You could in fact say on the screen and that would be perfectly fine. But you could also say on screen and that would be equally fine too. I can't explain why, but one thing I know for certain is that adverbial phrases in English tend not to have articles in them. For example:
Are these old methods still in use today?
Your comment that he looks stupid in this outfit is very much on point.
A white space and white space without an indefinite article in front of it actually mean two slightly different things. A white space would be a single white space character on your screen that you can literally type in into your computer with your fingers whereas white space in generalwithout the article refers to the amount of blank or unfilled space on said screen or the printed page. The trick is to think of them as two separate words that mean different things.