Also known as white space, the margins of a book serve several important functions:
Enhances Aesthetics
Good margins do more than just create blank space on a page. They help frame your content, keep it centered, and give the overall layout a more professional, put-together look. Margins also help balance facing pages so the design feels consistent and easy on the eyes.
Improves Readability
The white space around the edges of a page isn't wasted space at all. It creates contrast with the printed words and images, framing the content so your eyes can focus better and read with less strain.
Allows a Place to Hold the Book Open
The margins serve an important practical purpose: they give readers room to grip the book comfortably while it's open. If the margins are too narrow, fingers and hands can easily cover up words or entire lines of text, making the book harder to read.
Provides an Area upon which to Write
If you want to jot down notes or comments in your book, the margins give you the blank space you need to write.
Creates a Buffer Zone during the Manufacturing Process
in most cases, a book's pages are gathered and trimmed while it is being constructed. The margins act as a safety zone between the content and the edge of the page, so there is no risk of anything important being trimmed off.
Don't Skimp on the Margins-
When designing a book, it is important not to skimp on the size of the margins. Extremely narrow margins will allow you to fit more content per page, but the resulting book will not be attractive. Narrow margins also increase the risk that some of the page content may get trimmed off during the manufacturing process.
If you are producing a perfectly bound book or a hardcover book, you also want to make sure that the inner margins are not too narrow at the gutter. The gutter is the channel formed by the inner margins of two facing pages when the book is opened. You want some extra margin width at the gutter to help "push" the content out from the spine, otherwise some content may get buried too deep into the spine and be hard to read.
Similarly, if you are planning to produce a coil bound book, you'll want to make sure that the inner margins are ample enough to accommodate the holes drilled for the coil. Otherwise you risk having some of the holes bored through, or uncomfortably close to, the page content.
Formax specializes in softcover book printing. Whether you need perfect bound books, coil bound books or saddle stitched books, Formax can help produce your book. We'll be happy to explain all your options as well as share some money-saving ideas with you.
Give us a call at 866-367-6221 to discuss your upcoming book project.
Take care, Rick
