In Bonnie Mak’s introduction and first chapter of “How the Page Matters,” she introduces the importance of the page and how it influences the reader. In class, we have had many discussions about how “the medium is the message.” This sentiment has been woven through Mak’s chapters in which she argues that there is more to meet the eye when it comes to a page of a book. On page 8, of Mak’s chapter, she writes, “Yet the page has become transparent, ‘disappearing in its very function.’ So accustomed to its form, we no longer notice how the page is fundamental to the transmission of ideas and that it shapes our interpretation of those ideas.” With this quote we see how the page has slowly slipped from our minds. As we read, we no longer view the page as a canvas or artform. At first glance, a page might simply be seen as words on paper but it goes beyond that. Those words were carefully formatted in a way to capture a reader’s attention. The page is the vessel for the author’s content, able to display the information in the way that they want to convey it. Mak echoes Amaranth Borsuk’s ideas of content and books in which both of them claim that books are vessels for information. In chapter 2 of Borsuk’s “The Book” she claims, “the book as content rather than object.” These claims support that the medium is the message. The way that books present their content is extremely important to what the reader consumes and absorbs. As a result there is a deep intention placed into the consideration of format, typography, illustrations, etc. Every factor that goes into a book has the ability to alter the reader’s opinion. Later in her chapter, Mak expresses this importance of how every aspect of the page is incredibly significant. On page 16, Mak writes, “likewise, the structures for arranging these letter forms in manuscripts and printed books are graphic indications of how designers visualized ideas and organized them for themselves and other readers. The processes of thinking and reading, then, may be discerned in part from the clues offered by the page.” The page is an underrated yet incredibly crucial aspect of the book. This where the message is laid out for the reader. Significant time and effort has gone into the placement of ideas so that they reflect the author’s intentions. The layout is critical for information absorbtion. The page itself has become the message.