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I set the margins of my document in this way using the geometry package

\usepackage[left=2.5cm,top=3cm,right=2.5cm,bottom=3cm,bindingoffset=0.5cm]{geometry}

Is it a correct way or does there exist a better way?

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This is correct as long as it gives the result you want. – egreg Nov 29 '12 at 11:43
yeah it seems it gives me the expected results... – Mazzy Nov 29 '12 at 11:45
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Given that you are using the same amount of left and right margins (and also for top and bottom) you can also write: \usepackage[hmargin=2.5cm,vmargin=3cm,bindingoffset=0.5cm]{geometry} – JLDiaz Nov 29 '12 at 11:56
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@egreg I think he is more asking which are his limits. If you want to write an article, of course you can set the margins all of 0.5cm, because apparently it gives the result you want (shows what you write). But may be you should be limited because it looks bad. For me, without being any professional, I usually use 3cm for hmargin and 4cm for vmargin. But perhaps, this is not the good choice. – Manuel Nov 29 '12 at 21:16
@Manuel, these things depends on your font size etc. (and what you are writing). In a single column text one normally wants ~66 characters per line (~45 for two columns), see e.g. Notes on Book Design. It is hard to say something about the margins without saying something about the text. – Ipsen Nov 30 '12 at 9:23

1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote

I agree with egreg; if you get the result you want then everything is fine. But let me mention that some document-classes have their own way of setting the margins. Personally I swear to memoir (when I have the choice), which is one of the above mentioned document-classes. Here you can set the margins using

\setlrmarginsandblock{2.5cm}{2.5cm}{*} % Left and right margin
\setulmarginsandblock{3cm}{3cm}{*}  % Upper and lower margin
\checkandfixthelayout

And I believe that this way is preferable with memoir.

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