Re: Printed Manual Size

Subject: Re: Printed Manual Size
From: "Dick Margulis" <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 14:14:54 -0400

Wade,

There is no standard size.

If you are going to produce printed manuals (as in printed on an offset printing press, not printed on a Docutech or an office laser printer), your first conversation should be with the printer who will be doing the production. You cannot have that conversation until you decide how many copies you are going to print, and approximately how many pages are involved and how much of the document will be printed in color (covers only? A few key illustrations? The whole book?).

When you know the answers to those questions, you can talk with one or more commercial printers to find someone you can work with who has equipment that is right for the job.

Then you can ask for the range of page sizes that works best on that equipment. (Explain that you are looking for something in roughly the 6 x 9 inch range give or take an inch or so.)

Within that range, which will be fairly narrow, you can make esthetic choices. The most traditional view is that the page size should be conventional so as not to distract the reader. That means the ratio of height to width should be as close to the golden mean as you can manage (1.618 to 1).

HOWEVER, modern manuals tend to have a wide outer (or left) page margin, with hanging headings, various little graphics, etc. These pages really need to be wider than the golden mean. If you design the text block to be in the golden mean proportion and then draw ample margins around it, with a wide left or outer margin, you will end up with a page that is more nearly square. (I'd caution against a perfect square or a book wider than it is tall, though.)

Round the page measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch and the text measurements to the nearest pica, and you'll have your answer.

Dick

Wade Courtney wrote:

>I notice that a lot of my computer books are the same size. Is there a
>standard page size? Right now everything I produce is in 8.5x11..
>



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