How to make a magazine for a friend's birthday (printed at home tonight)

For one friend and one evening, use the 8-page zine. It prints on a single sheet of A4 or Letter on one side, then folds into a pocket magazine with A7 pages (about 74 × 105 mm from A4) with one cut and no staples. It is small enough to slip into a card and quick enough that you can make a copy for everyone at the party.

If you have 30 photos and a lot to say, choose a stapled booklet instead: 16 pages on four sheets of A4 printed on both sides, folded to A5. It feels more like a real magazine in the hand, but it takes about 15 minutes to print and staple rather than five.

Page 1, the cover: the best photo of your friend, a magazine name built from their name (“SARAH Monthly”, “The Tom Times”) and two or three teaser lines such as “EXCLUSIVE: what really happened in Lisbon”. Page 2, contents and an editor's letter of three sentences. Pages 3–4, the interview: five questions you already know the answers to, written as if they had been asked by a famous journalist.

Page 5, a photo story told in three pictures with one-line captions. Page 6, a quiz (“Which of Sarah's 2026 haircuts are you?”). Page 7, the horoscope for the year ahead, full of in-jokes. Page 8, the back cover: an advert for something only your group will understand, plus “Happy birthday” and the date. That is a complete magazine in eight panels.

Specific beats clever. “Still owes me £4 from the 2019 festival” is funnier than any generic joke, and real dates, places and quotes are what make people keep the magazine for years. Keep captions under ten words: a zine panel is about the size of a playing card, so long paragraphs turn into tiny print.

Use real magazine furniture: an issue number (“Issue 30”), a price on the cover (“Priceless”), page numbers, a pull quote. Foldpic's story prompts can help when you are stuck on a caption, and the riso and film zine styles already look like a small independent magazine.

Choose one clear, close photo for the cover; faces need to be big on a 74 mm wide page. For the inside, mix one old photo (school, a first holiday together), one recent one and one silly one. Six to ten photos is plenty for eight pages.

Ask friends for photos you do not have: a shared collection link lets everyone send pictures from their phones the day before without spoiling the surprise in the group chat. Black-and-white photos print well even on a cheap inkjet, which is handy if you are making ten copies.

Print at 100% or Actual size, never Fit to page, on plain 100–120 gsm paper. Fold in half lengthways, fold in half twice more, cut the slit through the middle two panels, push the ends together and flatten. Foldpic's PDF already has the pages in the right order and the top row upside down, which is correct.

Make one extra copy for yourself. Birthday magazines are the kind of thing people find in a drawer ten years later and send a photo of to the group chat.