How to remember in CSS that margin is outside the border, and padding inside [closed]

Answer 1

use firebug to help you see.

Answer 2

Instead of ask again and again to google you just use inspector window. In that style tab and scroll down to bottom you can see like this.

Answer 3

I've just learnt it over time - the box model is fairly simple but the main reason people find it hard is because body doesn't visibly break the model.

Really, if you give body a margin and a background you should see it surrounded by a white strip. However this isn't the case - body's padding is the same as margin. This establishes a few incorrect things about the box model.

I usually think about it like this:

• margin = spacing around the box;
• border = the edge of the box;
• padding = space inside the box.

Answer 4

To me, "padding" just sounds more inner than "margin". Perhaps thinking about the printed page would help? Margins are areas on the far outside - generally, you cannot even print to the edge - they are unmarkable. Within those margins, the content could be padded to provide an extra barrier between the content and the margin?

Once you work in CSS enough, it'll become second nature to remember this.

Answer 5

PAdding is a PArt of an element's PAinting: it extends the element's background. It makes sense to think of a pair element+padding as sharing a common background. Padding is analogous to the painting's canvas: the bigger the padding, the bigger the canvas and therefore background. Border (the painting's frame) would go around that pair. And margin will separate paintings on the gallery wall. Thinking about the concept of object background helps glue the pair object+padding together. The usual explanations of what is inside vs outside do not stick to memory: after a while everybody gets back to the original confusion. Remember also that margins are vertically collapsible and padding is not.

Answer 6

You are using a box. If you were putting something in a box you would put some padding inside to make sure it didn't smack against the sides. Margin would then be the other thing.