Word (which is what I'm guessing you're using), but did find this for Word 2007 (I'd imagine it works similarly for other versions):
http://www.wordbanter.com/showthread.php?t=142258
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I'm feeling a bit inadequate in the stapler length department.
ReplyDeleteChristian was tempting me with the zine idea, but seeing the Rended Press links and the updates is really pushing me towards the edge. This isn't helping.
http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/p/old-school-zines.html
Running a zine these days would probably also be very good therapy for the pace and nature of life in 2012, and the sometimes sterile feel of online publishing.
Tim if your serious about doing this it would definitely behoove you to look into a SOHO printer, a step up from a home model. In my experience home printers don't tend to last long under heavy printing.
ReplyDeleteWhat sort of printer are you currently using?
ReplyDelete@Porky - THANKS for that link!! Very cool indeed ;)!
ReplyDeleteCool project. I'd second the idea of trying out some other fonts, since TNR is like the default font for everything and reminds me of writing with Word, or reviewing someone's terrible manuscript. Carter and I have (probably) settled on a different font for our Lands of Ara Compendium to get away from that association.
ReplyDeleteRock out!
If anyone is looking for great free fonts, I always point them to fontsquirrel.com. They do a good job of weeding out the junk and the amateurish jobs and what's left are truly professional fonts without having to week through the junk at a place like dafont or 1001 Free Fonts. And every single font listed at FontSquirrel is absolutely free! Bear in mind, you won't always find entire families (bold and italic versions), but sometimes you will.
ReplyDeleteAt my office, I have been replacing our old desktop printers with HP Laserjet P1606dn printers. They are black and white laser, do automatic duplex and are reasonably fast for printing. And the price is good. Newegg has them for $170
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828115635
I'm just the messenger, but shooting me the thanks too made me glad regardless. I love the power of a list of links, and behind those particular lists are days, weeks, months or years of passion or hard work.
ReplyDeleteThat last comment was @ Johnathan of course.
ReplyDelete