When you open a website, HTML elements are rendered using a "box model".
Each elements is drawn/displayed inside a box, though we rarely look at
it. In fact, this <p> element has its own box.
In short words, each box is delimited by its border. The distance between the box and its content is called the padding, and the distance between the border and the closest element is called the margin. The three of them border, margin and padding, have top, bottom, left and right specifications.
| Element | Description | Shorthand for... |
|---|---|---|
| Margin | Distance from the border of the box to and adjacent element. It is measured horizontally from vertical borders and vertically from horizontal borders. |
margin-top,
margin-right,
margin-bottom,
margin-left
|
| Border | The sometimes invisible line that is the edge of the acutal box. For each of the four edges, one can control width, color and style. |
border-width,
border-style,
border-color,
each of which is a shorthand for its top, bottom, right and left
constituents.
|
| Padding | A blank space between the border of the box and the content. Can be thought of as an “inner margin”. |
padding-top,
padding-right,
padding-bottom,
padding-left
|
| Width | Actual width of the content. | — |
| Height | Actual height of the content. | — |