Re: default margins

[Mark Polesky]

> From: Graham Percival 
> A priori, I would say that changing margins are **not** a good
> idea... but since professional typesetters do it, and I never
> noticed myself in 25 years of music-playing, I have to admit that
> maybe it's a good idea.

Graham,

I don't get the sense that professional typesetters changed
margins **intentionally**. I assume it had to do with the
mechanical process. As an example, I've read that some 
measurements were traditionally taken by swinging a compass 
back and forth across a page...

Your idea is intriguing, but personally I'm not in favor of
it.

If you're curious, check out "Music Engraving and Printing"
by William Gamble, pp.117-123 (some images are removed in the
online preview):

http://books.google.com/books?id=bNqRxyCTO7AC&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#PPA120,M1

Regarding paper-size/printed-matter proportions, p.115
of the same book has a sampling of measurements from
several unnamed English music pubishers (the book was
written in 1923):

http://books.google.com/books?id=bNqRxyCTO7AC&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#PPA115,M1

Hope this helps.
- Mark