Margins are the empty spaces that surround book (page) content; there will be margins on all four sides of each page: top, bottom, inner and outer. Margins are sometimes referred to as negative space or white space.
Margins are a simple concept that we take for granted — unless they’re improperly or poorly placed. Have you ever had a book in which the inner margins were too small and you can’t see the ends of or beginnings or words (depending on if you’re reading the left page or the right page)? That means the designated space for the inner margin was too narrow. Margins matter!
What do margins do?
Margins ensure you can read or see all the page content post-binding. The buried-inner margin is an annoyance that detracts from the reading experience. In addition, sufficiently wide top, bottom and outer margins ensure content won’t be removed during trimming as well as providing space for presses to grasp the pages.
Margins visually center the page content (visually, but not literally — see gutters below), creating a framing effect that leads the eye to the content and makes it easier to read.
Margins provide room for book titles, authors and page numbers without detracting from the page content. They also offer space for those inclined to make notes.
Outer margins give you room to hold the book without covering up content.
Inner Margin: Gutters
The inner margins are known as gutter margins. The gutter is where the pages are bound to the book’s spine and the binding uses up page space. Thus the inner, gutter margins need to be wider than the outer margin. If the gutters are too narrow, page context bends into the center and becomes hard to read. A minimum of an additional 1/8” is needed.
Outer, Top and Bottom Margins
There are various rules of thumb for selecting the sizes of page margins. Generally the top margin will be larger than the bottom margin to accommodate header information (title, author). Standard sizes often have corresponding recommended heights and widths for margins. Sometimes in an effort to save money people will choose margins smaller than recommended sizes in order to fit more words on each page and reduce overall page-count. This reduces the visual appeal of the book and may result in loss of content due to trimming.
If you have any questions about the margins for your book project, give us a call at 330-597-8560. We’ll help you get the most out of your print projects!
Photo by Rachel Lees.
