The Book Of Blank Pages
An intentionally blank page or vacat page (from Latin: vacare for "being empty") is a page that has no content and may be unexpected. Such pages may serve purposes ranging from place-holding to space-filling and content separation. Sometimes, these pages carry a notice such as "This page intentionally left blank." Such notices typically appear in printed works, such as legal documents, manuals, and exam papers, in which the reader might otherwise suspect that the blank pages are due to a printing error and where missing pages might have serious consequences.
the book of blank pages
Intentionally blank pages are usually the result of printing conventions and techniques. Chapters conventionally start on an odd-numbered page (recto page); therefore, if the preceding chapter happens to have an odd number of pages, a blank page is inserted at the end. Book pages are often printed on large sheets because of technical and financial considerations. Thus, a group of 8, 16, or 32 consecutive pages will be printed on a single sheet in such a way that when the sheet is mechanically folded and cut, the pages will be in the correct order for binding. This is called an even working, and the group of pages is called a section or signature. Books printed in this manner will always have a number of pages that is a multiple of the number in such a signature, such as a multiple of 8, 16, or 32. As a result, these books will usually have pages left blank, unless by chance or editorial ingenuity the exact number of pages is printed.
Intentionally blank pages are ubiquitous in technical and instructional manuals, directories, and other large, mass-produced volumes of text. The contents of manuals produced by a given product's vendor are often compiled from generic instructions suitable for a variety of products, with additional instructions or chapters included for the specific product or model in question. This automation of manual generation leads to intentionally blank pages to fit the requirements for mass printing.
In digital documents, pages are intentionally left blank so that the document can be printed correctly in double-sided format, rather than have new chapters start on the backs of pages. Intentionally blank pages have also been used in documents distributed in ring binders. The intention is to leave room for expansion without breaking the document's page numbering. This allows updates to be made to a document while requiring minimal new pages, reducing printing costs. The only drawback is the increased time required by the reader to manually insert various newly updated pages into their correct locations in the document.
Intentionally blank pages can be useful in standardized tests such as the GCSE, Higher School Certificate, SAT, CAT, ACT, MCAT, and GRE. In these exams, there are often individual, timed sections in which test-takers are prohibited from proceeding to the next section until that section's time interval has passed and the examiner allows them to continue. Because all of these separate sections are printed consecutively in the examination booklet, it may be possible for a test-taker who has finished the section early to see through the page and read the problems in the next section. By placing intentionally blank pages between these sections, the test-taker is prevented from cheating in this way. By printing a notice on the page, such as "this page has been intentionally left blank", test-takers will not be concerned that their test has been misprinted, especially as test instructions often instruct students to check for missing or blank pages and to report any defective test booklets to a proctor. These pages may also be useful as scratch paper.
In books of sheet music, relatively short pieces of music that span two to four pages often need to be arranged so the number of page turns for the performer is minimized. For example, a three-page work (starting on the left-hand sheet) followed immediately by a two-page work involves one page turn during each work. If a blank page immediately followed the three-page work (on the right-hand sheet), the two-page work will span the left and right pages, alleviating the need for a page turn during the second work. Intentionally blank pages may also prevent a page turn during a difficult passage.
In the United States armed forces, classified documents require page checks whenever custody is transferred or an inventory is conducted.[1] Blank pages are all marked "This page intentionally left blank", so page checks are unambiguous, and every page of the document is accounted for.
Intentionally blank pages placed at the end of books are often used to balance the folios that make up the book (see bookbinding). Often these pages are completely blank with no such statement or are used as "Notes" pages, serving a practical purpose. In the case of telephone-number directories, these pages are often used to list important numbers and addresses. These pages may list other books available from the same publisher.
Book publishers have also used stylized designs (dingbats) underneath the last paragraph of a chapter to indicate that no other content is to be expected until the next chapter, allowing for the possibility of blank pages without misunderstandings by the readers.
Typical signatures are 16 to 24 pages, but they can be up to 32 pages or as little as four pages. The number of pages in a signature differs according to the number of pages in a book and the type of stitch used to sew the signatures together.
For example, a 12-page book made with Perfect Binding will have three signatures of 4 pages each. Other binding techniques are Saddle Stitch Binding and Case Bound Binding, which vary in complexity and how they use signatures.
Your pages must be divisible by four because four pages are printed on one large sheet and then folded in half to make a booklet. Bookbinding requires particular calculations to allow the book to come together successfully.
There are more metaphorical purposes instilled in a blank page. The inclusion of a blank page can represent the reader about to begin their journey through a story without preconceived notions or opinions about a book.
The blank pages at the front and back of a novel exist for a practical purpose, because a book needs an even number of pages, whether they all have content on them or not. Sometimes a blank page can mean something significant, and sometimes it can serve as a way to include sketches or maps and add character to the book.
When books are printed on an offset printer, many pages of the book are printed onto one large sheet of paper. This paper is then folded into sections called signatures, which usually consist of 16-24 pages of the book. The signatures are then stacked on top of each other and bound together to create the book.
This other common cause of blank pages is a stylistic choice rather than a technical issue. Many authors like to have every new chapter start on a right (or, recto) page. That means that if the previous chapter ended on a recto page, the following left (or, verso) page will be blank.
Of these two causes of blank pages in books, only the second will have an affect on how you layout the book. If you choose to have all your chapters start on right, then any blank pages you end up with should be completely blank, with no pages numbers.
If you do have one or more blank pages in your document, and you want them to print like that, you need to take emergency action: Click the Print Settings button at the bottom of the Print Booklet dialog box. That opens the Print dialog box.
All of a sudden starting a few days ago, google books' pages are all blank (no matter what book I choose to preview) and now tonight instagram is coming up as a blank page. I don't know if the latest update did this. I'm assuming it did because I've never had this problem before in the many years I've used firefox.
When creating Data Driven Pages in ArcMap, some users may prefer to exclude blank pages, which do not have any features from the map book, while still preserving pages with features in the map book. The following workflow creates Data Driven Pages without blank pages.
The instructions provided describe how to create a new grid index layer made up only of grids that contains features and use the new index layer to create Data Driven Pages. The example below shows the Zion park boundary, which lies only within some grids, while other grids are blank. Follow the steps provided below to remove the blank grids:In ArcMap, run the Select By Location tool by clicking Selection > Select By Location on the ArcMap main menu. The Select By Location tool selects the grids in the original grid index layer that intersect with the feature layer. Ensure the following parameters are defined:
Note:A grid index layer must be created before running the Select By Location tool. For more information on how to create a grid index layer, refer to Creating grid index features. For Selection method, select the select features from option.
For Target layer(s), check the original grid index layer.
For Source layer, select the feature layer.
For Spatial selection method for target layer feature(s), select intersect the source layer feature from the drop-down list.
Click Apply. The output below shows the selected grids with features within the grids.
Run the Make Feature Layer tool on the grid index layer to make a layer with only the selected features from Step 1.In the Search window, search and open the Make Feature Layer tool.
For Input Features, select the grid index layer.
Click OK. A new grid index layer without blank grids is created as the resulting output.
Use the new grid index layer created in Step 2 as the input for the index layer when generating Data Driven Pages.In the Data Driven Pages toolbar, click the Data Driven Page Setup icon.
In the Set Up Data Driven Pages dialog box, check the Enable Data Driven Pages check box.
For Layer, select the new grid index layer created in Step 2.
Specify other parameters as desired.
Click OK. The resulting Data Driven Pages do not contain blank pages without features.
For more information on how to create and enable Data Driven Pages, refer to Creating Data Driven Pages and Enabling Data Driven Pages.