Flash cards
Review the key moves
What is the main idea behind CSS Padding?
Lesson checks
Practice each idea before moving on
Short Mimo-style checks built from this lesson's code, terms, and sequence.
Which statement best captures the main point of this lesson?
Complete the missing token from the example code.
___-top: 50px;Put the learning moves in the order that makes the concept easiest to apply.
The CSS padding properties are used to generate space around an element's content, inside of any defined borders.
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), and a shorthand property for setting all the padding properties in one declaration.
Padding - Individual Sides
CSS has properties for specifying the padding for each side of an element:
- padding-top - sets the top padding of an element
- padding-right - sets the right padding of an element
- padding-bottom - sets the bottom padding of an element
- padding-left - sets the left padding of an element
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
div {
padding-top: 50px;
padding-right: 30px;
padding-bottom: 50px;
padding-left: 80px;
}Live preview
Padding - Shorthand Property
To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the padding properties in one declaration.
The padding property is a shorthand property for the following individual padding properties:
- padding-top
- padding-right
- padding-bottom
- padding-left
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
- top padding is 25px
- right padding is 50px
- bottom padding is 75px
- left padding is 100px
Example
div {
padding: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
}Live preview
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
- top padding is 25px
- right and left paddings are 50px
- bottom padding is 75px
Example
div {
padding: 25px 50px 75px;
}Live preview
If the padding property has two values:
- padding: 25px 50px; top and bottom paddings are 25px right and left paddings are 50px
- top and bottom paddings are 25px
- right and left paddings are 50px
Example
div {
padding: 25px 50px;
}Live preview
If the padding property has one value:
- padding: 25px; all four paddings are 25px
- all four paddings are 25px
Example
div {
padding: 25px;
}Live preview