[texhax] LaTeX Pagination Reversed

[Reinhard Kotucha]

>>>>> "Steve" == Steve Peter <speter at dandy.net> writes:

  > On Apr 8, 2006, at 4:43 PM, Philip TAYLOR wrote:

  >> ... the wide-outer, narrow-inner, is (I am told) an American
  >> convention which exists because Americans love to write in the
  >> margins (whilst we British are taught never to write in our
  >> textbooks).

  > Nonsense. Look at the Gutenberg bible's outer margin. This goes
  > back long before Americans. (And there were plenty of people
  > writing marginalia long before the Americans, too.)

  > The notion is that, when a spread is open, there will be three
  > equal ribbons of white with the text block in between. To get the
  > "ribbons" to be equal, the inner margin must be half of the outer
  > margin, since the inner margins will butt against each other in
  > the spread.

  > For reference, take a look at chapter 2 of the excellent manual
  > for the memoir class (available on CTAN).

There are some other reasons:

1. If the outer margins are too small, you hide some text with your
   fingers if you hold the book in your hand.

2. In offset printing, if you remove the paper from the machine, some
   "whitespace" is required because it is fatal if people touch the
   fresh ink.

3. There are aesthetical reasons (as you mentioned already).

Many people reserve a lot of space for binding, but in most cases they
overestimate the effect of binding. 

Regards,
  Reinhard

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reinhard Kotucha			              Phone: +49-511-4592165
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover	                      mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------