Design/Archive/Wikimedia Foundation Design/Whitespace

This is a work in progress This page describes guidelines around whitespace, alignment and visual hierarchy within projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Alignment
Lack of alignment creates a sloppy, unorganized look. Mixing too many alignments can have a similiar effect. It is considered OK to break alignment when it serves a specific purpose such as to intentionally create tension or draw attention to a specific element on the page.

Marking Paragraphs
Paragraphs do not occur in nature. Whereas sentences are grammatical units intrinsic to the spoken language, paragraphs are a literary convention designed to divide masses of content into appetizing portions. Indents have been common since the seventeenth century. Adding space between paragraphs (paragraph spacing) is another standard device. Avoid indenting the very first line of a body of text. An indent signals a break or separation; there is no need to make a break when the text has just begun. Despite the ubiquity of indents and paragraph spacing, designers have developed numerous alternatives that allow them to shape content in distinctive ways