Bootstrap 4 spacing

Assign or to an element or a subset of its sides with shorthand classes. Includes support for individual properties, all properties, and vertical and horizontal properties. All classes are multiples on the global default value, (10px).

The classes are named using the format:

Where property is one of:

• - for classes that set
• - for classes that set

Where sides is one of:

• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set both and
• - for classes that set both and
• - for classes that set a or on all 4 sides of the element

Where size is one of:

• - for classes that eliminate the or by setting it to
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or

(You can add more sizes by adding entries to the Sass map variable.)

Here are some representative examples of these classes:

Horizontal centering

Additionally, Bootstrap also includes an class for horizontally centering fixed-width block level content by setting the horizontal margins to .

Bootstrap has many facility of classes to easily style elements in HTML. It includes various responsive padding and margin classes for modification of the appearance of element. Spacing utilities have no breakpoints symbols to apply to the breakpoints.
Following Syntax are used in the Various Classes for adding spacing: 

• (property)(sides)-(size) for xs
• (property)(sides)-(breakpoint)-(size) for sm, md, lg, and xl.

Property: There are two ways of adding spacing to the elements.

• m: This property defines the margin. Margin provides an edge or border.
• p: This property defines the padding. Padding properties are used to generate space around the content.

Sides: This allows users to add spacing in content to a specific side wherever required.

• t : margin-top/padding-top.
• b : margin-bottom/padding-bottom.
• l : margin-left/padding-left.
• r : margin-right/padding-right.
• x : for padding-left and padding-right/margin-left and margin-right.
• y : for padding-top and padding-bottom/margin-top and margin-bottom.
• blank : margin/padding on all sides of the element.

Size: This allows users to add a specific amount of spacing to a level. 

• 0 – 0px margin/padding.
• 1 – 4px margin/padding.
• 2 – 8px margin/padding.
• 3 – 16px margin/padding.
• 4 – 24px margin/padding.
• 5 – 48px margin/padding.
• auto – auto margin.

Breakpoint: Breakpoints are points where the website content can adjust according to the device and allow to show the best layout to the user.  

• sm, md, lg, and xl are the following breakpoints.

Syntax: 

• For breakpoint – xs:

• For breakpoint – md:

• For breakpoint – lg:

• For breakpoint – xl:

Responsive Spacing Table: 

Example 1: 

Output: 

Example 2: 

Output: 

Example 3: 

Output:

Supported Browser:

• Google Chrome
• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Opera
• Safari

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Assign responsive-friendly or values to an element or a subset of its sides with shorthand classes. Includes support for individual properties, all properties, and vertical and horizontal properties. Classes are built from a default Sass map ranging from to .

Contents

Notation

Spacing utilities that apply to all breakpoints, from to , have no breakpoint abbreviation in them. This is because those classes are applied from and up, and thus are not bound by a media query. The remaining breakpoints, however, do include a breakpoint abbreviation.

The classes are named using the format for and for , , , and .

Where property is one of:

• - for classes that set
• - for classes that set

Where sides is one of:

• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set or
• - for classes that set both and
• - for classes that set both and
• blank - for classes that set a or on all 4 sides of the element

Where size is one of:

• - for classes that eliminate the or by setting it to
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or
• - (by default) for classes that set the or to or

(You can add more sizes by adding entries to the Sass map variable.)

Examples

Here are some representative examples of these classes:

Horizontal centering

Additionally, Bootstrap also includes an class for horizontally centering fixed-width block level content—that is, content that has and a set—by setting the horizontal margins to .

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Bootstrap 4 Utilities

Bootstrap 4 has a lot of utility/helper classes to quickly style elements without using any CSS code.

Borders

Use the classes to add or remove borders from an element:

Border Color

Add a color to the border with any of the contextual border color classes:

Border Radius

Add rounded corners to an element with the classes:

Float and Clearfix

Float an element to the right with the class or to the left with , and clear floats with the class:

Responsive Floats

Float an element to the left or to the right depending on screen width, with the responsive float classes ( - where * is (>=576px), (>=768px), (>=992px) or (>=1200px)):

Center Align

Center an element with the class (adds margin-left and margin-right: auto):

Width

Set the width of an element with the w-* classes (, , , , ):

Height

Set the height of an element with the h-* classes (, , , , ):

Spacing

Bootstrap 4 has a wide range of responsive margin and padding utility classes. They work for all breakpoints: (<=576px), (>=576px), (>=768px), (>=992px) or (>=1200px)):

The classes are used in the format: for and for , , , and .

Where property is one of:

• - sets
• - sets

Where sides is one of:

• - sets or
• - sets or
• - sets or
• - sets or
• - sets both and or and
• - sets both and or and
• blank - sets a or on all 4 sides of the element

Where size is one of:

• - sets or to
• - sets or to (4px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets or to (8px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets or to (16px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets or to (24px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets or to (48px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets to auto

Note: margins can also be negative, by adding an "n" in front of size:

• - sets to (-4px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets to (-8px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets to (-16px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets to (-24px if font-size is 16px)
• - sets to (-48px if font-size is 16px)

More Spacing Examples

Shadows

Use the classes to add shadows to an element:

Vertical Align

Use the classes to change the alignment of elements (only works on inline, inline-block, inline-table and table cell elements):

Responsive Embeds

Create responsive video or slideshow embeds based on the width of the parent.

