padding-left

The padding-left CSS property sets the width of the padding area on the top of an element.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

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

Syntax

/* <length> values */
padding-left: 0.5em;
padding-left: 0;
padding-left: 2cm;

/* <percentage> value */
padding-left: 10%;

/* Global values */
padding-left: inherit;
padding-left: initial;
padding-left: unset;

The padding-left property is specified as a single value chosen from the list below. Unlike margins, negative values are not allowed for padding.

Values

<length>

The size of the padding as a fixed value. Must be nonnegative.

<percentage>

The size of the padding as a percentage, relative to the width of the containing block. Must be nonnegative.

Formal syntax

<length> | <percentage>

Examples

.content { padding-left: 5%; }
.sidebox { padding-left: 10px; }

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Introduction to the CSS basic box model
• padding