atw: Re: FM6: Should we blank a left-hand trailing page?

Trawling through the bookcases reveals a few different approaches.

In a few older textbooks, every chapter starts on the right. Part pages 
invariably start on the right, with a trailing blank page at the end of 
the previous chapter if necessary and a trailing blank page after the 
part page.

In more modern textbooks and other non-fiction, both hardback and 
paperback, there are usually no blank pages if there are no part pages 
in the work. Chapters start left and right as required. Where there are 
parts, part pages start on the right with a trailing blank page after 
the previous chapter if required and a trailing blank page after the 
part page.  The next chapter after the part page starts on the right.

Cheaper paperback fiction is often set continuously: each chapter 
starts a few picas after the last one ends.

In the publishing business, printing costs are important, and I suppose 
a lot of money was saved by leaving out all those millions of blank 
pages. Since much of our stuff is now published in .pdf only, and the 
print runs that do occur are usually small, printing costs are not a 
major concern for us.

Ultimately, our choices depend on the audience. I have used layouts 
with blank pages, and a few times people have expressed concern that 
something was left out of the printing. Others don't care.

I noticed that headers and footers became simpler over time, to the 
extent that some books now have blank headers, and footers that contain 
only a centered page number. Seems reasonable: if you can't remember 
the name of the book that you are reading, just look at the cover or 
the title page.


James Hunt

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