Elements of Effective Webpage Design
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   White Space

     When webpages do not stream lines of text across huge distances (see
Line Length), they are more readable to viewers. Another consideration is white space. Lynch & Horton (2001) outline two different methods for utilizing white space to increase readability:

    Text Length
  • Indenting
    Without using any sophisticated techniques with HTML, indenting can be accomplished by inserting "    " at the start of each new line of text. This will produce four non-breaking line spaces before the text, making a noteworthy space at the start of each paragraph.

  • Blank Lines
    The command <BR> produces a line break, which will place subsequent text at the beginning of the next line. So, this command has to be used in pairs to create a complete blank line that can seperate text from one paragraph to the other. Designers usually utilize the <P> command instead, which creates the blank line with one use.

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Lynch P. & Horton S. (2001) Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites. 2nd Edition. Yale University.

© 2005 Mark Karadimos | Updated March 20th, 2005