Usage of White Space in Web Design

When building a web page, the main concept we consider is how to fill the page. Whether it be with text, graphics, backgrounds, animation or whatever else, we for some reason think it's a great idea to get as much on a page as possible. Look at other web pages for example. If one is too cluttered, do you want to immediately get overwhelmed, frustrated and want to log off? More than likely, the answer is yes. Sometimes though, it's the white space without all the information that helps make a web page aesthetically pleasing. The white space, also called negative space, is what exists as empty space between the texts and pictures and such. Even though there is nothing in that space, actually, it is quite important.

White Space Defined

White space is any space that has no characters, images, and text. This is even the space in between words, the paragraph indentations, margins, lead before words, kerning, around pictures, words and tab space. For instance, check this out: <------That was an example of white space. If you were looking initially at this article, that might be one of the first places your eyes went to.



White space helps shift your eyes around so you can take in the full elements of the page design. This creates emphasis on the text or design objects so as to separate them from each other. It helps reduce the clutter. One thing about having excessive spacing is even though it's an area that has nothing in its space, it doesn't necessarily have to be the color white. Sometimes a plain colored background, particularly black, helps the rest of it to stand out too and you can therefore have an inverse design where text is white and the background is black.

Why Use White Space?

The additional space is used to help increase the legibility of the web page. It simply makes it easier to read and helps a person be able to grasp concepts. When a sentence is written like this: itcanbedifficulttoreadbecausethereistoomuchinformationalltogether. (it can be difficult to read because there is too much information all together. It's difficult to read, can create distorted comprehension of the subject and is just plain messy. Columns of text help separate the concepts too, allowing white space. Also think about long paragraphs. For example, if this article was one big paragraph, you probably wouldn't gain as much from it and may decide not to read it altogether.

White space can set the tone. It makes it a higher-quality visual. It allows more room for graphics. Less text is more. For instance, look at a woman's magazine versus a catalog. Advertisements in the women's magazines have few words and let the images do the talking. Think of a catalog though. It jams all the products on one page and you can often miss an item.

Consider Using White Space in Your Page Design

Start to experiment with extra space on a page. Don't try to cram everything together, but keep in mind, that it's you designing it and if it looks overwhelming and cluttered to you, it will to someone else too because you have to consider that they know nothing about your subject or product. Placing text on a page and allowing for white space padding around graphics is good too. You don't want the white space to run straight into a photo or image. It just simply looks sloppy. At first, try to design a page with excessive spacing. Then rework it so there's a little bit less. An appropriate amount of additional space used in the design can make it visually pleasing as well as more sophisticated and intelligent looking.


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