CSS Margins

The CSS margin properties are used to create space around elements, outside of any defined borders.
With CSS, you have full control over the margins. There are properties for setting the margin for each side of an element (top, right, bottom, and left).

Margin - Individual Sides

CSS has properties for specifying the margin for each side of an element:

margin-top
margin-right
margin-bottom
margin-left

All the margin properties can have the following values:

auto - the browser calculates the margin
length - specifies a margin in px, pt, cm, etc.
% - specifies a margin in % of the width of the containing element
inherit - specifies that the margin should be inherited from the parent element

Note: Negative values are allowed.
The following example sets different margins for all four sides of a <p> element:

Example

p {
    margin-top: 100px;
    margin-bottom: 100px;
    margin-right: 150px;
    margin-left: 80px;
}

Margin - Shorthand Property

To shorten the code, it is possible to specify all the margin properties in one property.
The margin property is a shorthand property for the following individual margin properties:

margin-top
margin-right
margin-bottom
margin-left

So, here is how it works:
If the margin property has four values:

margin: 25px 50px 75px 100px;
- top margin is 25px
- right margin is 50px
- bottom margin is 75px
- left margin is 100px
Example
p { margin: 25px 50px 75px 100px; }
If the margin property has three values:
margin: 25px 50px 75px;
- top margin is 25px
- right and left margins are 50px
- bottom margin is 75px
Example
p { margin: 25px 50px 75px; }
If the margin property has two values:
margin: 25px 50px;
- top and bottom margins are 25px
- right and left margins are 50px
Example
p { margin: 25px 50px; }
If the margin property has one value:
margin: 25px;

all four margins are 25px

Example

p {
    margin: 25px;
}

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