(plural white spaces)
- White area between written characters and graphic regions on a produced page or computer display; blanks and the vertical blank lines in between paragraphs, or other organized rows of text lines (poetry).
- (computer science) Any single character or series of characters that represents horizontal or vertical space in typography.
white space - Computer Definition
(1) Unused spectrum between earlier analog TV channels. See white spaces.
(2) Any area on a document page that does not contain text or graphics. Also called "negative space," the term was derived from printing on white paper and any part not printed remained white. To an experienced graphic designer, white space is as important as the printed areas.
(3) Non-printing characters. Applications treat white space differently. For example, each depression of the space bar generates one ASCII 32 space character, and most programs display each one as one blank space. However, Web pages (HTML pages) display multiple ASCII 32 characters as a single blank space. See non-breaking space.
(4) A void in service; for example, white spaces in the cellular industry are geographic areas without coverage.
(5) Unused space in a disk storage system. White space may refer to allocated, but unused, blocks of storage. See thin provisioning.