Using page margins in desktop publishing

Margins and the use of white space have several functions in design:

• Visually they ground the content onto the page by providing a ‘buffer zone’
• From a practical perspective they provide a handle for the reader, allowing them to read the content without being obscured by finger or thumb
• They provide a rest break in highly dense areas
• They can exclude specific content to promote higher importance to a particular piece
• Vast amounts of white space with little content can convey elegance, simplicity and richness
• Vast amounts of content with reduced white space often conveys formal, dense, massed produced material, often found in newspapers or novels.

As a general rule of thumb, depending upon your media type, margin rules are as follows:

Inside to Outside 1:2
The inside margin is 1/2 of the outside margin.

Top to Bottom 1:2
The top margin is 1/2 of the bottom margin.

Inside to Bottom 1:3
The inside margin is 1/3 of the bottom margin

Outside to Bottom 2:3
The outside margin is 2/3 of the bottom margin

There is no perfect or set relationship when calculating your margins, however the above can be used as a good starting point.