Hi - just searched the forum but not really come up with any recomendations.
I am just about to start on an A3 Orchestral Score which when completed will need to be sent to professional printers for spiral binding. Does anyone have recomended settings for the margins for allow for this. Obviously I want to set these before I start and not change these later once I start moving/eding things in engraving mode.
Many thanks //Tim
Ideally, you need to check the specs with the printer. Chances are that most spiral binding machines will be the same, of course; but as you say, you don’t want to discover that your printer wants it differently once you’ve done the work.
The holes are usually about 5mm in, and you’ll want some breathing room and tolerance on the other side. I’d certainly keep a margin of 15mm, at least, regardless of the binding style.
Many thanks. I would check with the printer, but I will have limited printer options/choce as this will need to be done in Phnom Penh, Cambodia …! But good base guidence so that I can get moving.
I recently bought a professional grade wire binding system and bound my first 11x17 score with it the other day. I’m pretty sure your actual binding is going to be done manually using a machine like this once it gets to your printer. Meanwhile, “benwiggy’s” comment about leaving at least a 15mm margin is good. That should cover just about any printer’s requirements, and it suffices for the final bound product. I think that’s about what I wound up with. If I were you, I’d wait until I had a couple of full pages of music written before I’d worry about setting margins. The reason I say that is–for example–I wanted to have 5 bars per system as much as possible, so when I set this up in ENGRAVE mode so everything looked the way I wanted it, I wound up with just about exactly 15mm of open space on the side margins, 1 inch top margin on the first page of music and about 3/4 of an inch top margin on subsequent pages, and about 3/4 of an inch bottom margin on all pages. To my eye, these margins look like I want them. Some people like a 4-bar per system look. In my opinion that looks like too wide a margin. My score was only 18 instruments. FYI, in my conversation with the binding company, the typical A3 (11x17) binding setup is 3 holes per inch and 50 holes total. I used a double-wire binding solution. This format leaves about 7mm from the top and bottom to the first hole. I’ve read some very “picky” sets of rules for music manuscripts, but in reality I’ve seen very little evidence (at least the smaller) companies abide by all that. In the end, isn’t it all about readability and visual appeal anyway? BUT, if you don’t have a printer at home that will print 11x17 or A3 paper so you can see your printed page, then by the time you’ve completed a couple full pages of music, be sure to ask your printing company what their minimum print margins are for that paper size, considering also the binding job. Hope this helps.
Many thanks for these observations