After its creation, a graphic is often used in a DTP system. When the graphic needs to be positioned in a text, its dimension becomes important.

Once a graphic has been created, the next step is often its implementation into a DTP system. Here, the relevant text is placed around the graphic. The graphic is inserted into the text respectively. A data exchange format is used for exchanging the graphic with the DTP system. When exporting a graphic to an exchange format, the dimensions of the graphic result from the dimensions of the drawn elements. Therefore, individual graphics usually differ in height and width. In the illustration above, the dimension are limited by the size of the smallest enclosing rectangle.

In order to influence and streamline these values before export into the exchange format, you can insert a bounding box. The bounding box is a rectangle with equal values (i.e. 4 x 4 inches) that is placed around the elements of the graphic. When being exported, the graphic assumes the values / dimensions of the rectangle. When you make the bounding box a little bigger than actually necessary, you also create some white space around the graphic.

The following illustration should make this clear:

The white space prevents those graphic elements that are tangent to the edge of the illustration from being cropped in the DTP system. Without the white space, elements, such as curves that touch the edge of the graphic, might look as if they are thinner at the point where they touch or look flat, as shown in the illustration below:

You can easily make use of the benefits of the bounding box, if appropriate.