Task 6- Zine production, Maria.

Most commonly, A zine is a small publication of images and text, usually used to accompany an artists work or give information. A popular belief is that a zine must be 5,000 copies or less to be considered a zine, although in practice the majority are produced in editions of less than 1,000, and profit is not the primary intent of publication.
Zines are written in a variety of formats, from computer-printed text to comics to handwritten text. Print remains the most popular zine format, usually photo-copied with a small circulation. Topics covered are broad, including fanfiction, politics, art and design, ephemera, personal journals, social theory and single topic obsession. The time and materials necessary to create a zine are matched by revenue from sale of zines. Small circulation zines are often not explicitly copyrighted and there is a strong belief among many zine creators that the material within should be freely distributed. In recent years a number of photocopied zines have risen to prominence or professional status and have found wide bookstore and online distribution.

Zines are sold, traded or given as gifts through many different outlets, from zine symposiums and publishing fairs to record stores, book stores, zine stores, at concerts, independent media outlets, zine 'distros', via mail order or through direct correspondence with the author. They are also sold online either via websites or social networking profiles.

Zines distributed for free are either traded directly between zinesters, given away at the outlets mentioned or are available to download and print online.

While zines are generally self-published, there are a few independent publishers who specialise in making art zines. One such 'art-zine' publisher (who also publish books) is Nieves Books in Zurich, founded by Benjamin Sommerhalder. Another is Café Royal, UK based and founded by Craig Atkinson in 2005.