Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/196



RINTED WORDS need the relief of a surrounding blank as much as figures in a landscape need background or contrast, perspective or atmosphere. Even in a book of solid composition there is invariably more white than black on the page. Much of it may be in the margin, but the amount of white put between the lines and within each letter is greater than is supposed. It is not merely by the selection of suitable types, but by the graduation of blank space about its lines, that a title-page is made attractive or repelling. When these blanks have been removed from a properly spaced title-page, and the lines are huddled, the effect produced will be as unpleasing as that of a squeezed theatrical advertisement in a newspaper. On the contrary, too much relief of white space