Rich Shepard wrote: [..]
Max,
It does intuitively seem like the inner margins should be larger so the text is centered on the visible page after binding. However, some books have larger margins on the page edge. Perhaps for motes? I've seen both in the technical books I have. I suspect it's a page layout decision without a single answer.
The inner margin is supposed to be exactly the half of the outer margin. The printed book then looks like this:
Margin Margin Margin | |blahblahblah| || |blahblahblah| | or | |blahblahblah| |blahblahblah| |
Note that the two adjacent inner margins is exactly the same width as a single outer margin. This tends to look good. Of course this assumes no paper is lost to binding, the way you get it if you merely lay the printed pages on your desk side by side. How much to set aside for binding depends on the binding process and thickness of the book. The goal is to make the combined inner margins about the same size as an outer margin.
There are of course times when other issues force a different decision, this is the standard otherwise.
Helge Hafting
