Here is a simple tutorial on how to make your own fanbook without going through an on demand book printer. (Ideal for those of us who make 18+ content~!)
Book Specs:
Size: 5.5″ x 8.5″ (Digest Size)
Quantity: 100
No Full-Bleed
Cost: About $50-$60
Materials:
Photoshop
Laser Printer
24lb Paper
Long Arm Stapler (highly recommended, but not necessary)
CREATING YOUR COMIC
First thing’s first, you’ll want to have the content for your book. If you’re making a comic, you’ll need the appropriate template.
Now that you have the template, use it to plan out your comic. Keep all text and artwork away from the red areas, and keep all panels and text bubbles inside of the blue areas.
Things You Can Include In Your Comic (other than the comic itself):
Info/Details about the artist (You) and where readers can find them online
Artist’s Notes in the front or back of your book
Extras in the back of your book, like mini comics, doodles/sketches, or even fanfiction
(Note on Making it Full-Bleed:I DO NOT recommend attempting to make your comic full-bleed by trimming edges and whatnot, as it takes a lot of extra time and effort, and could possibly botch up a lot of copies due to trial and error. For the sake of this tutorial, I suggest keeping your art inside the blue areas and avoid keeping it from going off the page. Your best bet for having a nice looking full-bleed book is going through an online book printer, which might not even be an option for you if you’re making an 18+ doujinshi, since nearly 99% of western book printers will not print porn or anything that sorta LOOKS like it.)
SHADING TIPS
If you are using screen tones to shade your work, it is crucial to make sure that you willNOT be doing any resizing after you put down your tone. All resizing of your ink work, the image itself, or any size adjustments should be done BEFORE you put down your screen tone. Resizing your image with screen tone already on it will cause a moire effect on your printed image, which is something you don’t want.
Another tip for screen tones to avoid moire: If you are using Clip Studio Paint, DO NOT RASTERIZE YOUR TONE LAYER.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS: If you are unsure about how to use screen tones or don’t feel comfortable with them and the risks that are involved with having it come out right/wrong when it prints, just use solid gray-scale colours. It will look just as good, I promise. ♥ (That’s what I do because I personally hate using screen tones. They really are a pain if you have no idea what you’re doing.)
CREATING A PDF OF YOUR COMPLETED COMIC
After you’ve finished drawing your comic, it’s time to make a PDF.
Step 1) Make sure all of your pages are numbered correctly in their file names. DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR COVER OR BACK IMAGES. Those will be dealt with later.
Step 2) In Photoshop, go to FILE > AUTOMATE > PDF PRESENTATION.
Step 3) From there, click “Browse” and add all of your pages. MAKE SURE THAT THEY SHOW UP IN THE CORRECT ORDER IN THE BOX TO THE LEFT OF THE BROWSE BUTTON. If they don’t, you’ll have a PDF file that’s not in the correct order.
Step 4) Once you have all of your images chosen and in the correct order, press Save and then name your PDF file.
Step 5) A new window will pop up. There are only two things you need to change in this new window.
The first one is in the General Tab under Options. Make sure none of those boxes are checked.
The second one is in the Compression tab under Options. Make sure it is set to “DO NOT DOWNSAMPLE”.
Your Compression should be set to “JPEG” and Image Quality set to “MAXIMUM.”
That’s it for this window. Now you can click “Save PDF.”
PRINTING YOUR COMIC
Now that you have your PDF, it’s time to print your comic! (We’re still ignoring the cover for now. That will be last.)
Step 1) Open your new PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Step 2) Go to FILE > PRINT…
Step 3) Set up everything as I have it set up here:
You may even want to click on your Printer’s “Properties” and “Advanced” to set up your printer for its best settings.
If you have a duplex laser printer, make sure it’s set to “Duplex Printing” so that it will print on the front and back of the page for you.
If it is NOT a duplex printer, make sure the printer is set to print on both sides of each page under “Properties.” Your printer should guide you with instructions on screen with how to re-insert each page as it prints.
Make sure the paper you are using is at LEAST 24lb paper. Anything less than that will be too thin and you’ll be able to see through each page.
