Typography Tuesday: Let it Breathe

White space (or negative space) used with typography enhances its legibility and makes it more inviting for the user to interact with it, so why not use more? A common mistake for many designers and developers is to fill the page with as much stuff as they can. If you walked into a room and everyone was talking at the same time, wouldn't it be difficult to pick who you wanted to talk to first? Less is more. The cleaner your body copy, the better it will make it for users to comprehend what they are reading.

 

Crowded vs. Breathing Room

Tips On Creating Websites With "Typography That Breathes:"

• Add some padding around your columns. Usually have 10 pixels of padding? Why not make it 20, or even 30? Experiment.
• Keep that line length (measure) at an optimal length. 45-75 characters is proven to be a nice digestible line length for columns.
• Add some line-height to that text. A good rule of thumb is the line height should be 20 percent of the font size (10pt font= 12pt leading)
• Always increase line-height when you increase the line length, and especially when you are using light text on a dark background.

Some Sites That Use White Space Well:

• IA Japan
• DFCKR
• Mark Boulton Design

Check out this fantastic article on A List Apart for more on white space.