During the designing of user interfaces, sometimes there is confusion occurs between padding and margin. They are used to provide extra space or a gap. Both margin and padding targets the four sides of an element and can also work without the border property, but they differ in many ways.
The main difference between the padding and margin is:
- Padding provides the space between the border and the content of an element.
- Margin provides the space between the border and outer elements.
So, when we require the space between the elements, then it is better to use margin, and when we need the space between the inner element and the parent box, then go for padding.
The basic differences between margin and padding are tabulated as follows:
| Margin |
Padding |
| Margin is said to be the outer space of an element, i.e., the margin is the space outside of the element's border. |
Padding is said to be the inner space of an element, i.e., the padding is the space inside of the element's border. |
| We can set the margin to auto. |
We cannot set the padding to auto. |
| It can be negative or any float number. |
It does not allow negative values. |
| Styling of an element such as background color does not affect the margin. |
Padding is affected by the styling of an element, such as background color. |
We can see the following image to clear the difference between the margin and padding. In this image, the margin indicates the area outside the border and the padding indicates the area inside the border.
