What it means
Margins are the unprinted space between the edge of the page and the text block. Each page has four: the inner (or back) margin toward the spine, which includes the gutter; the outer (fore-edge) margin; the head at the top; and the foot at the bottom.
Classical book design makes them unequal. The traditional canon sets inner : head : outer : foot in roughly the ratio 2 : 3 : 4 : 6, so the two facing text blocks read as one unit across the spread and the widest margin, at the foot, gives the thumbs somewhere to hold the book. Modern trade books are less dramatic but keep the idea: inner and head margins smaller, outer and foot larger.
Print-on-demand printers publish minimums — commonly 0.25 in outside and 0.375 in or more inside, growing with page count — and reject files that fall short. Margins also carry the running heads and folios.
In Bindery
Bindery’s free watermarked proof is the typeset book at its real trim, so the margins you judge on screen are the margins that print.
Make the book, not the checklist
Describe a book or upload a manuscript. Bindery writes with you, typesets in LaTeX, sizes the spine from the real page count and produces printer-validated files — the watermarked proof is always free.
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