ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Breathing for the Eyes: How to Improve Your Writing using White Space

Updated on January 10, 2012
Creative use of white space to present information about fonts.
Creative use of white space to present information about fonts. | Source

© 2011 by Aurelio Locsin.

Text that is dense and tightly packed suffocates the eyes like an avalanche. It is difficult to browse for quick readers and hard to follow for those wanting a more in-depth experience. If you momentarily look away from the page for some eye relief, it is difficult to return to the exact word or line you left. Adding white space to your layout avoids these problems by allowing the eyes to breathe.

White space refers to the blank lines and empty spaces that surround your text. You can arbitrarily employ this technique by pressing the spacebar to add blank characters or tapping the Enter key to insert blank lines. However, you can also use white space more organically in the following ways.

Break up long paragraphs.

Paragraphs with too many lines look like unbreakable walls of characters rather than comprehensible text. Rather than break through such barriers, readers are more likely to skip over such text and miss any important ideas you’ve buried there. Make your efforts more readable by splitting long paragraphs into lengths of five-to-seven lines each.

Items of equal importance in the following list of bullet shapes:

  • Bullets
  • Dashes
  • Asterisks

List of award medal types showing most to least imporant:

  1. Gold
  2. Silver
  3. Bronze

Use numbered and bulleted lists.

When you present three or more ideas together, break them up into lists at one item per line. This allows readers to quickly calculate the number of items, and to find each item immediately. Use bulleted lists to enumerate items of equal importance and numbered lists to show item importance or steps that must be performed in order. Examples are on the right.

Show how items are related through tables.

Tables are a graphical way to show relationships in rows and columns that may disappear if explained through text. You can make it easy to distinguish the information in tables by differentiating labels from information, perhaps by using bold characters. For example, consider how much text would be needed to explain the information shown by this table and the bold text designates the titles of rows and columns.

 
China
India
U.S.A.
Population
1.3 billion
1.2 billion
312 thousand
Area in square miles
9.6 million
3.2 million
3.7 million
Gross Domestic Product in U.S. dollars
6.9 trillion
1.8 trillion
15 trillion
50th Wedding Anniversary
50th Wedding Anniversary | Source

Add graphic elements.

Graphic elements such as photos, video and diagrams count as white space because they give the eyes a break from words and characters. They also use a discrete and compact area to communicate ideas that may require several paragraphs of text. If necessary, you can clarify the graphic element with a short caption. Note, for example, the picture on the right.

  • What description does it evoke in your head?
  • How much text would it require to explain that instant evocation of ideas?
  • Does the caption improve or hinder your understanding of the picture?

You can find copyright-free pictures through the Advanced Search feature of Flickr.com under the Creative Commons section. As for videos, nearly all those at YouTube allow re-posting at any online site, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Request

If you have any additional ideas for using white space to improve readability, please put them in the Comment field below. Thanks.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)