
Paper Zine Specifications
We’ve created this page to help you fully understand the specs required for setting up and exporting your designs. We’ve also created some templates for you to download and use to avoid any issues when setting up your document. Our Paper Zines are printed on 100 gsm Cyclus Oyclus offset stock and endorse folded hot off the press.
Pages
- Your document must have 2 printed pages
- The actual total amount of pages is 5 however one of the sides is split into 4 pages when folded
- Your overall page dimensions must be 297mm (w) x 420mm (h)
- When folded your front page will measure 148mm (w) x 210mm (h)
Margins & Bleed
- Please add 3mm bleed to your document
- We recommend a 10mm margin around the outside edge of each page
- It is possible to print into the margins but please be aware of crop and fold lines when doing so
- If your images are intended to go off the page and you don’t include 3mm bleed you may end up with an inconsistent white margin when the document is cut
Images
- 300dpi recommended however anything above 150dpi should be safe
- CMYK or greyscale provides the best results
- No spot colours
- Black and white photos and artwork can be set to print CMYK or greyscale
- All blacks are printed in CMYK so blacks can be set to print either 100%K or rich black
- Colour profiles – You can use any generic CMYK colour profile.
- Please rasterise gradients as sometimes they can print differently to when they were viewed on screen.
*Remember that colours won’t look as bright and vibrant as they do on screen as newsprint stock is uncoated and it’s not possible to print a very dark black due to this.
Fonts
- We recommend using a point size of 8pt or above, however some fonts may print well at smaller sizes.
- Please make sure fonts are embedded when exporting your pdf.

InDesign Templates
We’ve created these templates for you to download, use the In Design template if you are using In Design CC or above. If you are using different software to create your .pdf you can copy the specs from the visual pdf template download. We have also included Illustrator templates with export options.
Illustrator Templates
PDF Export Settings
Where possible, use the PDF/X-1a:2001 preset
This creates the simplest kind of PDF, and takes care of almost everything that could cause issues at the press.
Export your file as single pages
Your PDF should read in the same order that you’d read a standard newspaper (from front to back). Make sure the pages in your file are single pages, not spreads (two pages joined together).
Ensure you export your PDF with 3mm bleed and crop marks
For our PaperZines we require 3mm bleed and crop marks when exporting your .pdf. You will receive error messages when uploading your file if these haven’t been included in your export.