Explaining The Long History of Marking Specific Pages With the Phrase ‘Intentionally Left Blank’

Daven Hiskey of Today I Found Out explains the long history within publishing to mark specific pages with the phrase “Intentionally Left Blank” and how it was first brought about due to copious errors made during the early phase of printing.

To begin with, the practice of marking intentionally blank pages, known as vacat pages, some form of “intentionally blank” goes all the way back to the dawn of automated printing itself, where mistakes in printing were relatively common. Like today, the main purpose of marking these pages in this way was simply to make sure people knew that the blank page wasn’t a result of a printing error.