Book Printing Gutter

Gutters are setup during the prepress phase of the printing process and something your printer will handle once your design files are handed off.

Book printing gutter.

By default the gutter margin will be set to 0. Here is what you need to know about gutter margins. Setting a gutter margin. 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.

For most books an additional 0 2 or 0 3 inches on the inside edge of the page is plenty to create a gutter. First let s look at the basics. This could cause issues further on as the gutter margin is the amount of space between the content of your book and the fold where the pages of the book will be bound together. For book interiors intended to be printed only in black all graphics should be grayscale.

For example if you are printing a postcard multiple copies of the postcard will fit on a single press sheet. But for a book with full page images and most importantly two page spreads the gutter requires a bit of added attention. The book fold layout sets you up for printing your masterpiece automatically in the correct order ready for folding and binding. Every page has three outside margins top bottom and side and one inside margin also called the gutter.

The video and step by step instructions explain how to set page size and margins for books with and without bleed. The gutter is the space between each copy of your postcard on the press sheet. Whether you want to create a booklet for an event or print out an ambitious book project consider using the pre built page settings for booklets that comes with word. Let s say you have a print book that is 5 25 wide by 8 tall.

Consequently i always make the gutter margins on books intended for print on demand larger to make sure the type doesn t disappear into the gutter making it difficult to read. 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. For more information on bleed see our print options help page. This process will cause a curve of the pages coming from the spine when the book is open.

That said go ahead and give the gutter a 1 margin so the content of your book doesn t get lost in the fold. Just what is a gutter margin and how do you set it for your book so that it can be properly published.