What kind of book is it?

Ha, right. And sometimes my multi-tasking skills result in not quite finishing a task. It’s an approx. 200 page book of short(er) stories (same author) which will have black and white illustrations through out. It sounds like there will be approx. 30 illustrations in total, however they will be contained to a separate page from any of the text so manuscript will be a solid block of text. The dimensions are a little bit more squat then what I’m use to working with (at lest for this company). I’ve never thought to ask this forum for examples or suggestions before, would love some hints on how people come to their margins.

Thanks for asking Miss Tiffany.

Binding is important — how will it be bound? For example, with perfect binding, you trim off 1/8” of the F&Gs (folded & gathered sheets) & glue what remains. Notch binding, on the other hand, doesn’t cut off any paper, but cuts a notch in the signatures, which helps the eventual glue to hold things together better. Still, notch bindings are usually “tight,” and I often use the same inside margin for notch bound as for perfect bound books.

You need to set the inside margin first, for the binding, because if you get that one too small, words are “lost” — really, hard to read, unless you pry the book open. For perfect bound or notch bound paperbacks, I use a minimum of 13/16-inch (4.875 picas). 5-picas would be better, and even 7/8 inch (5.25 picas) is reasonable; almost necessary with perfect binding. With Smyth-sewn, case-bound books, you can use as little as 3/4 inch (4.5 picas), but I doubt the book you’re working on will be swen.

Now unless the publisher is requiring a certain number of characters per page, you also know your outside margin better not be any smaller. Optically, if you use the same numerical value, the inside margin will be tighter, due to the binding. The usual aesthetic would have the outside margin even larger.

OK, 5-7/8 inches equals 35.25 picas. A 5 pica gutter and 5.25 pica outside margin leaves possible measure of 25 picas. If you can go a little less (say, 24 picas), that give you a better outside margin.

With the head margin, the classical look was always 1/2 inch (3 picas) to the top of the type page (ascender of the running head if there is one, ascender of the first text line otherwise). But