White Space

Not until just recently have I begun to let my text breathe. I never liked too much white space because I always felt that it distracted me, thus distracting the reader, from the text of the page. I've found that white space has positive effects as well. Though it is still important to have a good balance of text and white space, it isn't something to fear. The negative or white space helps focus attention on the text. Since the text speaks the loudest it is best to let it be heard. The line-height CSS property is a good tool to remember. The line-spacing should be at least 140% of the text size.

p { line-height: 1.5em;} /*1.5em=150%*/

Balance is important and both the micro space that sits within the type and the macro space that surrounds it should both be taken into consideration. Space plays an important part in maintaining the flow of the page design. Good use of space will help give the reader instruction about your text and help them read it the way it was meant to be read. Here are some ways of how to create space:

• Block break (padding or margin) is the space in between the block elements.
• Paragraph break (padding or margin) is the space after the p element.
• Tracking (letter-spacing) is space in between characters.
• Leading (line-height) is the space in between the lines.
• Indentation (padding or margin) is commonly used for blockquote and list elements.