--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Space in typography is like time in…" description: "\"Space in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/207/robert-bringhurst-16008_arbitrary_space-in-typography-is-like-time-in-musi_1602457.png" --- # Space in typography is like time in music. It is… ![“Space in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice of arbitrary quantities.” quote by Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/207/robert-bringhurst-16008_arbitrary_space-in-typography-is-like-time-in-musi_1602457.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/207/robert-bringhurst-16008_arbitrary_space-in-typography-is-like-time-in-musi_1602457.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/207/robert-bringhurst-16008_arbitrary_space-in-typography-is-like-time-in-musi_1602457.png) > “Space in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice of arbitrary quantities.” [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Design balances empty space and content, using limited proportional intervals for clarity. **In simple terms:** Space guides design like rhythm guides music. Key Takeaway Use few, well‑chosen spaces for impact. Themes design typography rhythm clarity Mood thoughtful analytical Type educational inspirational When to use this quote - layout design - web design - print media - UI design - branding Key Concepts proportional intervals visual hierarchy Questions to Reflect On - How do you decide which spaces matter? - What intervals make a design feel balanced? A Different Perspective Too many intervals can clutter and confuse. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Arbitrary](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arbitrary/) [Arbitrary Quantities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arbitrary-quantities-6096761/) [Choices](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/choices/) [Intervals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intervals/) [Limitless](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/limitless/) [Music](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/music/) [Quantity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/quantity/) [Space](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/space/) [Space Typography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/space-typography-6096759/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Typography](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/typography/) [Typography Like](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/typography-like-6096760/) ## Related quotes > [Typography at its best is a visual form of language linking timelessness and time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-at-its-best-is-a-visual-form-of-language-linking/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [In a badly designed book, the letters mill and stand like starving horses in a field. In a book designed by rote, they sit…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/in-a-badly-designed-book-the-letters-mill-and-stand-like-starving/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [A man who would letterspace lower case would steal sheep, Frederic Goudy liked to say. If this wisdom needs updating, it is chiefly to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/a-man-who-would-letterspace-lower-case-would-steal-sheep-frederic/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [In the nineteenth century, which was a dark and inflationary age in typography, man compositors were encouraged to stuff extra space between sentences. Generations…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/in-the-nineteenth-century-which-was-a-dark-and-inflationary-age-in/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-is-the-craft-of-endowing-human-language-with-a-durable-2/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-is-the-craft-of-endowing-human-language-with-a-durable/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must often draw attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/in-a-world-rife-with-unsolicited-messages-typography-must-often-draw/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Typography exists to honor content.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-exists-to-honor-content/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-is-to-literature-as-musical-performance-is-to-composition/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [By all means break the rules.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/by-all-means-break-the-rules/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [“Logograms pose a more difficult question. An increasing number of persons and institutions, from archy and mehitabel to PostScript and TrueType, come to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/logograms-pose-a-more-difficult-question-an-increasing-number-of/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [There's a simplicity in typography that demands absolute accuracy... the only way you can experience it is by doing it, and you can't do…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruno-maag/there-s-a-simplicity-in-typography-that-demands-absolute-accuracy-the/) [Bruno Maag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruno-maag/) > [Descriptive anatomy is to physiology what geography is to history, and just as it is not enough to know the typography of a country…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/claude-bernard/descriptive-anatomy-is-to-physiology-what-geography-is-to-history-and/) [Claude Bernard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/claude-bernard/) > [“Embossed letters represent the topography of typography.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jarod-kintz/embossed-letters-represent-the-topography-of-typography/) [Jarod Kintz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jarod-kintz/) > [Plenty of white space and generous line spacing,and don't make the type size too miserly. Then you will be assured of a product fit…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/giambattista-bodoni/plenty-of-white-space-and-generous-line-spacing-and-don-t-make-the/) [Giambattista Bodoni](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/giambattista-bodoni/) ## More by Robert Bringhurst > [Popularity isn't just something that happens. You have to give something in exchange for it, and that's the dangerous part of the process.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/popularity-isn-t-just-something-that-happens-you-have-to-give/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [“Logograms pose a more difficult question. An increasing number of persons and institutions, from archy and mehitabel to PostScript and TrueType, come to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/logograms-pose-a-more-difficult-question-an-increasing-number-of/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [How much money you get, depends on lots of extraneous things. It depends on how good you are at turning poetry into a marketable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/how-much-money-you-get-depends-on-lots-of-extraneous-things-it/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Anxiety projection can and does occur - in myth, in music, in fiction, and in the doctor's office too. That doesn't make it the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/anxiety-projection-can-and-does-occur-in-myth-in-music-in-fiction-and/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [To design things means to interfere with things: to think of how they might be and to alter how they are. Design is to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/to-design-things-means-to-interfere-with-things-to-think-of-how-they/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [By all means break the rules.