Re: margins

[Henning Hraban Ramm <hraban@fiee.net>]

Am 2008-03-25 um 01:51 schrieb Joel C. Salomon:
> In other words, you want large inner margins and small outer margins.
>>  However, the standard behaviour seems to be the opposite.
> For very good reason.  When a two-page spread is laid flat, it usually
> looks best if the outer margins are both approximately equal in width
> to the combined inner margins.  The default layout takes that into
> account.
>
> While the binding of a book does "eat" some of the inner margin, it's
> probably less than you think (IIRC, from ¼ʺ to ½ʺ, depending on  
> the
> binding method), and often the print shop can correct for that.  (If
> you need to be exact, measure against a book bound where your book
> will be and in the same method.)

It depends on the binding method.

The traditional margin sizes are only good for thread-stitching.
If your book's bound threadless (perfect binding, Wire-O etc.) your  
inner margins need to be bigger (not always bigger as the outer, but  
at least bigger than the traditional measures).

It's not only that the bookbinder mills away a few millimeters of the  
page - you can't open a adhesive bound book as much as a thread- 
stitched, so you need a wider gutter to be able to read the book  
without destroying the binding. (Or in case of spiral binding the  
holes for the wire need enough space.)

And if you need to send your PDF print-ready to your printshop (maybe  
books-on-demand maker), there's nobody else who will correct for that.

Insofar the OP's question is well justified.
Even if he could have found the answer easily himself:

Of course you can define your page layout at will,
see http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Layout


Greetlings from Lake Constance!
Hraban (typesetter & printing engineer)
---
http://www.fiee.net/texnique/
http://wiki.contextgarden.net
https://www.cacert.org (I'm an assurer)

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