Reducing the file size is not recommended because it will make the type small and hard to read.
Gutter for 5 25 x 8 book.
Once the book is bound it gets trimmed and at this stage the 1 8 bleed is trimmed off.
Make the inside margin slightly larger so words don t fall into the gutter this is especially important for longer books which have deeper gutters.
For instance at createspace only the 5 25 x 8 5 5 x 8 5 or 6 x 9 are available all other sizes print with white paper only.
For 8 5 x11 documents bound or unbound use 1 inch margins.
Adjust margins font size and columns to produce 65 70 characters per line including spaces.
You look at it on your desk and you can measure it that it s 5 25 x 8 in size.
There are some detailed resources online if you want to explore this topic in depth.
Now open up the book.
To calculate the page count for a 5 5 8 5 book.
But once i started playing with fonts and margins the 5 x 8 page size simply required too many pages for the 80 000 100 000 word novels i intended to write.
First let s look at the basics.
11 pt type.
The dimensions from the spine calculator include a 1 8 125 bleed on all four sides.
The type and elements will be 1 4 25 from the trim.
Margins look too big for this small trim size so i reduced all the margins to 0 625 except the inside margin the gutter or spine.
Note that not only are the left and right margins different from one another but the top and bottom margins also are different from one another.
My sample books of that size held up fairly well so that s what i went with.
For a 5 x 8 inch book try 5 8 625 to start.
For bound books 6 x 9 or smaller use 0 5 margins on the top outside and bottom of books and a 0 75 inside margin.
This excerpt from pages 24 and 25 of book design made simple should help you estimate the.
Offset printing offset printing has few of the restrictions imposed by the digital book printers.
So i compromised at 5 5 x 8 5.
If pdf book files are supplied as 8 5 x 11 but you want a 5 5 x 8 5 book trim size then the files will have to be reduced which reduces the fonts and all the elements in the pdf files.
10 pt type divide your word count by 475.
Let s say you have a print book that is 5 25 wide by 8 tall.
Here is what you need to know about gutter margins.
Someone needs to spell out the relationship of gutter to inside margin not mixing the terms and giving examples in a chart with numbers in it.
Keep the type and elements that you don t want trimmed off at least 3 8 375 from the bleed edge.
Try measuring the amount of the page that you can see to read from.