Padding in CSS

CSS Padding

The CSS padding properties are used to define the  space between the content and the borders.

CSS has  the padding for each side of an element such as  (top, right, bottom, and left).

Defining Padding one each Sides

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

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

These properties can take 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.

Set different padding for all four sides of a

element:  

div {
  padding-top: 50px;
  padding-right: 30px;
  padding-bottom: 50px;
  padding-left: 80px;
}

Padding - Shorthand Property

We can specify all the padding properties in one property only.

The padding property is a single shorthand property for the below mentioned  padding properties:

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

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

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

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

Use the padding shorthand property with two values: 

div {
  padding: 25px 50px;
}

If the padding property has one value:

• padding: 25px;
• all four sides have paddings equal to 25px

Use the padding shorthand property with one value: 

div {
  padding: 25px;
}

 

Padding and Element Width

The CSS width property is used to define the width of the element's content area. The content area is the portion innermost area of the padding, border, and margin of an element (the box model).

If an element has a its width specified , then the padding added to that element will be added to the total width of the element. This may produce an undesirable result.

In the example below

element is given a width of 300px. But the actual width of the

element will be 350px (300px + 25px of left padding + 25px of right padding):

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

In order to keep the width at 300px, and no matter what is the padding values, you can use the box-sizing property. The box-sizing property will make the element to maintain its width; if you increase the padding, the respective defined content space will decrease.

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;
}

Also See :      Margins in CSS ,       Let Us Learn CSS3 Step By Step,        Borders in CSS