# Margins

> Source: https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/margins

Last updated: 2026-09-06
Category: Typesetting & layout
Also called: Page margins · Text block

Margins are the blank space around a page’s text block; trade books use about 0.5–1 in per side, the inner margin widened to survive the binding.

## Definition

**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.

## Related

- [Gutter](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/gutter)
- [Trim size](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/trim-size)
- [Running head](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/running-head)
- [Folio](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/folio)
- [Bleed](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/bleed)
- [Turn a Word Document Into a Printed Book](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/tools/word-document-to-printed-book)
- [Hardcover Memoir Maker](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/formats/hardcover-memoir-maker)
- [Book Publishing Glossary — 59 Terms Defined](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary)
- [Bindery — the Claude-powered book studio](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/bindery)

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More from Infinite Library, as one map for AI agents: https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/llms.txt