Let s say you have a print book that is 5 25 wide by 8 tall.
Gutter for 5 25 x 8 book.
First let s look at the basics.
If pdf book files are supplied as 8 5 x 11 but you want a 5 5 x 8 5 book trim size then the files will have to be reduced which reduces the fonts and all the elements in the pdf files.
Here is what you need to know about gutter margins.
For instance at createspace only the 5 25 x 8 5 5 x 8 5 or 6 x 9 are available all other sizes print with white paper only.
Their own template for book size 8 x 10 gives a gutter of 13 but when you upload their internal auto review says the gutter should be at least 5 but gives no mention of inside margin.
For a 5 x 8 inch book try 5 8 625 to start.
Now open up the book.
Keep the type and elements that you don t want trimmed off at least 3 8 375 from the bleed edge.
Offset printing offset printing has few of the restrictions imposed by the digital book printers.
To calculate the page count for a 5 5 8 5 book.
Try measuring the amount of the page that you can see to read from.
The dimensions from the spine calculator include a 1 8 125 bleed on all four sides.
For 8 5 x11 documents bound or unbound use 1 inch margins.
Adjust margins font size and columns to produce 65 70 characters per line including spaces.
But once i started playing with fonts and margins the 5 x 8 page size simply required too many pages for the 80 000 100 000 word novels i intended to write.
For a 6 x 9 book 3 4 75 is more appropriate.
If your book is a different size and you have questions about what the margins should be feel free to give us a call at 888 664 8166.
There are some detailed resources online if you want to explore this topic in depth.
Someone needs to spell out the relationship of gutter to inside margin not mixing the terms and giving examples in a chart with numbers in it.
My sample books of that size held up fairly well so that s what i went with.
Note that not only are the left and right margins different from one another but the top and bottom margins also are different from one another.
This excerpt from pages 24 and 25 of book design made simple should help you estimate the.
Make the inside margin slightly larger so words don t fall into the gutter this is especially important for longer books which have deeper gutters.
10 pt type divide your word count by 475.
You look at it on your desk and you can measure it that it s 5 25 x 8 in size.
So i compromised at 5 5 x 8 5.
Margins look too big for this small trim size so i reduced all the margins to 0 625 except the inside margin the gutter or spine.
Reducing the file size is not recommended because it will make the type small and hard to read.
Once the book is bound it gets trimmed and at this stage the 1 8 bleed is trimmed off.
