Whitespace
To get a feel for whitespace, imagine that you've just moved into a new house. Remember how excited you felt about all the extra room in your new house? Now imagine your dismay when you look around, and all you see is wall to wall boxes. You can't stand the clutter, so you go to work unpacking the boxes and putting everything away. Next, you throw out the boxes. Suddenly, you have a home and there is room to walk around and breathe.

Whitespace is the equivalent of uncluttering your home. Just as you don't want wall to wall boxes in your home, you don't want wall to wall text, graphics or boxes in your designs.

What is Whitespace?
The term whitespace refers to the empty space that is kept around grouped items to visually separate them. It is important to maintain whitespace in any design because the whitespace can guide the eye and help viewers understand groupings of information while giving a sense of breathing room.

Whitespace Illustrated
Let's take a look at how whitespace can affect the overall professionalism of an ad. The ad below has hardly any whitespace, and the whitespace that is being used isn't helping make the design easier to read or understand.



By shrinking the size of the text and using upper and lowercase characters, we are able to free up enough room to add a compelling photo. By utilizing whitespace, this ad is now easier to read along with creating a more professional appearance.