Margin (typography)

A diagram displaying equal margins of width 25mm on an A4 page.

In typography, a margin is the space that surrounds the content of a page.^[1] The margin helps to define where a line of text begins and ends. When a page is justified the text is spread out to be flush with the left and right margins. When two pages of content are combined next to each other (known as a two-page spread), the space between the two pages is known as the gutter.^[2]

The default margins for Microsoft Word are 1 inch (2.54 cm) top and bottom and 1.25 inch (3.18 cm) on the sides (Microsoft Word 2007 has 1 inch all around).^[3][4] OpenOffice.org Writer has 0.79 inch (2 cm) all around.^[5] LaTeX varies the width of its margins depending on the document size and font size used but it tries to adjust the margins for optimum readability (approximately 66 characters per line) which sometimes results in fairly large margins.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ Adobe Fonts – Type topics: Glossary. Adobe.com. Retrieved on 2010-12-30.
2. ^ Typographic Terms. Whatstype.com. Retrieved on 2010-12-30.
3. ^ Page borders — inches or millimetres?
4. ^ Default Print Margin in Word Documents and our Environment. Labnol.org (2008-02-14). Retrieved on 2010-12-30.
5. ^ Setting an OpenOffice.org template for MS Word default margins | UST Computer Science Club. Csclub.stthomas.edu (2006-11-20). Retrieved on 2010-12-30.
6. ^ How can I change the margins in LaTeX? (Hermes). Kb.mit.edu (2010-12-15). Retrieved on 2010-12-30.
7. ^ LaTeX/Page Layout – Wikibooks, open books for an open world. En.wikibooks.org (2010-12-16). Retrieved on 2010-12-30.