Add the to any embed elements (like <iframe> or <video>) in a parent element with and an aspect ratio of your choice:

Visibility

Use the or classes to control the visibility of elements. Note: These classes do not change the CSS display value. They only add or :

Position

Use the class to make any element fixed/stay at the top of the page:

Use the class to make any element fixed/stay at the bottom of the page:

Use the class to make any element fixed/stay at the top of the page when you scroll past it. Note: This class does not work in IE11 and earlier (will treat it as ).

Close icon

Use the class to style a close icon. This is often used for alerts and modals. Note that we use the symbol to create the actual icon (a better looking "x"). Also note that it floats right by default:

Screenreaders

Use the class to hide an element on all devices, except screen readers:

Colors

As described in the Colors chapter, here is a list of all text and background color classes:

The classes for text colors are: , , , , , , , , , (default body color/often black) and :

Contextual text classes can also be used on links, which will add a darker hover color:

You can also add 50% opacity for black or white text with the or classes:

Background Colors

The classes for background colors are: , , , , , , and .

Note that background colors do not set the text color, so in some cases you'll want to use them together with a class.

Typography/Text Classes

As described in the Typography chapter, here is a list of all typography/text classes:

Block Elements

To make an element into a block element, add the class. Use any of the classes to control WHEN the element should be a block element on a specific screen width:

Other Display Classes

Other display classes are also available:

Flex

Use classes to control the layout with flexbox.

Read more about Bootstrap 4 Flex, in our next chapter.

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The margin property adds spacing between the elements while CSS padding between the content and container boundary.

The Bootstrap 4 has built-in utility responsive classes for margin and padding that you may use easily in various elements to manage the spacing.

A few quick examples

Syntax of using shorthand margin and padding

You may use the padding and margin shorthand Bootstrap 4 classes as follows:

For extra small devices i.e. xs:

{property}{sides}-{size}

For other devices/viewports (small, medium, large and extra large):

{property}{sides}-{breakpoint}-{size}

Where:

property = m for margin and p for padding

Following are sides shorthand meanings:

• l = defines the left-margin or left-padding
• r = defines the right-margin or right-padding
• t = defines the top-margin or top-padding
• b = defines the bottom-margin or right-padding
• x = For setting left and right padding and margins by the single call
• y = For setting top and bottom margins
• blank = margin and padding for all sides

The size can be from value 0 to 5 and auto. I will show you examples for seeing the difference.

The breakpoint = sm, md, lg, and xl.

Combining all the above, the left padding complete code can be (for example):

For left padding in extra small devices:

pl-2

or for medium to extra large:

pl-md-2

Now, let me show you the usage of these padding and margin shorthand utility classes in action in Bootstrap 4.

The example of Bootstrap padding classes for all directions

In this example, the padding classes are used in paragraphs as follows:

As such no breakpoint is used, so this applies to viewports from extra small to extra large. That means, if you resize the example page, the padding maintains for all viewports. Have a look:

See online demo and code

The markup:

Using the left and top padding classes example

In the following example, four paragraphs are given different individual padding classes. The first applies from the small devices by using pl-sm-5 class. That is, only the left padding will apply.

In the second <p> tag, the pt-md-2 and pl-md-3 classes are used. That means from medium viewports, the top padding will be two points and left padding is 3.

For the third paragraph, pt-lg-3 and pl-lg-2 class are applied. By .lg, it means from large devices/viewports. The left padding is 2 and top padding is 3.

Finally, the last paragraph is given the padding classes for extra large viewports. The classes are pt-xl-5 and pl-xl-4.

For all above paragraphs, for extra small viewports, the padding remains zero. Have a look:

See online demo and code

The markup:

Bottom padding:

Right padding:

A demo of using margin classes for all directions

In the same way, you may use the Bootstrap margin utility classes for adding the space between elements. Just like padding, you may use a single class for all directions or individual classes for each direction.

The following example applies padding in all directions in four paragraphs for all viewports:

See online demo and code

The code:

Applying margin top and bottom example

The example below shows applying different margins on top and bottom between the elements. For the top margin, following classes are used:

for the bottom, these classes are used:

• mb-sm-5
• mb-sm-4
• mb-sm-2
• mb-sm-1

As .sm breakpoint is used in all these classes, so it applies to small to extra large devices. Have a look:

See online demo and code

The HTML code:

Using x and y for margins

This example shows using the x and y for the margin sides. Just to remind the ‘x’ side will set the margin for left and right whereas the ‘y’ side sets the margins for top and bottom. Use these if you require setting the same margins for respective sides. See the usage below:

See online demo and code

The code: