Before & After: Simply Borderless

Modern desktop printers are small technical wonders that can put brilliant, high-resolution images on fine paper for pennies.

But for $99 they can't do everything, including print to the edges of the sheet (a full bleed). Most leave a white border, which is often irregular and differs from printer to printer. This border can be a big distraction. Its real problem, however, is that the border is undesigned and undesignable. So what to do? Instead of fighting it, join it. Amplify the white space, and make it part of your designs.

Make more white

The surest way to eliminate the white border is to make more white. Reducing your live matter visually disconnects it from the edge of the page. Note that to maintain equal margins on all sides, the image has been cropped (it's skinnier), and the result is more focused on the descriptive coastline, and more dramatic.
The proximity of image to edge (left) creates a visual connection, so the eye perceives a border. Reduce the image far enough to disconnect it from the edge (middle), and the border effect disappears. The image is now like a gallery piece hanging alone on a white wall (right).
This smaller size has big benefit: You can crop and move the image around and actually design the page.

Get moving

Moving the image to eye level creates three different margin widths, so a frame never forms. Segmenting the image vertically moves the eye down the page.
Borders are static, so what you need is movement. The image at eye level yields more natural viewing plus three different margin widths - arrow (top), medium (sides), and wide (bottom) - which eliminates the border effect. Segmenting the image in columns creates activity within it and moves the eye down the page. Above, middle, is one image divided vertically. You can also create a collage of two or three images (right). Mix-and-match colors, shapes, and textures until you have a strong composition.
From one image you can pull out three or more column- or rowshaped areas. Pick the most descriptive parts and eliminate the rest.

Coordinate the type

Typestyles and sizes that correspond to elements on the page will unify the design. Similarities convey harmony; contrasts convey energy.

Straight/round
A straight, uppercase typeface contrasts beautifully with the round logo. But since the page and image are also rectangular, adding this heavy block would overwhelm the light logo (inset).

All round
A round, lowercase typeface (same height, similar weight) mirrors the round logo. Now seen as a group of four circles, the line contrasts beautifully with the rectangular image and gives the page two strong shapes.

Make a landscape

A horizontal image can be quite large. It has the energy of contrasting direction and still appears borderless because of its varying margins and side-to-side movement.

Same proportions

Unify image and page easily by using the same proportions for both; just rotate 90 degrees and reduce to about 60%.

Eye level
A letter-size page is about the same size as the human head. Result: Eye level is the strongest and most comfortable place for a focal point.

Varying margins
Eye-level placement results in three different margin widths, which adds visual activity and keeps margins from "connecting" and forming a frame.

Create a focal center

A single line of type sustains the horizontal movement and is a powerful and sophisticated focal point. The small logo completely controls the open space around it.

Contrasting zones

Small is definitely powerful. Here, the gallery effect-one image alone on a wall-is working to the max. The page has two zones: dark and light. Centered in each zone is a focal point- the headline in one at eye level, the logo in the other. Each controls its space. This subtle treatment is classier and more effective than SHOUTING-yoohoo!-for attention.

Engergize the page

Cousin to the landscape format is the banner, an extremely panoramic shape whose total contrast to the vertical page creates real energy.
You'll almost always be surprised by how little it takes to convey the heart of an image. Here, one thin slice shows coastline, inlet, estuaries, and wet and dry land masses. That's the whole story!

Extreme contrasts Tall/wide, fat/thin, up/down, side-to-side

Dull space The beauty of the panoramic shape is that it's so different from the page. It works for many images, but in this case we're seeing a little more uninteresting space than we'd like, so we'll crop it to half a page.

Align right

With image and text aligned to the right and at eye level, the white space-normally thought of as empty-is controlling the page. This is a very active design.

Border? What border? There is very little on the page but it's really designed; it has a strong focal point and a lot of movement. Both text and logo are colored gray to recede, leaving the image center stage. The irregular left edge (right) keeps unwanted lines from forming.

What size should the type be, and where does it go? Work with what's in front of you and nearby. In this case, the penisulas and inlets (above) become our rulers and govern type size, line spacing, and logo size. This creates visible relationships that unify the design. Similarly, the extended typeface echoes the horizontal shape of the image.

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