Padding

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

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

If the padding property has two values:

• padding: 25px 50px;

  • top and bottom paddings are 25px

  • right and left paddings are 50px

If the padding property has one value:

• padding: 25px;

  • all four paddings are 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 (the box model).

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 actual 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; }