CSS Padding Property

The padding CSS shorthand property sets the padding area on all four sides of an element at once.

Definition and Usage

An element’s padding is the space between its content and its border.

The padding property is a shorthand property for:

• padding-top
• padding-right
• padding-bottom
• padding-left

Note: Padding creates extra space within an element, while margin creates extra space around an element.

This property can have from one to four values.

If the padding property has four values:

• padding:10px 5px 15px 20px;
  • top padding is 10px
  • right padding is 5px
  • bottom padding is 15px
  • left padding is 20px

If the padding property has three values:

• padding:10px 5px 15px;
  • top padding is 10px
  • right and left padding are 5px
  • bottom padding is 15px

If the padding property has two values:

• padding:10px 5px;
  • top and bottom padding are 10px
  • right and left padding are 5px

If the padding property has one value:

• padding:10px;
  • all four paddings are 10px

Note: Negative values are not allowed.

Values