Re: Standard European Book Sizes

[Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>]

Margaret,

Your audience is the reader, not the printer. The printer should not
care what size you make the book, although certain sizes will cost you
more than other sizes, because of the way they fit on a press sheet. (I
am assuming you are going to print enough copies that this is going to
go to a commercial printer and bindery).

As most of the modern presses used in the US are models sold worldwide
(many if not most of them manufactured in Europe), I think you can
safely use the 7.5 x 9 size if you feel that design works for your
purposes. (If that size makes efficient use of press and paper size in
the US it should also make efficient use of press and paper size in
Europe.) The printer will make the necessary calculations to impose your
pages into signatures on whatever size press sheet that printer uses.

On the other hand, if you are delivering the documentation
electronically for the user to print on an office laser printer, you
should design it for A4 paper, much as you would design an American
manual for letter paper.

Dick



luckydog -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Can anyone tell me what the standard size is for printed documentation
> manuals in Germany (or elsewhere in Europe?).
> 
> 7.5" x 9" seems pretty standard in the U.S. but my customer is a German
> firm. I want to make sure I give them something standard that German
> printers will recognize.
>