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/by-all-means-break-the-rules/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Poetry, I'm often told, is something made of words. I think it really goes the other way around: words are made of poetry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/poetry-i-m-often-told-is-something-made-of-words-i-think-it-really/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Typography is to literature as musical performance is to composition: an essential act of interpretation, full of endless opportunities for insight or obtuseness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-is-to-literature-as-musical-performance-is-to-composition/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately and well.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/by-all-means-break-the-rules-and-break-them-beautifully-deliberately/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Many intellectual heroes in the European tradition seem to find the great outdoors a chilling prospect - and its literary analogue, the mythworld, equally…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/many-intellectual-heroes-in-the-european-tradition-seem-to-find-the/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Typography exists to honor content.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/typography-exists-to-honor-content/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Nature, or the world, or reality, is what mythology is all about.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/nature-or-the-world-or-reality-is-what-mythology-is-all-about/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Essay on Adam" There are five possibilities. One: Adam fell. Two: he was pushed. Three: he jumped. Four: he only looked over the edge,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/essay-on-adam-there-are-five-possibilities-one-adam-fell-two-he-was/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [Wings are a constraint that makes it possible to fly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/wings-are-a-constraint-that-makes-it-possible-to-fly/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) > [In a world rife with unsolicited messages, typography must often draw attention to itself before it will be read. Yet in order to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-bringhurst/in-a-world-rife-with-unsolicited-messages-typography-must-often-draw/) [Robert Bringhurst](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) [Explore all 41 Robert Bringhurst quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-bringhurst/) ## More Arbitrary quotes > [It is irresponsible to set an arbitrary cap on how much therapy a Medicare beneficiary can receive. It ignores the health needs of our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-ensign/it-is-irresponsible-to-set-an-arbitrary-cap-on-how-much-therapy-a/) [John Ensign](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-ensign/) > [I do think that theater is a great venue for science fiction, and not just adaptations but also original work. 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Once you relieve…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesse-eisenberg/i-don-t-concern-myself-with-thinking-ahead-to-the-finished-product-i/) [Jesse Eisenberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesse-eisenberg/) > [Habit is altogether too arbitrary a master for me to submit to.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-kaspar-lavater/habit-is-altogether-too-arbitrary-a-master-for-me-to-submit-to/) [Johann Kaspar Lavater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-kaspar-lavater/) > [I look back, now, and I know that the naming moment, which seemed so insignificant then, which seemed to demand no more than an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gregory-david-roberts/i-look-back-now-and-i-know-that-the-naming-moment-which-seemed-so/) [Gregory David Roberts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gregory-david-roberts/) > [Police in China can do whatever they want; after 81 days in arbitrary detention you clearly realise that they don't have to obey their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ai-weiwei/police-in-china-can-do-whatever-they-want-after-81-days-in-arbitrary/) [Ai Weiwei](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ai-weiwei/) > [Contrary to what certain governments say, human rights are universal. Arbitrary detention, torture and discrimination hurt the human dignity of anybody, whatever his or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shirin-ebadi/contrary-to-what-certain-governments-say-human-rights-are-universal/) [Shirin Ebadi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shirin-ebadi/) > [What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laurence-steinberg/what-causes-adolescents-to-rebel-is-not-the-assertion-of-authority/) [Laurence Steinberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laurence-steinberg/) > [There is something on earth greater than arbitrary or despotic power. The lightning has its power, and the whirlwind has its power, and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-webster/there-is-something-on-earth-greater-than-arbitrary-or-despotic-power/) [Daniel Webster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-webster/) > [“nothing is arbitrary in this whole world, there is a good reason behind each and everything…”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nikhil-kumar/nothing-is-arbitrary-in-this-whole-world-there-is-a-good-reason/) [Nikhil Kumar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nikhil-kumar/) > [Fundamentally, adopting rules without any estimate of the impact is the height of arbitrary decision-making.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-o-rielly/fundamentally-adopting-rules-without-any-estimate-of-the-impact-is/) [Michael O'Rielly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-o-rielly/) > [No arbitrary regulation, no act of the legislature, can add anything to the capital of the country; it can only force it into artificial…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-ramsay-mcculloch/no-arbitrary-regulation-no-act-of-the-legislature-can-add-anything-to/) [John Ramsay McCulloch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-ramsay-mcculloch/) > [But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-gibbon/but-the-desire-of-obtaining-the-advantages-and-of-escaping-the/) [Edward Gibbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-gibbon/) [Browse all 529 Arbitrary quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arbitrary/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Space in typography is like time in music. 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