CSS Margin

CSS Margin

CSS Margins are nearly identical to the CSS Padding attribute except for one important difference: a margin defines the white space around an HTML element border, while padding refers to the white space within the border. Setting the actual value of margin is just the same as with padding, so you can probably zip right through this lesson.

Please see the example below for a visual representation. Note: A border has been added to each element so you that you may see the effects of the margin attribute.

p {margin: 5px; border: 1px solid black; }  

h5{margin: 0px; border: 1px solid red;} 

 

There are several ways to go about defining the CSS Margin attribute. We will show you every possible way and let you know which methods are the best.

CSS Margin 1 Value

As you saw in the example above, margin can be uniform outside an element. Specifying one value will create a uniform margin on all sides: top, right, bottom, left. In addition to using exact values, you may also define the margin with the use of percentages.

p {margin: 2%; border: 1px solid black; } 

h5{margin: 0px; border: 1px solid red;} 

 

CSS Margin margin direction

Each HTML element actually has four different margins: top, right, bottom, and left. It is possible to define these individual margins simply by adding a direction suffix to the margin attribute. Example form: margin-(direction). Defining only one direction will leave the other 3 margins untouched.

p { margin-left: 5px; border: 1px solid black; } 

h5{ margin-top: 0px;

margin-right: 2px;

margin-bottom: 13px;

margin-left: 21px;

border: 1px solid red; } 

 

CSS Margin Values

Four margin values can be declared at once by either specifying two or four values. When only using two values, the first will define the margin on the top and bottom, while the second value will define the margin on the left and right.

When using the four value margin specification, the corresponding directions are: top, right, bottom, left. To help you remember what the order is, just remember that it starts at the top and then moves clockwise until it reaches the left. The examples below show partial (2) and complete (4) margin usage.

p {margin: 5px 15px; 

border: 1px solid black; }  

h5{margin: 0px 5px 10px 3px;

 border: 1px solid red;}