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Chapter 10


CSS Padding


The CSS padding properties are used to generate space around an element's content, inside of any defined borders.

OR

CSS Padding property is used to define the space between the element content and the element border.

With CSS, you have full control over the padding. There are properties for setting the padding for each side of an element (top, right, bottom, and left).

It is different from CSS margin in the way that CSS margin defines the space around elements. CSS padding is affected by the background colors. It clears an area around the content.

Top, bottom, left and right padding can be changed independently using separate properties. You can also change all properties at once by using shorthand padding property.

CSS Padding Properties

Property

Description

padding

It is used to set all the padding properties in one declaration.

padding-left

It is used to set left padding of an element.

padding-right

It is used to set right padding of an element.

padding-top

It is used to set top padding of an element.

padding-bottom

It is used to set bottom padding of an element.

 

Padding - Individual Sides

CSS has properties for specifying the padding for each side of an element:

  • padding-top
  • padding-right
  • padding-bottom
  • padding-left

All the padding properties can have the following values:

  • length - specifies a padding in px, pt, cm, etc.
  • % - specifies a padding in % of the width of the containing element
  • inherit - specifies that the padding should be inherited from the parent element

Note: Negative values are not allowed.

Example in HTML

<html> 

<head> 

<style> 

p { 

    background-color: pink; 

p.padding { 

    padding-top: 50px; 

    padding-right: 100px; 

    padding-bottom: 150px; 

    padding-left: 200px; 

</style> 

</head> 

<body> 

<p>This is a paragraph with no specified padding.</p> 

<p class="padding">This is a paragraph with specified paddings.</p> 

</body> 

</html> 

 

Padding - Shorthand Property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the padding properties in one property.

The padding property is a shorthand property for the following individual padding properties:

  • padding-top
  • padding-right
  • padding-bottom
  • padding-left

So, here is how it works:

  • If the padding property has four values:
  • padding: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
  • top padding is 25px
  • right padding is 50px
  • bottom padding is 75px
  • left padding is 100px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with four values:

div {
  padding: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
}

If the padding property has three values:

  • padding: 25px 50px 75px;
  • top padding is 25px
  • right and left paddings are 50px
  • bottom padding is 75px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with three values: 

div {
  padding: 25px 50px 75px;
}

If the padding property has two values:

  • padding: 25px 50px;
  • top and bottom paddings are 25px
  • right and left paddings are 50px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with two values: 

div {
  padding: 25px 50px;
}

If the padding property has one value:

  • padding: 25px;
  • all four paddings are 25px

Example

Use the padding shorthand property with one value: 

div {
  padding: 25px;
}

 

Padding and Element Width

The CSS width property specifies the width of the element's content area. The content area is the portion inside the padding, border, and margin of an element.

So, if an element has a specified width, the padding added to that element will be added to the total width of the element. This is often an undesirable result.

Example

Here, the <div> element is given a width of 300px. However, the actual width of the <div> element will be 350px (300px + 25px of left padding + 25px of right padding):

div {
  width: 300px;
  padding: 25px;
}

To keep the width at 300px, no matter the amount of padding, you can use the box-sizing property. This causes the element to maintain its width; if you increase the padding, the available content space will decrease.

Example

Use the box-sizing property to keep the width at 300px, no matter the amount of padding:

div {
  width: 300px;
  padding: 25px;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

Example in HTML

<html>

<head>

<style>

div.ex1 {

  width: 300px;

  background-color: yellow;

}

 

div.ex2 {

  width: 300px;

  padding: 25px;

  background-color: lightblue;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

 

<h2>Padding and element width</h2>

 

<div class="ex1">This div is 300px wide.</div>

<br>

 

<div class="ex2">The width of this div is 350px, even though it is defined as 300px in the CSS.</div>

 

</body>

</html>

 

More Examples

  • Set the left padding
    This example demonstrates how to set the left padding of a <p> element.

Example in HTML

<html>

<head>

<style>

p.padding {

  padding-left: 2cm;

}

p.padding2 {

  padding-left: 50%;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

 

<h1>The padding-left Property</h1>

 

<p>This is a text with no left padding.</p>

<p class="padding">This text has a left padding of 2 cm.</p>

<p class="padding2">This text has a left padding of 50%.</p>

 

</body>

</html>

 

  • Set the right padding
    This example demonstrates how to set the right padding of a <p> element.

Use above example as same for the practice change properties.

 

  • Set the top padding
    This example demonstrates how to set the top padding of a <p> element.

Use above example as same for the practice change properties.

 

  • Set the bottom padding
    This example demonstrates how to set the bottom padding of a <p> element.

Use above example as same for the practice change properties.