PRINTING YOUR COVER
This is the part that costs money.
If you want your cover to look nice, your best option is to have it printed through a printing service online. My absolute fav is Pixartprinting.com. Their prices are very affordable, the quality is great, and the shipping is always free. Plus, on occasion, they’ll have great sales.
Step 1) The first thing you want to do is put your cover and back images on one image together.
Example: This is the cover for a fanfic book that I made.
Step 2) In order to do this, go to Pixartprinting.com and make an account.
Step 3) After you have your account made, click on “Brochures” from the left side menu.
Step 4) Set up your order like this:
Step 5) After you have your order set exactly how you want it, scroll down and pick your quantity option. I chose 100 copies.
Step 6) Click the template button and download their template for your file.
Step 7) Add your order to your cart and pay for it. After your order has been sent, they should now prompt you to upload your artwork. So now we gotta get that ready.
Step 8) Open Photoshop and place your cover and back onto the template you downloaded and make sure to delete the template guidelines. Also, be sure that your back is on the left side and your cover is on the right side.
Step 9) Go back to Pixartprinting and upload your image.
Step 10) Await the arrival of your beautiful, newly printed book covers!
Mine turned out line this:
MAKING YOUR BOOKLET
Now that you have all the pages printed out, and the covers have arrived in the mail, it’s time to fold each comic page in half evenly! Make sure all the pages are in order when you put them together to form your book.
After everything is together, it’s time to staple!
I use a long arm stapler to staple my books together (you can buy them online for about $12-$15), but this video gives a wonderful step-by-step process for stapling booklets, even if you don’t have a special stapler to do it. They even show you how to easily trim off excess edges. (To do this, I use a Fiskars Heavy Duty Die Cast Craft Knife because it has the absolute best blade I’ve ever used)
TA-DA!
When all is said and done, you should have a beautiful little fanbook on your hands.
If you wanna get really professional about it, you can always buy cellophane sleeves to protect your books for when you sell/trade them.
I order mine from Etsy. There are several wonderful sellers there who specialize in cellophane sleeves. My personal favs are:
me: wants to be multilingual, a musical prodigy, an artist, an author, a poet, an honour student, working in a well-paying job, successful and happy
me: sits on my couch eating three(3) party-sized bags of salt and vinegar potato chips and watching thirty-one(31) episodes of my favourite tv show in one sitting
Well, someone says that Thor is with electricity himself. But I didn’t remember that just because once I saw this device in Thor 3, I can’t help imaging this scene.
Whatever.
Obviously I want you to take care of your pets and make sure they get food and fresh water on a regular basis, but cats being huge drama queens and screaming hysterically at you and acting like they’re tragic famine victims who haven’t eaten in weeks and are about to drop dead from starvation right mcfuckin now, because you’re 10 minutes late feeding them is always going to be one of the funniest things to me
the cat who lives at the vet clinic i volunteer at was mad yesterday because his dinner was half an hour late due to a busy day. he proceeded to go to all the (empty dw) garbage cans and tried to knock them over and started desperately scavenging for scraps of food because obviously no one loves him or cares about him and if he must eat garbage to survive then so be it
not food related, but one time my cat cried at me for 20 minutes before i worked out that the reason why she was upset was because there was a coat hanger on her favourite cushion
This is absolutely beautiful and changed my life, thank you so much. Please protect her from hangers at all costs
wow. am STORVING and humaines here making joke laugh at cate honger ?!
My cat is a social eater who is not food motivated at all, so I was baffled when I first got him because he didn’t seem to care about food but he would SCREAM at me for hours when I knew his bowl was full. Any time I went to double check that he did indeed have food, he’d book it to the bowl and snarf like his life depended on it, but as soon as I walked away he’d follow me screaming again.
Eventually I figured out that he just wanted a dining companion and was screaming about how we’re a family and families eat together, god damnit! I moved his food bowl under my computer desk and it fixed the problem. But if I’m ever out for more than 12 hours I’ll come home to find him in a passive-aggressive kitty huff because dinner has been ready for hours but he’s been trying to be considerate (unlike some humans) and waiting for me to eat it.
lanablack 