Zine Production Notes

Here are some notes on how to produce an issue of Ballistic Helmet.  I don't
really have this process as, um, refined as I would like, but I think it will
improve with time.

At the following URL you can find the latex source for the latest issue of BH
v1i2, as well as all the other files need to produce the latest issue.  It's
easiest to just edit a previous source to produce the next new issue.

   http://ballistichelmet.org/zine/v1/i2/

Or, for your convenience:

   http://ballistichelmet.org/zine/v1/i2.tar.gz

There are two latex files, macros.tex and zine.tex.  Think of macros.tex as
defining a mark-up that extends latex specifically for the zine.  It should be
used without modification for all the issues.  The file defines a few macros
like \feature, \nonfeature, \rants and \fromtheeditors that help give a
consistent look and save typing.  Also, a \twocol macro is defined that will
place text in two columns.  Eg \twocol{text} will split text across two
columns.  Changes to the definitions of these macros should be made carefully
and rarely.  Their use should be fairly straightforward, though.

This file also specifies the packages used by latex.  These packages are all
available online (GIMF).

The other file, zine.tex, is where the changes are made for each issue.  At
the top of the file, several constants are defined, \thedate, \theissue, etc.
 These values need to be changed for each issue.  After that comes the body of
the zine.

See the v1i2 source for examples, but basically the markup looks like:

\twocol{\fromtheeditors{ Blah Blah Blah }}

\feature
    {Title}
    {Author}
    {Organization}
    {\url{URL}}
    {\twocol{ Blah Blah Blah }}}

\rants{
  \rantentry{Title1}{Date}{ Blah Blah Blah }
  \rantentry{Title2}{Date}{ Blah Blah Blah }
}

\nonfeature{Title, Eg. Oddball News}{
\subsection*{Subtitle}
Blah Blah Blah
}

Some commands that are used frequently are \newpage which ends the current
page, \vfill which will put in a varying length vertical whitespace to, for
example, align something at the bottom of the page or end the current column
when using \twocol.  Use \begin{center} Blah Blah Blah \end{center} to center
something.

Use \includegraphics{file} to include an image.  You can specify properties
like \includegraphics[height=1in]{file}.  This will include file.ps (note that
you don't type .ps) from the current directory when running latex.

All images must be encapusalted PostScript (EPS).  EPS files can either be
vector or bitmap. Line art images can be converted into vector graphics
using autotrace.  Vector images will print nicely and scale perfectly.
Photographic images need to be bitmaps.  Use GIMP or ImageMagick's convert
utility to save most formats to EPS.

Example PNG bitmap to EPS vector conversion:

autotrace -dpi=200 -input-format=png -output-format=eps \
          -output-file=file.ps -color-count 2 file.png

Example JPG bitmap to EPS bitmap conversion:

convert file.jpg file.eps

To make the files zine.ps and zine-print.ps do:

latex zine ; latex zine
dvips -h duplex -o zine.ps zine
psbook zine.ps | psnup -n2 > zine-print.ps

latex is used here to typeset the zine.  We run it twice so that the TOC and
any crossreference and so on get handled in the file; you just always want to
run latex twice.  This outputs the zine as a dvi file, a device neutral image
format.  This is translated to PostScript, the language of printers, by using
dvips.

The file duplex contains:

   << /Duplex true /Tumble true >> setpagedevice

Which is PostScript voodoo to print on both sides of the paper.  If you send
zine.ps or zine-print.ps to a printer it will print two-sided if possible and
one-sided otherwise.  The -h to dvips causes the voodoo to be included in the
output files.

We now have zine.ps, a file that is meant to be read on a computer.  The pages
are 8.5x11 and ordered sequently one page per sheet.  This file needs to be
(4*x)+2 pages long (for some x) in order to print correctly, so edit wisely.

psbook and psnup are used to rearrange and resize the pages with two pages per
sheet (landscape oriented) and ordered so that they can be bound.  Ie:

Sheet 1 = Last    | First
      2 = First+1 | Last-1
      3 = Last-2  | First+2
      ...

The first sheet of this file, zine-print.ps should be printed on cover stock
(not card stock) weight paper, around 67 lb.  Any color.  The rest can be
printed on whatever shitty white paper you want.  I print all the covers on
campus and print a prototype of the body and bring it to Kinko's to have them
photocopy it for me.  I did 40 copies of v1i2.

/david