How to Bind a Zine: 7 Bindings Compared, from Staples to Stab Binding

Binding turns a stack of folded sheets into a zine. You need nothing more than a stapler, a needle and thread, or a rubber band, and each method changes how the zine feels in the hand: crisp and functional, soft and handmade, or deliberately rough.

This guide compares seven bindings, explains which zines each one suits, and walks through the two you will use most often. If you are making a one-sheet mini zine, you need no binding at all; the single cut and folds hold it together.

Two families: fold bindings and edge bindings

Every zine binding belongs to one of two families, and choosing between them is your first decision.

• Fold bindings go through the centre fold of nested folded sheets. Staples and pamphlet stitches are fold bindings. They need a page count in multiples of four, and the zine opens flat in the middle.
• Edge bindings go through a stack of single sheets near one edge. Side staples and Japanese stab binding are edge bindings. They work with any page count and with single-sided sheets, but the pages do not open quite as flat.

The seven bindings at a glance

Binding	Family	Difficulty	Time	You need	Best for
Long-reach staples	Fold	Easy	5 min	Long-reach stapler	Editions, any booklet
Foam-board staple trick	Fold	Easy	10 min	Ordinary stapler, foam board	Booklets without special tools
Side staple and tape spine	Edge	Easy	15 min	Stapler, cloth or paper tape	Single sheets, thick zines
Three-hole pamphlet stitch	Fold	Medium	15 min	Needle, thread, awl	Handmade booklets
Five-hole stitch with wrap cover	Fold	Medium	35 min	Needle, thread, awl, card	Taller or card-covered zines
Japanese stab binding	Edge	Advanced	45 min	Awl, needle, thread, clips	Loose leaves, French folds, art zines
Rubber band and twig	Fold	Easy	10 min	Rubber band, twig or pencil	Quick, playful, workshops

1. Long-reach staples

A long-reach stapler has a deep throat, usually around 12 inches, so it can reach the centre fold of any Letter or A4 booklet. It is the single best upgrade a zine maker can buy, and a basic one typically costs around $15–25.

1. Nest your folded sheets in order and tap them square.
2. Open the booklet flat, outside facing up, and slide it under the stapler so the head lands exactly on the crease.
3. Set the stapler’s depth guide if it has one, so every copy lines up.
4. Staple twice: about 2 inches (5 cm) from the head and from the tail on a half-letter or A5 zine.
5. Fold closed and press the spine.

2. The foam-board staple trick

No long-reach stapler? An ordinary one will do.

Open the stapler fully so it works like a tacker. Lay the booklet open, outside up, on a piece of foam board or thick corrugated card. Push a staple straight through the fold into the foam. Lift the booklet off, then press each staple leg flat from the inside, starting from its tip. Firm foam gives the neatest legs.

3. Side staple and tape spine

For stacks of single sheets, or for zines too thick to fold well, staple through the front near the spine edge and cover the staples with tape.

Place three staples about 0.25 inch (6 mm) from the spine edge, then fold a strip of cloth tape, washi tape or paper tape around the spine to hide them. Keep your page content at least 0.5 inch from the bound edge, because side-bound pages do not open all the way.

4. Three-hole pamphlet stitch

The pamphlet stitch is the classic sewn binding: three holes in the fold, one length of thread, one knot. It takes about fifteen minutes the first time and ten after that, and it gives a softer, handmade feel than staples.

The short version: pierce three holes in the fold (one in the middle and one about 1 inch from each end), go out through the middle hole leaving a tail inside, in through the top hole, along the inside past the middle and out through the bottom hole, then back in through the middle and tie a square knot around the long stitch. The full pamphlet stitch tutorial walks through it step by step with the knot and the common mistakes.

5. Five-hole stitch with a wrap cover

For taller spines, thicker zines or a card cover, use five evenly spaced holes. The path is the same idea extended: start inside at the middle hole, work out to one end, back across to the other end, and finish in the middle, tying around the long inside stitch.

A wrap cover is a single sheet of card folded around the outside of the booklet and sewn on with the inside pages. Keep the card’s grain parallel to the spine so it folds cleanly; our paper guide explains how to find the grain.

6. Japanese stab binding

Stab binding sews through the whole stack near the spine edge, so it binds single leaves, French folds and prints beautifully. The classic four-hole pattern has holes about 0.5 inch (12 mm) from the spine, with even spacing between the outer two.

The binding is sewn in passes: a running stitch down the holes, then back up, with the thread wrapping around the spine at every hole and around the head and tail at the ends. When you finish, every stretch of spine should show a stitch on both front and back.

A few rules that prevent most stab-binding failures:

• Clamp the stack with binder clips, cover to cover, before you pierce, and pierce straight down into a scrap board so the holes line up through every page.
• Use a thread about four times the spine length, waxed, so it does not tangle.
• Tension as you go. Pull each stitch along the spine, not away from it, so the holes do not tear.
• Check for gaps. If any stretch is missing a stitch on one side, you skipped a wrap.

The hole guides in the free template pack include actual-size stab-binding strips for 8.5-inch and 5.5-inch spines, and for A5 and A6.

7. Rubber band and twig

The fastest binding there is, and lovely for workshops. Cut a small notch at the head and tail of the fold, slip a rubber band around the outside of the spine so it sits in the notches, and push a twig, pencil or chopstick under the band on the inside of the centre spread. The band holds the pages; the twig holds the band.

Creep: why inner pages stick out

When you nest several folded sheets, the inner ones push out further at the fore-edge than the outer ones. This is called creep, and it becomes visible from about five sheets (20 pages) on ordinary paper.

Two fixes: trim the fore-edge flush after binding with a sharp knife and a metal ruler (a few sheets at a time) or ask a copy shop to guillotine the run, and keep text at least 0.25 inch from the fore-edge so trimming never cuts into it.

Which binding should you choose?

• Printing an edition of 20 or more? Long-reach staples. Fast, consistent, cheap.
• Making a handful of special copies? Pamphlet stitch, with coloured thread.
• Single-sided prints, a portfolio or a French-fold zine? Japanese stab binding.
• Teaching a group of children? Rubber band and twig, or staples done by an adult.
• A thick zine that will not fold? Side staples with a tape spine.

Go further

Actual-size hole guides for every sewn binding are in the free template pack, so you can pierce holes without measuring. The Complete Zine Making Handbook gives each of these seven bindings its own project, with numbered thread paths, knot diagrams and a troubleshooting table for every one.