# Frame within a Frame for all plots? Why?

I always thought that graphics were placed in a single frame but it appears there are really 2 frames. One inside of the other. I discovered this accidentally when resizing what I thought was 1 frame. See animation below.

1. What is the reasoning for having what it feels like is a redundant frame?
2. Is there a way to control the size and placement of each frame independently?
3. Would it be worthwhile to make Wolfram default to a single frame instead of two? If so, how would I do this?
4. Do all graphics include 2 frames?

• Look up ImageMargins – Simon Woods Dec 10 '16 at 23:26
• It's intended and I think it's a good thing. See documentation here, chapter "setting margins" – andre314 Dec 10 '16 at 23:41
• @andre I couldn't find an exact duplicate of this, and since the question has been upvoted I used the documentation you linked to as part of the answer, though I'm unsure whether this question should be closed as off-topic. – Feyre Dec 11 '16 at 11:41
• @Feyre No problem. I don't think that the question if off-topic. The point is rather that it is documented. But because the documentation is not easy to find, it's a good question. – andre314 Dec 11 '16 at 12:43

This is effectively a way to manipulate the ImageMargins directly with the mouse. You can see this when you run:
Plot[Sin[x], {x, 0, 2 Pi}, ImageMargins -> 100]

However, unlike in this case, the mouse created ImageMargins are stored in the Out[n] output and are kept, even if you change the plot and rerun it, i.e. Plot[Cos[x], {x, 0, 2 Pi}]. You can run Plot[Cos[x], {x, 0, 2 Pi},ImageMargins->0] to restore plot to its original state, or Shift+Drag to the top left hand corner until the margins are gone.