Creating a digital magazine?

September 1, 2023 2:49 PM

My kids would like to create a digital magazine that they can share with family and friends. I’m on board with helping them with this project, though I’m having trouble finding resources about how to do so.

They would like the magazine to feature both their writing and their art. We are all pretty experienced with Procreate, but not a lot of other software.
When I try to use a search engine to find resources, all of my results are companies selling their specific tools.
I’m looking for advice on the basics of putting together a digital magazine (links to guides would be fine - I’ve even had difficulty finding these) and recommendations on what kind of apps or platforms would be helpful.
Extra challenge: we only have access to tablets, no desktop computers.
I could budget up to $10/month for a platform, but would prefer free.
Thanks so much for your help.

posted by bitbotbit to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Try Google Slides! It's free and collaborative. Each "page" would be a new slide. You can then download it as a PDF, share it as a slideshow, whatever. It's a pretty flexible tool and your kids can develop their own templates (themes) themselves, or they can use others shared on the web. Your kids could also make their own website with Google Sites and share the issues of their magazine there. Canva may also be an option but I've never used it myself, whereas I use Slides daily.
posted by Stoof at 3:12 PM on September 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'd look at Canva.com (start with a free account; it's unlikely you'll need a paid account). They'll have the tools to create presentations, and maybe magazines. I'm not quite sure of the final output. You can probably export a pdf and host that on a website somewhere if you don't want to email it to people.

Another option is to create each poem/writing as a social media post and create a curated instagram account that is the magazine.
posted by hydra77 at 3:13 PM on September 1, 2023 [3 favorites]

You want Electric Zine Maker. It’s perfect for a kids’ project.
posted by bowbeacon at 5:15 PM on September 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you have an iPad, Affinity Publisher is reasonably priced at $18.49 (onetime fee). We use it periodically throughout the year and I find it easy enough to pick up each time with only minor Adobe CS experience from two decades ago :)
posted by icaicaer at 6:50 PM on September 1, 2023

I really enjoyed making a very beautiful zine in Canva. It could then be published on Google Drive/Dropbox. I see magazines on Issuu, but it’s kind of annoying as an interface and I don’t know about the pricing.
posted by lokta at 3:51 AM on September 2, 2023

Response by poster: Thanks very much to all for your help. I took a look at all these options and I think Canva looks like a great match for our needs.
posted by bitbotbit at 9:44 AM on September 3, 2023