Intentionally blank page
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An intentionally blank page is a page that is devoid of 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 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 phrase is a self-refuting meta-reference, in that it falsifies itself by its very existence on the page in question.
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[edit] Uses for intentionally blank pages
[edit] Print media
Intentionally blank pages are usually the result of printing techniques. Book pages are often printed on large sheets due to financial considerations. Thus, a group of eight, sixteen, or thirty-two 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. Books printed in this manner will always have as many pages as a multiple of the large sheets they were printed on, such as a multiple of eight, sixteen, or thirty-two. As a result, these books will usually have pages left blank.
If a printer's document processor has been designed to skip completely blank pages, notices may also be required on intentionally blank pages to prevent incorrect page numbering.
Intentionally blank pages are ubiquitous in technical and instructional manuals, directories, and other large, mass-produced volumes of text such as The Bible. 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 required 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 sections 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.
In military and classified documents, intentionally non-blank pages are used to confirm that the page has not been stolen and replaced with a blank page.[1]
[edit] Standardized tests
Intentionally blank pages can be useful in standardized tests such as the SAT, 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 intentionally left blank", test-takers will not be concerned that their test has been misprinted.
[edit] Sheet music
In books of sheet music, pieces of relatively short music that can 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 one page turn during the second work.
[edit] Variations
Printing "this page intentionally left blank" on a page is self-refuting, as the very statement makes itself untrue, since a blank page cannot have any writing. Some organizations have avoided this problem by printing a different notice; for example, the College Board has the message "No test material on this page." printed on otherwise blank pages of SAT exams.
Intentionally blank pages placed at the end of books are often used to balance the folios which comprise 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.
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.
[edit] Examples
Author Idries Shah, distrusting critics' reviews of his books, wrote The Book of the Book (1969, ISBN 0-900860-12-X), which consists of sixteen written pages of reviews of itself. The rest of the book is intentionally filled with about 140 blank pages to give the appearance of a normal book. Initial reactions were generally negative, but over time critics have come to praise it.
A variation on the intentionally blank page was used in the computer game Zork I. In the game, the player enters the living room of a white house, and finds a wooden door with "strange gothic lettering", which upon translation reads, "This space intentionally left blank."
A similar example to the intentionally blank page can be found in electric road warning signs, normally used to indicate traffic problems down the road. Rather than have the sign remain blank when not in use, some employ phrases such as "No Reported Problems" to reassure drivers that the sign is still functional (though in many jurisdictions current practice is to present some generalized traffic safety message such as "drive drunk: go to jail" when there is no specific information to present).
An example similar to both the intentionally blank page and the road signs is the self-diagnostics of most recent computer monitors. When no signal is detected, they will often display red, green, and blue bars and a message to the effect of "Check input signal, this monitor is working." This is to let the user know that the problem is not with the monitor.
[edit] See also
- 4′33″
- Rene Magritte and The Betrayal of Images
- Publishing
- Self-reference
- Here be dragons
[edit] References
- ^ U.S. Joint Staff manual with a section on the proper style for intentionally blank pages (PDF)
