HN Books @HNBooksMonth

Books have a purpose for negative space on either side of the text. It's to allow you to hold it without obscuring the text. It is also to allow spine to be tightly bound.

For reference, here is a good book that goes in-depth of what and whys of book design, it is hard to find it though: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Books-Practice-Jost-Hochuli...

Most negative space on the websites is merely designers going "it looks clean".

⬐ strokirk

What's wrong with a design being clean? Normally that's high praise!

⬐ duckmysick

It's not just for the practical purpose. Jan Tschichold writes: "Two constants reign over the proportions of a well made book: the hand and the eye." Indeed, large margins give a feeling of quality, luxury, and openness. Compare older books with spacious margins to tight ones in modern books so as much text can be crammed to save on printing.

Here's another reference about page margins: https://practicaltypography.com/page-margins.html

"The pleasure of reading an effectively designed document will soon outweigh the unfamiliarity of extra white space around the edges."