Visser Labs

Let’s step back and start at the basics, in order to understand these element properties it’s best to remove any background confusion. Internet browsers (eg. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Camino, …) typically apply their own default values to page elements, this is done to create a standard experience across non-styled pages. We need to disable these default values as they differ across browsers, then I can teach you how these properties influence how elements are rendered.

To remove the default browser styles from the red and blue boxes below you would type in CSS:

.red {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
.blue {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}


Margin
The larger the margin the further apart an element will be positioned in that given direction.

Example: In the below illustration a margin-bottom style of 2 blocks has been applied to the top (red) element, this creates a space of 2 blocks below the bottom (blue) element.

To apply a bottom margin to the red element you would type in CSS:

.red {
margin-bottom:20px;
}

Padding
The larger the padding the greater expansion of that element in that given direction.

Example: In the below illustration a padding-bottom style of 2 blocks has been applied to the top (red) element, this expands the red element vertically 2 blocks in turn pushing the the bottom (blue) element down 2 blocks.

To apply a bottom padding to the red element you would type in CSS:

.red {
padding-bottom:20px;
}

Zero (0) shortcut
0px can be shortened to 0; however all ‘real’ numbers must be followed by a metric, for example:

• px
• em
• %

Squish properties together
margin-top: 50px;
margin-right: 4em;
margin-bottom: 10%;
margin-left: 0;

can be shortened to…

margin: 50px 4em 10% 0;

Getting lazy? Maybe productive
padding:1.2em 5px;

is interpreted as…

padding:1.2em 5px 1.2em 5px;

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About the Author - Michael Visser is the founder of Visser Labs. He works as a professional Front-end Web Developer, loves Wordpress, Joomla and helping people get more out of their sites.