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# How The Book Gutter Impacts Book Layout and Illustrations
- URL: https://brookevitale.com/blog/book-gutter/
- Published: 2021-08-23T19:51:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-09T20:14:12.000Z
- Description: Understanding the book gutter, including how page margins and book binding impact legibility of text and how the book gutter factors into picture book layout.
- Author: Andrew Vitale
- Tags: Design, Illustration, Printing

## What is a book gutter?

In order to understand how the book gutter is formed, let’s first take a quick look at how book printing works. Books are printed in sets of 16 pages called **book signatures**. The book signatures are then stacked on top of one another and glued together to make what is called the **book block**. Once the book block has been created, it then gets adhered to the cover in one of two ways.

For a paperback book, the book cover is wrapped around the book block. The book spine is then glued to the center of the cover. This kind of book binding, which results in a book spine that can be printed on, is called perfect binding. Take a look at the example of a perfect bound book below. Note how, because of the spine, the book does not lay flat.

![Book Gutter | Perfect Binding | Book Spine](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_perfect1.jpg)

> Pro Tip: Not all paperback books can be perfect bound. In order to have a perfect binding, they must have enough pages to form a thick spine. Shorter books—typically those under 40 pages—use what is called **saddle stitch binding**. This means the book pages are attached to the cover with a wire staple. The term “saddle stitch” comes from the fact that the paper “saddles” a metal frame to align the spine of the paper under the stapler. Saddle-stitching results in a lay-flat book without a spine and without a deep gutter. Take a look at the saddle stitch example below. Note how this book has no spine. As a result, the book lays flatter.

![Book Gutter | Paperback Book | Saddle Stitch Binding](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_saddle1-2.jpg)

Here's an example of the interior of a saddle stitched book. As you can see, it lays flat:

![Saddle Stitched Book | Paperback Book | Layflat Book](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_flat1.jpg)

For a hardcover book, eight additional pages are sewn onto the book block—four at the front, and four at the end. These are called end sheets, and they get glued to the inside of the hardcover book case. 

[![Hardcover Book End Sheets and How End Pages Impact Book Layout](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/what-are-end-sheets-cover.jpg)Related articleHardcover Book End Sheets and How End Pages Impact Book LayoutBook end sheets, or book endpapers, are the end pages that hold the cover of a hardcover book to the interior pages. They are the first thing a reader sees when they open a book cover and can add an extra level of luxuriousness to a book. But what are book end pages, and when it comes to adding them to a book, what are the options?Read the article →](https://brookevitale.com/blog/what-are-end-sheets/) 

When a perfect-bound book or hardcover book is opened, the pages curve away from the spine, leaving a deep indentation in the middle of the book. That space, where the inner margins meet, is the book gutter.

## How to plan for the book gutter

Have you ever had to fold a paperback book backwards around the spine so that you could make out the words on the inside? That’s because the page margins were too small and the words were falling into the book gutter!

The more pages you have, the deeper that gutter will be. And that can be a big problem when it comes to book design. If a reader can’t make out the words on the page, chances are they are going to get frustrated. They may even put the book down.

Take a look at the gutter examples below. The first was properly designed to account for the book gutter:

![Gutter1fixed — How The Book Gutter Impacts Book Layout and Illustrations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_gutter1fixed.jpg)

Now take a look at this book, which is several thousand pages long. Note how the text is falling into the gutter, and is hard to read:

![Gutter2fixed — How The Book Gutter Impacts Book Layout and Illustrations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_gutter2fixed.jpg)

Luckily, avoiding the book gutter is an easy problem to solve, so long as you know it exists. So, what to do? Set your book margins properly! A good rule of thumb for book design is to allow at least .5” as an inside page margin. (If you are working on a shorter book, like a picture book, early reader book, or chapter book, a slightly thinner margin of .375” should be fine, but as your page count edges up, allow room for caution and go for the wider margin.)

Unless you’re writing a Game of Thrones-style epic (or a full book of Shakespeare, as above), a gutter margin of between .5” and .75” should give you more than enough leeway on your book gutter. If your book is on the long side, check out this margin chart from Amazon’s KDP.

While you’re at it, take a look at the outside page margins, too. Make sure these are set properly for a professional-looking book design!

A word about print on demand: most print on demand services charge more for a higher page count. And that can lead to some creative ways of trying to bring down page count: smaller type, less space between lines, and smaller margins. All of these result in more words on a page, and fewer pages to print! But beware: this also lessens the reading experience, and in the case of smaller margins, may result in an illegible book if your text ends up falling in the gutter!

> *Pro Tip: Print on demand books are not always consistent from page to page. And that is true when it comes to the book gutter as well. You might find that some of your pages have more gutter space than others, even though they were designed to match. So make sure you’re planning ahead with enough inner margin for your book to look good even if it doesn’t print as you intended!*

[![What Are the Best Print on Demand Book Services?](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/print-on-demand-books-cover.jpg)Related articleWhat Are the Best Print on Demand Book Services?A guide to the best book printing services for print on demand books, including the pros and cons of Amazon print on demand, IngramSpark, Blurb, BookBaby, & Lulu xPress.Read the article →](https://brookevitale.com/blog/print-on-demand-books/) 

If your book printing plan involves use an offset printer, ask for a book template before you finalize your files. A printing template will provide you with book dimensions and margins needed for your book, based on book size and page count. 

[![Children's Book Printers: The Children's Book Printing Bible](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/what-is-an-offset-printer-cover.jpg)Related articleChildren's Book Printers: The Children's Book Printing BibleThe essential guide to hardcover children's book printing, offset book printing and a vetted list of children's book printers for hardcover book printing.Read the article →](https://brookevitale.com/blog/childrens-book-printing-and-offset-printing/) 

## The book gutter and picture book layout

Working around the book gutter on a chapter book, YA, or adult novel isn’t hard. As long as you know your book margins, everything should fall into place. But working around the book gutter on a children’s picture book is a different story. Why? Because picture books are all about one thing: illustrations!

More often than not, picture book illustrations are created as spreads (art spanning across both the left and right-hand side of the book.) And while this can look beautiful, it can also cause design problems!

All too often, I see beautiful illustrations that forget to take into account the book gutter. But when it comes to a children’s book, there is almost nothing more important than remembering this.

So, some tips:

- Keep all text far from the gutter.
- Keep all characters far from the gutter.

If you are creating a full-bleed spread that spans from left to right, make sure that the two inches in the middle of the page don’t have anything important on them—that whatever part of the image falls in the gutter won’t impact the readability of the text or the reader’s ability to make out the characters clearly.

[![A Template for Children's Book Layout, Pagination & Design](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/how-to-paginate-a-picture-book-cover.jpg)Related articleA Template for Children's Book Layout, Pagination & DesignThis easy-to-follow children's book layout template will guide authors through picture book layout and story pacing, with sample 32 page picture book template.Read the article →](https://brookevitale.com/blog/childrens-book-layout/) 

Take a look at this example from *Llama Llama Red Pajama*. You can see that even though art crosses the gutter, the designer and artist were careful to make sure nothing important fell in that space.

![Picturebookint — How The Book Gutter Impacts Book Layout and Illustrations](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bb/ca/bbca9709-f64c-426c-94c5-41deebbf6557/content/images/2026/10/1024wjpeg_picturebookint1.jpg)

As you make your way through a book, keep the book gutter in mind. Make sure art clears the gutter and that the margins are wide enough, and you should be in a good place.