Okay, so we know the gutter (or inside) margin on bound books has to be larger than the outer margin, but how much? LetвЂ™s take a 6вЂі x 9вЂі book as an example. That inside margin is referred to as the вЂњgutterвЂќ margin.

We even have a language for referring to this inside margin, whether itвЂ™s the left side of the page (right-hand, or odd-numbered pages) or the right (left-hand, even-numbered pages). They curve in toward the binding, donвЂ™t they?Д«ecause your printed book isnвЂ™t going to open completely flat, we always leave more room on the inside margins of our pages. ThatвЂ™s because the pages of a book, when youвЂ™re reading it, arenвЂ™t flat the way a single piece of paper is. ThatвЂ™s understandable if all youвЂ™ve ever done with your word processor or layout program is create single-page documents or short reports that are stapled or clipped together.Д«ut when your pages are going to end up bound into a book, vertical centering isnвЂ™t the best way to go. In most cases, people seem to want to put the text in the middle of the page. This refers to the tall column of type that makes up your text pages. Once youвЂ™ve decided what your book size will be, the next order of business is to position the text block on the page. providing space for running heads (or running feet), page numbers or other navigation aids.give a feeling of openness, making the book inviting to read.show the entire type block area easily, without вЂњdisappearingвЂќ into the gutter (see below).provide room for the reader to hold the book comfortably.Here are some of the jobs margins have to do: After all, they have a job to do too, even though they are blank areas on the page, something that designers refer to as вЂњnegative space.вЂќ LetвЂ™s talk for a moment about what we expect from our page margins. YouвЂ™ll need to be able to measure the elements of your page accurately in order to implement these suggestions. So in the rest of the article, IвЂ™m going to talk about small measurements. When youвЂ™re dealing with typography, you get used to the effect of these small changes.ДЄnd thatвЂ™s true for the decisions you make about margins, too. Some of these changes-ones that seem to make a significant difference to me-may involve differences of a hundredth of an inch one way or the other. Who else would want the job? There are so many tiny details and decisions that go into formatting a book that you pretty much have to be someone who enjoys working on that scale to appreciate book design. IвЂ™m not going to deny that book designers are detail freaks. This has to do with page margins-how to do them right and how not to do them wrong.

Today, I want to look at one of the most common of these mistakes, and show you easy ways to avoid it. For instance, last year I was judging the annual book competition for a local publishing group, and I found formatting and book construction mistakes in many of the books produced by amateur publishers. I talk to a lot of authors and look at hundreds of self-published books, and the ones that are problematic jump out at me. Longstanding habits of readers and accepted trade practices have come to dictate that we follow these formatting guides unless we have a pretty good reason not to. ItвЂ™s important to stay within formatting conventions because printed books have existed for a long while. When authors decide to format their own books, they donвЂ™t pick the best book layout.

Need a Book Layout Template for MS Word or Mac?.

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