Development continues at zinemachine2.0
This is an HTML tool to page set small format zines, specifically 8fold and accordian.
Using html stolen borrowed from @rowan_m's site /zine-machine.glitch.me. There they go over the method of folding the zine, and how the css would work, but their actual code isn't exactly what I wanted: Tool that page sets a document made with another program. Now the project also has numerous other tools for automatically croping, deviding, and rendering print files.
This is for linux :)
First install python, pypdf, and pyhtml2pdf.
Dowload and unzip Zine Machine into a convinent location.
Navigate to /ZineMachine/files. This is where you operate ZineMachine from.
First format you zine in the editor of your choice, and export it to SOURCE.pdf. For accordian, it must be 8 pages, 2.75x4.25 inches. Rememer to take into account the print margins when making the zine, zine machine does not.
Run pdf2jpg.sh.
Run render-accordian.py
Print and enjoy!
Use render-8fold to have be 8fold instead of accordian. This is less paper efficiant but doesnt require a duplex printing.
Scan physical media, then use crop.py to crop it. Hand illustration and collage are pretty.
Make two 11x4.25 pages with four columns, then use the devider.py with octi_on_demi.json to make it into 8 2.75x4.25 pages. This is a smoother workflow when using an office program.
clear.sh Removes all imgs. crop.py Crops each of the imgs. crop.py [-h] [-v] [-x XLEN] [-X XOFF] [-y YLEN] [-Y YOFF]. X and Y off specify the top left corner of the print area. x and y specify the dimensions of the crop area. Units in inches. divide.py Crops document pages out of a SOURCE.pdf with multiple document pages per pdf page. Think a book scan with two book pages in each scan. Be sure to specify a template from divider_templates/ divide.py [-h] [-v] [-t TEMPLATE] join-front-back.sh joins FRONT.pdf and BACK.pdf to UNITE.pdf jpg2pdf.sh Reverts the img sequence to UNITE.pdf. pdf2jpg Seperates SOURCE.pdf into imgs. render*.py Makes the imgs into a print ready zine of the specified format. Exports to PRINT.pdf
This is a rather hacky tool. Feel free to reach out if you are having trouble, no promises if I can actually help tho.