Margins that breathe

When a layout feels cramped, the usual instinct is to shrink type or tighten the grid. More often the fix is the opposite: give the content room to speak.

I keep a simple rule on editorial projects. If the eye cannot rest between blocks, the hierarchy is lying. Margins are not leftover space; they are part of the composition.

On a recent journal redesign we opened the outer margin by forty percent and reduced column count from three to two. Engagement on long pieces rose, not because of novelty, but because reading finally felt unhurried.

Try this on your next draft: print a page, fold the margins inward with a pencil, and ask whether anything important disappears. If the answer is no, you had too little air to begin with.