Shift content away from the gutter for perfect binding
A perfect-bound book is glued at the spine and never opens completely flat. This keeps your page order untouched and moves the artwork a few millimetres outward so nothing disappears into the fold.
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Why text vanishes into a glued spine
Perfect binding grinds the folded edge off and glues the sheets into the cover, so the innermost three to five millimetres of every page curve away from the reader. If your layout already has a generous inner margin you are fine. If you notice the problem the night before the deadline, shifting the placed content outwards is the fastest fix.
How to use it, and how much to shift
Load the body PDF, pick the binding edge and a shift in millimetres. Around 3 mm suits a hundred-page book; four to five suits anything past two hundred. Rectos and versos shift in opposite directions, and the page order and count stay exactly as they were — an odd page count simply gains one blank at the end.
Whatever you gain at the gutter, you lose at the fore edge
Moving content outward eats into the outer margin, and trimming tolerance is typically plus or minus one to two millimetres. Keep the shift as small as it can be and check that at least 8 mm of outer margin survives. Bleed, trim marks and paper thickness differ from printer to printer — always check the spec sheet of the shop you are submitting to.
Frequently asked questions
Does the page order change?
No. Perfect-bound books are imposed by the printer in signatures, so the submitted file must stay as single pages in reading order. Only the position of the content on each page moves.
Can I use this for saddle stitch as well?
You can, but a saddle-stitched booklet opens flat and rarely needs it. For thick stapled booklets, trimming the fore edge is a better answer than shifting.
How many millimetres should I use?
Thicker books need more: about 3 mm at a hundred pages, four to five past two hundred. Many printers publish a recommended figure — use theirs if they have one.