Re: Even and odd page-margins [slightly OT]

[Kieren Richard MacMillan]

Hi, Rick:

> the key element is still that an opened book always has "mirrored  
> margins".

Of course.

> I suppose if you glue bound the pages on a stiff spine then
> you would need more room for the arc created out of the spine.

This is actually what I was talking about: Bringhurst says you need  
*less* space in the spine margins than in the rest of the book  
(though I don't remember him saying whether that was dependent at all  
upon the binding method).

For example, my copy of his book is "perfect bound" (glued in  
signatures, trade paperback), and the edge margins are about 3 cm  
whereas the spine margins are about 1!! The effect is so that the  
right edge of the left-page block nearly touches (visually speaking)  
the left edge of the right-page block when the book lies "flat" (and  
the spine arcs, as you said).

Bringhurst implies that intuition often leads page layout creators to  
the opposite conclusion -- i.e., they make the spine margins larger  
than the edge margin, to "compensate for the binding" -- but that it  
is less aesthetically pleasing, and that historically the spine  
margins have always been smaller.

Interesting, I thought...

Best wishes,
Kieren.