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CSS

Kendall Chung
Kendall Chung
9,511 Points
Posted by Kendall Chung
Kendall Chung
9,511 Points

When to use padding, border, margin?

Hey guys,

I am just confused about when to use padding border and margin? can someone please show me the standard or give me a guide for which one to use and when?

thanks!

3 Answers

anil rahman
anil rahman
7,786 Points
anil rahman
anil rahman
7,786 Points

It all depends on what you want to do if you want to decorate a div to make a square or something and you want a border to do some presentation and colours and stuff. But you dont need a colour around the edges thats up to you.

You would want padding if you wanted to put extra spacing between the stuff in your box and the edge of the box.

Margin is more like positioning. So if two boxes were too close together the margin can help control the positioning/spacing of elements.

darrell mayson
darrell mayson
5,215 Points
darrell mayson
darrell mayson
5,215 Points

Not sure that I can clearly provide an answer but I did find the following helpful.. http://stackoverflow.com/a/2189462 Gives a nice visual to describe all 3 and a clear, consise answer. Hope this helps!

anil rahman
anil rahman
7,786 Points
anil rahman
anil rahman
7,786 Points

Or you could make a div give it a border some margin and padding. Then when you trun the html page in chrome, you can go into developer tools and it will actually allow you to see the border and padding and margin and how they are affecting the div. It will be at the bottom panel in the right hand side i think you scroll to the bottom to see that diagram. Just google it if you don't understand developer tools, nice and easy.