The Tall Zine: a Tutorial for a Silly One-Page Zine Variation

because we're doing whimsical July

When the idea for the Tall Zine occurred to me, it felt both obvious and ridiculous, so in no way do I claim that this zine template is the first of its kind or useful for your next project. However, it is as simple as the mini zine template I think we’re all familiar with. If you aren’t familiar with that style, here’s a great tutorial by

Austin Kleon

.

My Tall Zine takes that idea and turns it on its side, quite literally. Is this a good idea? No, probably not. But it made me giggle so I couldn’t keep it to myself. Like I alluded to above, I don’t think this zine template lends itself well to most projects. If you do make use of it, please share! Here’s what I came up with: the Slivers of Sky zine. Slivers of Sky is a photo zine featuring tiny pieces of skies I feel drawn to; bright, clear skies, big, fluffy white cloud skies, and rosy sunsets.

Tutorial

Creator’s Note: If you’re familiar with the mini zine template linked above, then you can probably get by without a template for this zine. However, I did make a template, so if you’d like one, just drop a comment on this post and I’ll send it over.

1. Grab a sheet of printer paper and fold it in half lengthwise and widthwise. In place of folding the paper along the short side to create multiple pages, the way you would for a mini zine, shown below in Figure 1, fold along the long side, shown below in Figure 2. This creates eight comically tall and skinny pages.

Figure 1. standard zine template

Figure 2. tall zine template

2. Unfold your paper and fold it once along the long side (hot dog style), make a slit along the fold as shown in the image below. Note that the bottom edge in this image is the folded side, and you should be sure you stop before cutting the paper completely in half!

   

3. Unfold the paper and fold in half along the short edge with the slit at the top. Let the slip open up into a diamond and push the two edges towards the center until they meet. Now flatten the pages together and fold with the cover pages on the outside. If I just lost you, refer back to

   Austin Kleon
   ’s tutorial for a handy visual.

4. I added a hard cover to my Sliver of Sky zine using the method seen in my 16-page zine tutorial, but it’s not necessary.

A Couple of Important Notes about Canva Templates

• The template links I shared for my 16-page zine and my six-spread zine are still available and working, so head to those posts if you haven’t grabbed the links yet!

• I no longer have Canva Pro, so if you’d like a link to this Tall Zine template, drop a comment on this post, and I’ll dm you a personal link just for you!

That said, if you’d like to support my art and writing, you can do so via my Ko-fi account. Thank you for being here and please consider tagging me if I’ve inspired you to make something. I’d love to see it!