[html] Why is there an unexplainable gap between these inline-block div elements?

I have two inline-block div elements, that are the same, positioned next to eachother. However there seems to be a mysterious space of 4 pixels between the two divs despite the margin being set to 0. There are no parent divs effecting them - What is going on?

CSS

#container
{
    display:inline-block;
    position:relative;
    background:rgb(255,100,0);
    margin:0px;
    width:40%;
    height:100px;
}

Div problem

This is what i want it to look like:

What it SHOULD look like

This question is related to html css margin padding

The answer is


In this instance, your div elements have been changed from block level elements to inline elements. A typical characteristic of inline elements is that they respect the whitespace in the markup. This explains why a gap of space is generated between the elements. (example)

There are a few solutions that can be used to solve this.

Method 1 - Remove the whitespace from the markup

Example 1 - Comment the whitespace out: (example)

<div>text</div><!--
--><div>text</div><!--
--><div>text</div><!--
--><div>text</div><!--
--><div>text</div>

Example 2 - Remove the line breaks: (example)

<div>text</div><div>text</div><div>text</div><div>text</div><div>text</div>

Example 3 - Close part of the tag on the next line (example)

<div>text</div
><div>text</div
><div>text</div
><div>text</div
><div>text</div>

Example 4 - Close the entire tag on the next line: (example)

<div>text
</div><div>text
</div><div>text
</div><div>text
</div><div>text
</div>

Method 2 - Reset the font-size

Since the whitespace between the inline elements is determined by the font-size, you could simply reset the font-size to 0, and thus remove the space between the elements.

Just set font-size: 0 on the parent elements, and then declare a new font-size for the children elements. This works, as demonstrated here (example)

#parent {
    font-size: 0;
}

#child {
    font-size: 16px;
}

This method works pretty well, as it doesn't require a change in the markup; however, it doesn't work if the child element's font-size is declared using em units. I would therefore recommend removing the whitespace from the markup, or alternatively floating the elements and thus avoiding the space generated by inline elements.

Method 3 - Set the parent element to display: flex

In some cases, you can also set the display of the parent element to flex. (example)

This effectively removes the spaces between the elements in supported browsers. Don't forget to add appropriate vendor prefixes for additional support.

.parent {
    display: flex;
}
.parent > div {
    display: inline-block;
    padding: 1em;
    border: 2px solid #f00;
}

_x000D_
_x000D_
.parent {_x000D_
    display: flex;_x000D_
}_x000D_
.parent > div {_x000D_
    display: inline-block;_x000D_
    padding: 1em;_x000D_
    border: 2px solid #f00;_x000D_
}
_x000D_
<div class="parent">_x000D_
    <div>text</div>_x000D_
    <div>text</div>_x000D_
    <div>text</div>_x000D_
    <div>text</div>_x000D_
    <div>text</div>_x000D_
</div>
_x000D_
_x000D_
_x000D_


Sides notes:

It is incredibly unreliable to use negative margins to remove the space between inline elements. Please don't use negative margins if there are other, more optimal, solutions.


You need to add

#container
{
    display:inline-block;
    position:relative;
    background:rgb(255,100,0);
    margin:0px;
    width:40%;
    height:100px;
    margin-right:-4px;
}

because whenever you write display:inline-block it takes an additional margin-right:4px. So, you need to remove it.


simply add a border: 2px solid #e60000; to your 2nd div tag CSS.

Definitely it works

#Div2Id {
    border: 2px solid #e60000; --> color is your preference
}

Using inline-block allows for white-space in your HTML, This usually equates to .25em (or 4px).

You can either comment out the white-space or, a more commons solution, is to set the parent's font-size to 0 and the reset it back to the required size on the inline-block elements.


Found a solution not involving Flex, because Flex doesn't work in older Browsers. Example:

.container {
    display:block;
    position:relative;
    height:150px;
    width:1024px;
    margin:0 auto;
    padding:0px;
    border:0px;
    background:#ececec;
    margin-bottom:10px;
    text-align:justify;
    box-sizing:border-box;
    white-space:nowrap;
    font-size:0pt;
    letter-spacing:-1em;
}

.cols {
    display:inline-block;
    position:relative;
    width:32%;
    height:100%;
    margin:0 auto;
    margin-right:2%;
    border:0px;
    background:lightgreen;  
    box-sizing:border-box;
    padding:10px;
    font-size:10pt;
    letter-spacing:normal;
}

.cols:last-child {
    margin-right:0;
}

The easiest fix is to just float the container. (eg. float: left;) On another note, each id should be unique, meaning you can't use the same id twice in the same HTML document. You should use classes instead, where you can use the same class for multiple elements.

.container {
    position: relative;
    background: rgb(255, 100, 0);
    margin: 0;
    width: 40%;
    height: 100px;
    float: left;
}

Examples related to html

Embed ruby within URL : Middleman Blog Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Generating a list of pages (not posts) without the index file Why there is this "clear" class before footer? Is it possible to change the content HTML5 alert messages? Getting all files in directory with ajax DevTools failed to load SourceMap: Could not load content for chrome-extension How to set width of mat-table column in angular? How to open a link in new tab using angular? ERROR Error: Uncaught (in promise), Cannot match any routes. URL Segment

Examples related to css

need to add a class to an element Using Lato fonts in my css (@font-face) Please help me convert this script to a simple image slider Why there is this "clear" class before footer? How to set width of mat-table column in angular? Center content vertically on Vuetify bootstrap 4 file input doesn't show the file name Bootstrap 4: responsive sidebar menu to top navbar Stylesheet not loaded because of MIME-type Force flex item to span full row width

Examples related to margin

Can we define min-margin and max-margin, max-padding and min-padding in css? Does bootstrap have builtin padding and margin classes? Removing body margin in CSS How do I force a vertical scrollbar to appear? How to adjust gutter in Bootstrap 3 grid system? How to disable margin-collapsing? Why is there an unexplainable gap between these inline-block div elements? Remove "whitespace" between div element Remove all padding and margin table HTML and CSS Using margin / padding to space <span> from the rest of the <p>

Examples related to padding

Can we define min-margin and max-margin, max-padding and min-padding in css? Does bootstrap have builtin padding and margin classes? Adding space/padding to a UILabel How to adjust gutter in Bootstrap 3 grid system? Why is there an unexplainable gap between these inline-block div elements? How to increase the distance between table columns in HTML? Absolute positioning ignoring padding of parent Remove all padding and margin table HTML and CSS Style the first <td> column of a table differently Using margin / padding to space <span> from the rest of the <p>