The gutter measurement allows us to set extra space on the bound side. For a normal book printed and bound in the UK, Europe, USA and many other countries, this will be on the left-hand side. This is a term used in the printing industry which describes the side on which a book will be bound. We then have the option of setting the gutter and the gutter position. When we set this up in Microsoft Word it will be 1.8cm left and right and 1.5cm top and bottom. We are going to choose margin sizes of 18mm for the left and right and 15mm for the top and bottom. You will find that many books will be different, you just need to choose the right size for your book. There are a few other factors to consider but the best advice we have given our customers is to have a look at other books which are like yours and simply measure the margins. The margin size you will want will depend on a few different factors Microsoft Word – Page MarginĪs standard Word will set the margins to 1″ / 2.54cm. The paper source we will leave as default for now.Īfter we have filled out the height of 19.8 cm’s and the width of 12.9 cm’s and selected to apply to the whole document, it is time to move on to the next part, the margins.

You will need to check if your document is in mm’s, cm’s, inches etc. As my word document measurements are in cm’s we will fill this out accordingly. In our case, we want a book 198mm high x 129mm wide. Under paper size, you want to click the drop-down box and select custom size and then fill out the width and height of the finished paper size you want. This will bring up another window where we can input our own custom size. To change the page size, we go to Layout > Size > More Paper Sizes… If you are struggling to find a page size that you think is suitable for your book, then head over to our other post for more information – Hardback and Paperback Book Sizes. Today we will format a B-Format book at 198mm high x 129mm wide. There are plenty of sizes to choose from and it is something that will need a lot of thinking. Word can offer you various templates to use but you ideally want to start with a blank document and format your book to your own specification.Īfter we have chosen our blank document it is time to choose the page size. We will start with a blank document and set our page size and margins.

Regular margins for word document