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Balance Positive and Negative Space



Positive space refers to places where visual information is, and negative space refers to where it isn't. Balancing a page by weight does not guarantee a balance in positive and negative space. In fact, other principles advocate limiting the amount of information on any one page, and so it is common—and often desirable—to end up with a design that contains more negative space than positive space. Balance can still be achieved if the positive elements are properly "grounded" (as by the vertical white bar to the left), and not freely floating in a sea of negative space.