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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

My first ‘ZINE’

Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Had a lot of fun producing our first “zine” at home over the last couple of days. It may have been more cost effective to send the printing to Blurb, but not as personalized.

Anne needed a small booklet containing a collection of her completed quilts, to have sitting beside the quilts that she is selling, as a reference to her abilities. I introduced her to the concept of a Zine, and designed it in Affinity Publisher. Once I realized that program did all the work of reassigning individual pages (sides) so they printed properly on the full sheets of paper - example pages 1 & 20 are now side one of the sheet and pages 2 & 19 are on the other side —- I went to town printing on my photo printer.

Initially we were going to do the typical staples down the spine to attach the pages, and then Anne came up with the idea of using embroidery floss instead to personalize to her creations. I think she is pretty pleased, and now we’ll head on to a collection of Baby Quilts for the same purpose.

As well I am now prepared to find a way to make use of this type of design work for my own body of photographs.


 
Robert Watcher

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
Fabulous! It’s so well done!

Can you give links to software and tell us how thr folds are made so well!

Asher
Click to expand...

Thank you Asher.

As for Software, I used Affinity Publisher which is Affinity’s desktop publishing software - the equivalent of Adobe In Design. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

I have of course used Affinity Photo for both my macOS and iOS devices for years, even for graphic design and layout work. However 6 months ago, I decided to download the Universal Suite of all three of their latest V2 products for the 6 months trial period they were offering, to get a feel for the other apps and see how they integrated and find out the changes in Affinity Photo. The 6 months is up in a couple of weeks, and so when I noticed the Black Friday sale last week for 50% off, I purchased the Universal License.

20 years ago, I had a desktop publishing application that I used on my PC along with Corel Draw, and it was valuable for a few jobs that I was doing at the time. It was Corel’s Ventura Publisher which was released in 1986 and last updated in 2002. It worked but it was early incarnations of that type of software. So I was familiar with the concept of a dedicated Desktop Publishing App. I never bothered updating though, after I purchased Photoshop for my Windows machine and any graphic design work I just did in Photoshop.

There was an obvious learning curve when I delved into Affinity Publisher, but now that I see the value of it, I am/will be using it even for simple card layouts. For sure I design any future photo books with it, instead of using Blurb’s online layout software or my pro photo labs software. The integration with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer is remarkable. Clicking one of the buttons for those applications, instantly provided all of their features and abilities. No need to be going in and out of the different applications - which I believe is required in Adobe In Design, if you want to edit an image that you have in the layout, in Photoshop or Illustrator.

As for the folding, I purchased an inexpensive scoring board from Amazon. It was on sale for $20 Canadian. It created perfect folds with the slightly heavier glossy double sided paper that I printed on.

Ecraft scorer and paper cutter: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08HYMJ716
Uinkit 100 sheet paper: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B075CGPMN9
 
Last edited:
Jerome Marot

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
As I have been asked what these tracking links are, here is more info.

When you browse amazon (other sites too), the site adds further info after the link describing the item. Take the first link here: the item is described as "dp/B08HYMJ716". Amazon adds a question mark and further info, usually absurd long numbers. Something like "/dp/B08HYMJ716?ref_=Oct_d_otopr_d_6646482021_0&pd_rd_w=nWXC0&content-id=amzn1.sym.c8e7e75e-d56e-4f67-badf-4e7f5f52cf7b&pf_rd_p=c8e7e75e-d76f-4f67-bacf-4e7f5fa1cf7b&pf_rd_r=V9NBGR8ACAFA7NBB5ZMH&pd_rd_wg=CL6vh&pd_rd_r=86b8fb5a-4336-4ccd-8e25-65473aebd54d&pd_rd_i=B08HYMJ716&th=1" is not uncommon.

We don't really know what the numbers describe, Amazon (and others) will not tell. But an educated guess is that they describe who you are (if you are logged in as a customer), how you came to that item (what you searched before), etc... When a such link is posted in a forum and further people will click it, Amazon database will store that the persons are related in some manner. Then, possibly, Amazon will steer you to items priced in relation to what persons you know usually buys. If your (forum) friends buy lots of an expensive brand of clothes, you will get more of that. If they buy cheap low-quality junk, you will get more of those. Amazon stated objective is to maximise their profits. That happens at your expense.

Some of the tracking is official, e.g. for people members of Amazon affiliate program. They get kickbacks.
 
Jerome Marot

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
So, Jérôme,

Any benefits?

When does it extinguish?

Asher
Click to expand...

You will see the same item with and without the tracking. In Europe, you will see the same price, I don't know about the USA.
You will not see the same "related items" with and without the tracking.
If you are logged in, a datapoint will be added to the huge database that Amazon keeps on you as a customer, indicating that you and Robert are related. That will probably influence your Amazon searches for as long as you are a customer.

I sometimes look at Amazon at work. I am not logged in. So it is a different computer and different i.p. address than at home. For Amazon, I am a new unidentified customer when at work. I get a very different choice of products at different prices.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
“At different prices”!!

Frighteningly dishonest.

….but can we game the system by inducing Ana.on to allocate lower pricing?
 
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