Get Zinely

Get the Android beta.

Zinely is free. It is in public beta. You install it from GitHub, not from a store. This page shows the steps.

Install it

1. On your Android phone, tap Download the APK.
2. Open the downloaded file. If Android asks, let your browser or Files app install unknown apps. Then go back.
3. Tap Install. Then open Zinely.

Android can show a warning because the app did not come from a store. This is normal for a direct download. Install Zinely only from this page or from the GitHub releases.

Updating from an earlier beta

A newer beta installs over the one you have. It keeps your zines. Make a backup first. On your shelf, open Backups and tap Back up this shelf. Keep the file in a safe place.

Do you use Zinely 0.8.0 or older? Those early builds cannot update to the beta. Share your zines first. Then uninstall the old app and install this one. Uninstalling deletes the old app’s zines.

Moving to a new phone

Zinely has no account and no cloud. Your zines do not move to a new phone by themselves. Android’s backup and phone-transfer tools do not copy them. To move them:

1. On the old phone, open Backups and choose Back up this shelf.
2. Move the backup file to the new phone. Use a cable or your own cloud storage.
3. Install Zinely on the new phone. Open Backups and tap Restore a backup.

Keep the backup file until your zines open on the new phone. We have not yet tested a restore on a different phone. Check your zines before you erase the old phone. Tell us if something looks wrong. Uninstalling Zinely deletes the zines inside it.

Known limits in this version

• We have not tested the new features with a screen reader. Nothing new in this version has been tested that way. This covers the turn knob, Straighten, turning with two fingers, small pieces, the lighter ring and the new Cancel button. It also covers the older features from the last version: select several zines, mixed inks, the new Art and frames, and the changes to Back and Save PDF. We tried them on a phone and on emulators. We read what the phone reports. We did not listen to it.
• The turn knob. Over the dark area beside the page, the line from the knob to the piece is hard to see. The knob itself stays easy to see. Its touch area can take a tap meant for what is under it. We have not tried adding a second finger late, after a long press has cleared your choice.
• We have not yet printed a page with the new Art pieces. We have not checked mixed inks on a larger phone. At twice the normal text size, “+ New palette” wraps onto two lines.
• The first-time tip covers a piece you chose near the top of the page until you tap Got it. This is fixed for the next download. At the largest text size on a small phone, the notice for a change that cannot be saved can be taller than the screen. At twice the normal text size, the two buttons on the folder sheet stack one above the other.
• If Zinely restores a zine’s main file from its backup copy, it does not tell you. The last few seconds of changes are lost. A zine repaired this way can also have an empty, invisible text box that you can still tap.
• Select several zines: if you tap Undo while a delete is still saving, a zine can come back and then be deleted with no message. Undo of a move says nothing when you deleted all of its zines.
• The two new frames, Snipped border and Round window. Snipped border is thin. Over a photo, it can be hard to pick up again. A frame that is not square has a band that is thicker on two sides. We have not checked tapping through a frame with a screen reader.
• If you go back to an older version, a zine with a new Art piece opens, but the piece is not drawn. An invisible frame can still be selected, and it takes a tap meant for what is under it. A backup does not include your mixed inks and palettes.
• Folders and the Book font are not fully checked. We ran them on one phone. We have not tested them with a screen reader. We have not yet printed a page to check Book at 12 pt, its smallest size.
• Words that just fit their box can lose their last line when you switch to Book. There is no warning. The two fonts have different sizes and the box does not grow. Make the box taller to see the line again.
• If you go back to an older version of Zinely, or restore a backup there, Book words show in Plain. No words are lost. They are Book again in this version. In the older version, lines that do not fit their box are missing from the page and the PDF. It does not tell you.
• An older version of Zinely restores a backup with every zine on My Shelf, not in its folder. If the phone already has the same zines, a restore adds nothing. It brings no folders.
• Book has no Greek or Cyrillic letters. You cannot choose it for words smaller than 12 pt. The card tells you why.
• With large words, each line can still move by about a pixel when you tap Done.
• When you select words, two buttons open the same card: Text, above the page strip, and Text style, in the row of arrows at the bottom.
• With TalkBack, the reading position does not move to the result after you move a zine or change a folder. If you tap a second folder action while the first is still saving, Zinely drops the second one with no message.
• When the last zine leaves a folder, the message and its Undo stay for four seconds. This is short for two lines.
• We have not yet tried a first-time install of this file. Make a backup before you update.
• On Android 7, 8 and 9, Save PDF asks for storage access. If you decline and tell Android not to ask again, Save PDF shows “Couldn’t make the PDF” until you allow storage for Zinely in your phone’s settings. Share always works. We tested this on an Android 9 emulator, but not yet on a real Android 7, 8 or 9 phone. If you have one, tell us how it goes.
• Pictures with see-through backgrounds, such as logos, lose their transparency. The clear parts come in as white. They print correctly on white paper. On the cream page in the app, a logo shows as a faint white rectangle. Over a photo, it shows as a white box.
• With TalkBack, About and its credits pages open on the Back button. Going back lands at the top of the previous screen. You can still reach everything by swiping.
• Tapping through a frame is new. A tap in the empty part of a window frame, ring, eyelet, torn hole, photo corner or registration cross reaches what is under it. We have not yet checked it by ear with TalkBack. A thin frame over a photo can need a careful tap. Dragging a selected frame by its edge resizes it. Drag from the middle to move it.
• On a narrow piece, the resize handles reach a little beyond its edge. A drag there resizes the piece. A tap very close to a handle keeps your choice.
• Your recent and favourite Art pieces stay on the phone. A backup does not include them.
• With TalkBack, if undo says the same line twice in a row, you may hear it only once.
• If a backup left a zine out, this version says so when you restore it. Earlier versions do not say it.
• Photos you replace or delete still use space in the app. Zinely does not free that space yet.
• Zinely cannot print some scripts yet, such as Bengali and Tamil. It keeps and flags the text, but the text does not print.
• Zinely makes the PDF. Your phone’s PDF or print app does the printing.

What’s new lists what this version added and fixed.

Check the download (optional)

You do not need this to use Zinely. To check that the file is the one we published, compare its SHA-256 checksum with ours. This checksum is for zinely-0.9.0-beta.9-release.apk, version 0.9.0-beta.9 (Android version code 14):

e29422eea98b872bbb3456fd674a37ac5e44fb670a9cb7b2f4ea4acb204ace7d

Other ways to get Zinely

Google Play

Not yet. We plan to publish Zinely there. There is no date. Until then, use this page.

iPhone and iPad

Zinely is for Android only. There is no iPhone version. We have not announced one.

Earlier versions

The earlier public beta is on the GitHub releases page. Use the current version above.

Building it yourself

The source code is on GitHub. A build you make from it is for development. It can differ from this beta.

The app does not ask for internet access. It has no account, ads or analytics. The download comes from GitHub, which has its own privacy policy. Read the Zinely privacy policy.