Zine & Zine-making Glossary
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Chapbook
A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were small, paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8, 12, 16, or 24 pages. The tradition of chapbooks arose in the 16th century, as soon as printed books became affordable, and rose to its height during the 17th and 18th centuries. Many different kinds of ephemera and popular or folk literature were published as chapbooks, such as almanacs, children's literature, folk tales, ballads, nursery rhymes, pamphlets, poetry, and political and religious tracts. The term "chapbook" for this type of literature was coined in the 19th century. The corresponding French term is bibliothèque bleue (blue library) because they were often wrapped in cheap blue paper that was usually reserved as a wrapping for sugar. The German term is Volksbuch (people's book). In Spain, they were known as pliegos de cordel (cordel sheets). In Spain, they were also known as pliegos sueltos, which translates to loose sheets, because they were literally loose sheets of paper folded once or twice in order to create a booklet in quarto format. Lubok is the Russian equivalent of the chapbook. The term "chapbook" is also in use for present-day publications, commonly short, inexpensive booklets. Colophon Traditionally, a colophon is an inscription placed at the end of a book or manuscript that gives details of its publication—e.g., the name of the printer and the date of printing, and sometimes other details such as the type of paper, the typeface used, brand of printing press, names of assistants, etc. This isn't usually used with zines, but I have seen it and it might be a nice addition to consider. Cordel Cordel literature (from the Portuguese term, literatura de cordel, literally “string literature”, Portuguese pronunciation: [koʁˈdɛw]) are popular and inexpensively printed booklets or pamphlets containing folk novels, poems and songs. They are produced and sold in street markets and by street vendors in Brazil, mainly in the Northeast. They are so named because they are hung from strings to display them to potential customers, and the word for rope in Portuguese is corda, from which the term cordel is derived. Distro A zine distribution service or store. Doujinshi (同人誌), also romanized as dōjinshi, is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of doujin (self-published) works, doujinshi are often derivative of existing works and created by amateurs, though some professional artists participate in order to publish material outside the regular industry. |
Dummy
Blank sheets folded and numbered as a test of the page imposition of a book prior to printing. Bookbinders often supply a dummy to the printer to aid in layout and stripping during the prep process. Edition All of the copies of a book manufactured by a single printing and binding run. “First Edition” always designates the original publication, and are more popular with collectors. Folio Traditional usage: A sheet of paper folded once in the middle, making four pages of a book. Common usage: A numbered page of a book or the actual number printed on the page. From Latin folio, a leaf. Gutter The inside fold of a cover hinge where it meets the book block spine. Also the “valley” between two pages when a book is open that forms the inside page margins. Imposition The arrangement of multiple printed pages on a large sheet of paper so that when folded, the pages will fall in numerical order. An eight-page signature imposition will have four pages on each side of the sheet with the heads of the pages meeting in the center. Perfect binding (also called adhesive binding) A pamphlet binding process using only adhesive, usually a hot-melt, to secure the pages into a wrap-around cover. Telephone books and paperbacks are typical of Perfect binding. Recto A right-hand page of a book or the front side of a leaf, on the other side of the verso. Riso Risograph is a Japanese brand of digital duplicators manufactured by the Riso Kagaku Corporation, that are designed mainly for high-volume photocopying and printing. The underlying technology is very similar to a mimeograph and looks a little like silkscreen. Risograph printers use a soy ink made from vegetable soybean oil with interchangeable color inks and drums allowing for printing in different colors or using spot color in a single print job. The Riso MZ series models have two ink drums, thereby allowing two colors to be printed in one pass. One disadvantage of this soy based ink printing medium is that all paper stock has to be uncoated for the ink to dry and adhere to the paper stock, and it often takes a very long time to dry. Saddle Stitch Stapled pamphlet book. Samizdat (Russian: самиздат, lit. 'self-publishing') was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual reproduction was widespread, because typewriters and printing devices required official registration and permission to access. This was a grassroots practice used to evade official Soviet censorship. |
Side sewn
Thread is sewn through all of a book’s pages about 1/8 inch from the binding edge of the pages. Side sewing is very secure, but books sewn in this fashion seldom lie flat when open. Signature (often abbreviated sig and also called a section) A sheet of paper printed with four or more pages and folded one or more times to the approximate size of one page and in a manner which puts the pages in proper numbered order. The more common signature impositions are 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 pages, which are formed by folding the sheet in half one or more times. Less common are 12, 20, 24, and 36 page signatures, which require more complicated folding patterns. In some regions, signatures are identified by their lowest page number, so the second signature in a two section, 16 page book might be called “sig 5,” because it begins with page 5. In recent years, and in most regions, signatures are identified by their position in the book, so the example might also be called “sig 2.” The cover of the book is not considered a signature in any numbering scheme. From Latin signum, sign. Spine The bound edge of a book where the pages are sewn, glued, or otherwise fastened together. Spines are usually thin and flexible, allowing the book to be easily opened. Spread When you open the book, what you see is two pages side by side, or what we call a spread. When we design books, we can use lots of design elements to help readers navigate them, and many of these elements are based on the two-page spread. Verso A left-hand page of a book or the reverse side of a leaf, as opposed to the recto. Volume One individual book. Sometimes used to identify an individual book belonging to a set, such as volume one of four. In periodical literature, volume refers to all of the issues in a series of time, such as a year or a quarter. When periodicals are consolidated into a hard-bound book, typically all issues of the same volume number are bound together. Zerox A brand name of photocopiers that has become a common noun and verb for making photocopies. Copy machines have been widely used as a cheap form of making many copies of zines, and getting the word out. Zinester A person who makes zines. |