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In typography, a column is one or more vertical blocks of content positioned on a page, separated by gutters or rules. Columns are most commonly used to break up large bodies of text that cannot fit in a single block of text on a page. Additionally, columns are used to improve page composition and readability. Newspapers very frequently use complex multi-column layouts to break up different stories and longer bodies of texts within a story. Column can also more generally refer to the vertical delineations created by a typographic grid system which type and image may be positioned. In page layout, the whitespace on the outside of the page are known as margins; the gap between two facing pages is also considered a gutter, since there are columns on both sides.
In some cases, column numbers are provided to improve specifying the in-source location in addition to or in absence of page numbers in serial publications, legal documents and patents. Historically, column designations were abbreviated "c" or "cc" , i.e. "c130" or "cc130–136".