Parts Of A Book Gutter

The left and right pages when the book is open meet in the gutter.

Parts of a book gutter.

In an open book recto is the page on the right side. The space on the inside margin of pages where the book is bound. So the gutter is generally thought of as a necessary evil an inconvenience or simply the least interesting part of a book. A special band at the top of the spine that hides the glue and helps keep the spine together.

Inside cover of a paperback. A gutter is the section of the page that leads into the binding of perfect bound books and hard cover books. It is intentionally left blank. To printers the gutter refers to the wider space left in the forme between the fore edges of two abutting pages.

Illustrators must be conscious of the gutter when designing their art especially artwork that extends over both the left and right pages so that detail doesn t disappear within the seam of the pages when the book is bound. The inside cover of a paperback is the literal back of the cover. The gutter is a term used to describe the seam of the book where the book is bound. Dust jacket or dust wrapper first used during the 19th century the original purpose of the dust jacket was to protect the cover of books from scratches and dust which could have been made from fine leather linen cloth silk or other expensive materials.

Anything within the gutter typically isn t visible. These two products have binding types that are clamped and held together with glue. A good initial approach is to have left and right outer margins equal and have a sum of inner margins when viewed in an opened book so account for gutter equal in width to an outer margin. Try that as a starting point and modify from there.

The gutter as a printers term carter went on to note that printers define the gutter slightly differently.