Zinely

Our to-make list

What comes next.

This page shows what Zinely does now, what we are building, and what is only an idea. We give no release dates.

Last updated:

How to read this

Available
In the download today.
In development
We started it: designing, building or testing. Not in the download yet.
Planned
We want to do it. There is no date.
Exploring
We are looking at it. It can stay an idea.
FoundationGetting Zinely, keeping your work

The ground under the desk

 7 Available1 Planned Open the listFold it away
  • Available Works offline. No account. Back up your whole shelf to a file and restore it later.
  • Available 0.9.0-beta.6: clearer backups. Backups shows your last backup. A failed backup says where. One unreadable zine does not stop the rest. Restore adds only zines not on your shelf. See what changed.
  • Available 0.9.0-beta.7: folders on your shelf. Put zines in folders. A backup remembers each zine’s folder. See what changed.
  • Available New in beta.8: a shelf note when a damaged zine goes back to an earlier copy. Zinely uses an earlier copy of a damaged details file. Your shelf names the zine until you tap Got it. Not yet listened to with a screen reader. See what changed.
  • Available New in beta.8: fewer ways to lose work. Back keeps your words while you type. The Bench has a button back to your shelf. Save PDF errors say why. Tried on a phone and emulators, not yet with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.8: select several zines. Move or delete them with one Undo. Tried on a phone and emulators, not yet with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.9: small shelf fixes. A new zine is numbered. A saved PDF is named after the zine. Rename starts with the old name selected and stops at 60 characters, and no longer moves the zine to the front. Duplicate scrolls to the copy. The ring round a chosen zine is lighter, and Cancel on the folder sheet is a proper button. Not yet listened to with a screen reader. See what changed.
  • Planned Zinely on Google Play. Account approval, testing and store review must happen first. Until then, download the Android beta here.
CraftMaking the pages

On the bench

 10 Available2 In development2 Planned1 Exploring Open the listFold it away
  • Available Photos, words and Art. Move a photo inside its frame, flip, copy, the photocopier look, undo and redo.
  • Available New in beta.6. Undo and redo name the change. A tap in the hole of a window frame, ring or photo corner reaches what is under it. With a screen reader, a page reads top to bottom. The Font button that did nothing is gone.
  • Available New in beta.7: a second font. Book, a serif font, and Plain. Select words and tap Text to choose. We have not yet printed a page to check Book at its smallest size.
  • Available New in beta.8: two frames, Snipped border and Round window. Not yet printed. Not yet listened to with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.8: the page no longer shrinks when you select something. One Arrange button for move, size, turn and layer. Not yet listened to with a screen reader. Not yet tried on a real small phone.
  • Available New in beta.8: better Art, and more of it. 124 pieces, redrawn and new, with shorter names. Tried on a phone. Not yet printed. Not yet listened to with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.8: mix your own ink. Pick any colour. My inks keeps your mixes. Save inks as a palette. A backup does not include them. Tried on an emulator and a phone. Not yet checked on a larger phone or with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.9: turn a piece by hand. Drag the knob below a piece. It snaps near a quarter turn. Two fingers anywhere on the page turn it too. Arrange has a Straighten button. Typing in turned words shows them turned. Tried on a phone and emulators. Not yet listened to with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.9: small pieces are easier to handle. Drag a small piece by its middle to move it. A tap just beside one picks the piece you tapped. Repeated Move, Size or Turn taps in Arrange are one Undo. Not yet listened to with a screen reader.
  • Available New in beta.9: recent and favourite Art, kept after a restart. They stay on the phone. A backup does not include them. Enter now starts a new line while you type on the page.
  • Planned Paper colour, on screen. If you print on coloured paper, you can see your pages on that colour in the app. It shows on screen only. Zinely does not print a background colour. The colour comes from the paper you load.
  • In development Photo descriptions. Add a few words to a photo. A screen reader says them when you read the zine in the app. Printed and PDF copies do not carry them. It is built but not in the download. There is nothing to try yet.
  • In development A third font, Hand. It looks like handwriting. It joins Book and Plain. It is built but not in the download. There is nothing to try yet.
  • Planned Your own drawings. Photograph a drawing and put it on the page in one ink, like the rest of the Art.
  • Exploring See-through photos, new ways to crop photos, photos cut to a shape, and simple photo fixes such as black and white. These are ideas, not announced features. Some would undo choices we made on purpose. We will decide before we promise anything.
ProofReading, printing, folding

From screen to paper

 1 Available2 Planned1 Exploring Open the listFold it away
  • Available Read the finished zine page by page. Share a print-ready PDF for A4 or US Letter paper, or save it to Downloads (on Android 7 to 9, Zinely asks for permission first). Use the fold guide in the app or on this site.
  • Planned Help at the printer. Clearer help at the print step. You can check one sheet before you print the rest.
  • Planned More paper sizes. Zinely now prints on A4 and US Letter. US Legal and A5 are next. We designed how you choose them. We have not built them yet.
  • Exploring Easier folding. We want to watch first-time makers use the fold guide with real paper. Then we will improve the steps that make them stop.

Shipped, but not finished

Some things are in the download before we finish checking them. This list shows some of what we still owe and what we know is wrong. The download page has the main ones.

  • The Book font: we have not yet printed a page to check it at its smallest size.
  • Turning by hand, small pieces, the lighter ring, the new Cancel button, folders, the second font, tapping through a frame, select several zines, mixed inks, the new Art and the fixes to Back and Save PDF: not yet checked by ear with a screen reader.
  • The new Art pieces and the two frames: we have not printed a page yet.
  • Restore on a different phone: not yet tried.
  • Save PDF on Android 7 to 9: checked on an Android 9 emulator, not on a real Android 7, 8 or 9 phone.
  • Known problem: at the largest text size, the text controls crowd together. The word “Right” breaks across lines. Fixed in beta.8.
  • Known problem: while you type, a notice can say a character “can’t print yet” when it does print. Fixed in beta.8.
  • Known problem, seen once with a file we damaged on purpose: when Zinely repairs a zine’s details from its spare copy, the zine can go back to an earlier title while the shelf shows the newer one. Your pages are not affected. Fixed in beta.8.
  • Known problem: at the largest text size on a small phone, the first-time tip can cut off its first and last words. Fixed in beta.8.
  • Known problem: the first-time tip covers a piece you chose near the top of the page until you tap Got it. Fixed for the next download.
  • Known problem: over the dark area beside the page, the line from the turn knob to the piece is hard to see. Not fixed yet.
  • Known problem: at twice the normal text size, the two buttons on the folder sheet stack. Not fixed yet.
  • Known problem: at twice the normal text size, the “+ New palette” button in the Ink tray wraps onto two lines. Not fixed yet.
  • Known problem: 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. Not fixed yet.
  • A tester said the screen breaks in some places. In beta.8 we fixed many of them on small phones and with large text. We checked them on an emulator, not yet on a real small phone.

Not on our list

We decided not to do these things. You do not need to wonder.

  • Accounts, logins or profiles.
  • Feeds, followers, likes or comments.
  • Push notifications, streaks or guilt.
  • Ads, analytics or tracking.
  • AI that writes or designs your zine for you.
  • Anything that needs our servers to keep your work.

For changes you can use now, see what’s new. Do you need something we do not have? Tell us in our optional Google Form. How we handle feedback.

The developer notes have the longer list.