Gutter Margins For Books

Adjacent inner margins of facing pages when book is open.

Gutter margins for books.

An example of a perfect bound book gutter can be seen below. When you re looking at a book page spread you ll have two gutters together doubling the apparent space. So yes you have a half inch margin on the left and the right to have white space to keep your book easy to read. The outside margin is the right hand margin on a right hand page.

At first glance the gutter as a technical term appears to be a rather humdrum and dull word something so basic to be almost beneath notice. The video and step by step instructions explain how to set page size and margins for books with and without bleed. Every page has three outside margins top bottom and side and one inside margin also called the gutter. The inner margin of the leaves of a bound book.

In page layout the gutter is a slightly larger margin added to the inside edge of the page. For most books an additional 0 2 or 0 3 inches on the inside edge of the page is plenty to create a gutter. Margins ensure your text isn t cut off during. Now that you understand what the gutter margin is you can take the proper steps to prevent this potential issue.

Gutter margin margins are the blank spaces around the type area on a book page but the inside margin has the special name gutter and it is always the margin on the bound edge of the book page. On books intended for offset it depends on the number of pages longer books need more gutter margins and kind of binding perfect binding creates tighter spines than notch or smythe sewn bindings. But in addition to that margin you also want a gutter. For bound books 6 x 9 or smaller use 0 5 margins on the top outside and bottom of books and a 0 75 inside margin.

For more information on bleed see our print options help page. For 8 5 x11 documents bound or unbound use 1 inch margins. The gutter is the amount of the book that you lose to the binding process. Gutter width can take up 1 4 to 1 2 from the page therefore there must be an extra 1 4 1 2 of safety margin space on the side of the page where the gutter spine will be.

Vice versa for left hand pages. I hope that gives you some guidance. The gutter is used if you are going to have your book spiral bound. Imagine a novel with text disappearing into the binding.

So nothing is lost when the book is held open. I will go back and edit the article you pointed out and my thanks for that.