Index ➤ Free Zines
Free Zines
Welcome to my ever-growing list of FREE ZINES! All zines on this page (to the best of my knowledge) are 100% free to download or read online. Many of them are in printable formats, some are designed to be read on a screen. If you find a zine you like, please consider tracking down the creator and giving them a thank-you or a tip! (I mean, if you can. Some of these go all the way back to the 1920s!)
I will be continuing to update this page, and I will do my best to ensure the links are active. Please let me know if there is a broken link or if you've found another resource you think should be listed here.
Want some specific recs? Check out my Free Zine Friday blog!
Want to meet some zinesters? Check out Zinesters Alley!
Zine Libraries
EBABZ Digital Zine Library -- Zines sent to East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest. Probably 80% are hosted as local PDFs.
Papercut Zine Library -- A huge collection of zines (16,000 in person!) with almost 400 available to read digitally. Searchable by tags. Non-locally hosted PDFs.
POC Zine Project -- Zines by people of color, run by nonprofit POC Zine Project, self-described as an "experiment in activism and community through materiality". Most hosted on issuu; on the zine page, make sure to scoll down to check for more by the same creator.
Quarantine Public Library -- Collected zines, searchable by author, genre, and media. All local PDFs in print format.
Sticky Institute Online Zine Library -- Zines sent to Sticky Institute, Melbourne-based zine org. that runs The Festival of the Photocopier and HalloZine. Lots of quaranzines, but lots of others too. All local PDFs.
Sherwood Forest Zine Library -- Digital and scanned zines from Sherwood Forest Zine Library in Austin, TX. Updates quarterly, searchable by topic. All local PDFs.
ZCMAG Print-At-Home Zine Library -- Zines contributed to Zine Crisis Mutual Assistance Group (ZCMAG--Zinesters helping zinesters). Majority 8-page minis; others come with printing instructions. All local PDFs.
Zine Archives
archive.org -- A metric fuckton of zines scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive. Over 81,000 zines, including vintage/historic and contemporary zines. Tagged and easily searchable. Often downloadable for offline screen reading, rarely formatted for printing. Locally hosted.
Chapman University Feminist Zine Archive -- A collection of feminist zines contributed from students of Chapman University's Women's Studies department. All local PDFs.
Fanzines Archive -- Archive of fantasy and sci-fi fanzines from the 1930s through 2000s. Locally hosted, one-page-at-a-time PDFs.
Fat Lib Archive -- [tbw]
Jewish Zine Archive -- Zines by creators identifying with Jewishness and/or Judaism. Click the hamburger icon and explore all the pages; there are free digital zines available all over the site! All local PDFs; they also have some A/V Zines. [Anti-occupation/Palestinian genocide]
QZAP: Queer Zine Archive Project -- Zines by queer creators about queer topics from 1973-present. Focus on preservation. Tagged and easily searchable. Self-hosted reader.
Collectives/Distros/Organizations
Coke Oven Zines -- A searchable directory of community-contributed zine listings, filterable by cost. Links to variety of hosts.
CrimethInc. -- Zines on resistance and collective action by anarchist collective CrimethInc. Many essays come in languages besides English
Library Freedom -- Zines about privacy and Big Tech. Scroll down and click the "zines" tab. Google Drive hosted, printables. See also A Librarian Against AI.
Pleasure Pie -- [tbw]
The Small Science Collective -- Printable mini-zines about science. Organized by subject. All local PDFs.
Sprout Distro -- Anarchist zines with essay/informational zines from direct action to theory. All printable and many screen-arranged. Zines hosted by archive.org.
Warrior Publications -- [tbw]
Warzone Distro -- Anarchist zines with zines on "anarchy, insurrection and anti-civilization." Many vegan/animal liberation zines. All local PDFs arranged for print.
zinedistro.org -- Anarchist zines with essay/informational zines, run by The Resistance Army. All local PDFs, and many have the contents in text form for screenreaders!
https://www.sarabandebooks.org/zine-gallery
[tbw]
Hosting Sites/Communities
Free zines on itch.io *In the dropdown menu at the top of the screen, try changing also to "Comics" and "Everything else", as not everyone tags their zine as a "book"
issuu.com *Try searching for "zine", "zines", or try subject keywords
r/zines -- While not exclusively free zines, lots of free zines get shared here, as well as links to collections or personal sites.
tumblr tagged #free-zine -- Many types of zines, especially fanzines for specific characters/media (I mean, it's tumblr, what do you expect)
Other Collections
Abortion Zines -- Abortion support zines collected and shared by the Jewish Zine Archive.
grossgirl94 zine collection -- Zines collected by fellow neocities user grossgirl94, many of which are scanned and uploaded for digital reading. Goth, riot grrrl, feminist, anarchist, and magicy themes. Actively updated!
littlemouse zine collection -- Info gathered from websites and conveniently arranged in printable zine forms. Trans, political/anarchist, therapy, and more themes. Self-hosted PDFs.
Keke Magazine Zine Library -- Zines by intersectional feminists. Boldly claims it is "the internet’s first ever free zine library"... I dunno about that, but they do indeed have some free zines on their page. Local PDFs.
Palestine Zines and Reading List -- This list includes books as well as zines that provide a foundational understanding of Palestine's history and the significance of its struggle for liberation.
Free Zines About Palestine from Pleasure Pie -- Modern (2020s) zines about Palestinian liberation as well as artistic resistance.
small neighborhood library -- Printable zines for neighborhood libraries collected by serenegecko; primarily minizines (great for cheap printing & distributing) and some larger zines too. Topics indicated with icons at the end.
tehuan Zine Library -- A diverse zine collection that's super beautiful to browse because the covers are posted 0.0 Many are available as free PDFs. Also check out tehuan's digital zine collection for free PDFs!
Individual Creators
Many of these creators also offer their zines or art for sale--please consider supporting them if you can!
Laura K. Watson -- Magical nature zines, with many zines created as a form of spellcasting. Photographed and readable as images.
Little Neo Creative -- A huge collection of mini-zines made by the creator. Many of them are art and drawing tutorials/resources/advice, great for artists, journalers and zinesters! Readable online as images.
Mel Gillman -- They have a little series of digital zines on foraging, offered for free in the spirit of free food from the forest! Mel is an awesome comic creator in general--I took a graphic memoir class with them that's still stuck with me. Downloadable PDFs on Ko-Fi.
Sarah Shay Mirk -- Minizines on various topics, including political education and make-your-own templates. Self-hosted PDFs.
