[Tex/LaTex] How to specify size of binding and trim/crop

croppaper-size

If i want to print a document on a standard size paper (for example A4), and then bind it and trim it, what is the best way to tell LaTeX what the binding space and the trim size is? How do I figure out the page size, and how do I tell LaTeX what it should be.

Is there a package or a document class that will help me do that?

To clarify some more, I am trying to ask a question that someone in the following situation would find useful:

I know how to produce a LaTeX document, with sections, figures, table of contents etc. Now I want to print and bind the document, but I only have an office printer that prints on a standard size paper, and a good paper cutter that I can use for trimming/cropping. I have some options for binding (staple, spiral, glue, …). What is the correct way to make LaTeX print the document so I can bind it and trim/crop it. Basically how to set up the correct layout of the page on the paper, without resorting to hacks like manually increasing margins to accommodate the binding and trim.

Best Answer

There are two questions here:

1) How to specify the page size. This is best done with the geometry package, which has good documentation. The key idea is that you only specify as many parameters as necessary, and geometry fills in the rest. For example, you could say

\usepackage[twoside,papersize={7in,10in},margin=1in]{geometry}

and have the text width and height implicitly defined.

2) How to place crop marks that delineate your user-defined page on the A4 paper. For this, you can use the crop package, for example

\usepackage[cam,a4,center]{crop}

This package also has good documentation. Both packages are part of TeX Live so most likely you already have them installed.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Print two-sided B5 book on A4 “corners”

Maybe you can use a4paper to specify the paper size, and manually play with margins? For example, if you are using B5, then the page width is 176mm. Assume you want 25.4mm margins on the page, this leaves 176 - (2 * 25.4) = 125.2mm width for text. The pagewidth is 250mm, so the total text height should be 250 - (2 * 25.4) = 199.2mm So you can set

\setlength{\textwidth}{125.2mm}
\setlength{\textheight}{199.2mm}

in the preamble. Now, A4 paper has width 210mm, so the difference is 210 - 176 = 34mm. You want the odd pages on top left, and even pages on the top right, so you set

\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{0mm}
\setlength{\evensidemargin}{34mm}
\setlength{\topmargin}{0mm}

(since 25.4mm is added to the values of \oddsidemargin, \evensidemargin, and \topmargin automatically). This should get you what you want.

[Tex/LaTex] Rules of thumb for size of binding correction (BCOR)

Thanks for all your helpful comments. I'll try to compose an answer from them and the article that is now reachable again (thanks @diabonas for noting that).

The way I see this now, binding correction depends too much on the actual binding to make any good guess without having a similar book at hand as @doncherry noted. However, Markus Kohm, the author of the mentioned article, gives two basic estimations that can be done without knowing the specifics:

Binding glue can take up as much as 1mm by itself
With a good binding the correction should be no more than half the thickness of all pages, i.e. half the height of the stack of paper you want to bind.

Markus Kohm lists two other methods that can be done if you happen to have a book in a similar format at hand. In contrast to the method I posted in the question, this doesn't have to have the same page layout. I actually didn't quite understand how the first one should work, but thought I should list a rough translation for those that cannot reach the file or don't speak German:

You need a book with the same paper format as the papers you want bind. Take a piece of paper that is twice this format and fold it down the middle. Fold it up and down until the fold is worn out a bit. Now open the book in the middle, firmly hold your page to the book and slam it shut without moving the page. The part of the page that sticks out of the book is your binding correction

For the other method you open the book in the center and put a ruler or piece of card board vertically in the center. Now push a piece of paper against the ruler and measure the part that sticks out over the pages of the book.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Print two-sided B5 book on A4 “corners”

[Tex/LaTex] Rules of thumb for size of binding correction (BCOR)

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