Spacing
The elements in Call to action are very close to each other, which makes them seem squeezed. I don't know about you, but I have the impression that they are asking for some space and breath.
This is exactly what Tailwind's spacing utilities classes are for - they allow us to offset elements in 4 directions - up, down, left and right.
Thanks to spacing utilities we can easily manipulate padding and margin of any element.
For example - if you want to add a
bottom margin to an <h1>
element you can
add class mb-
("m" for "margin" and "b" for "bottom") to it and
choose a unit between 0.5
to 96
.
mb-0.5
: sets margin-bottom to
0.125rem
(2px
)
mb-96
: sets margin-bottom to
24rem
(384px
)
Step 1 - add margin bottom to the headings
Let's add .mb-5
to h1
and .mb-7
to
h2
:
<!-- Call to action -->
<div class="text-center text-white">
<h1 class="mb-5 text-5xl font-semibold">I am learning Tailwind</h1>
<h2 class="mb-7 text-2xl font-medium">
And what an exciting adventure it is!
</h2>
</div>
Now they can breathe freely!
Notice that we added a bottom margin to the h2
element as
well, even though there is nothing underneath it. However, that will soon
change as we will add a button there.
How spacing works in Tailwind CSS
You may have guessed that if you need to use the mb-*
class to
add a bottom margin, you need to add the
mt-*
class to add a top margin
. And you will be
right.
The same applies to the left and right margins - we use the
ms-*
and me-*
classes respectively
For example:
mt-8
to add some margin to the top
ms-2
to add some margin to the left
me-4
to add some margin to the right
How to use padding
It's easy. The same scheme for margins applies to padding - so for example,
.pt-4
to add some top padding, ps-5
to add some
left padding, and so on.
Below is an example using classes for the right margin with a visual representation of their sizes. The same sizes apply to all directions (left, right, top, bottom) and for both margins and padding.
Class name | Size | Visual representation |
---|---|---|
.me-0.5 |
2px | |
.me-1 |
4px | |
.me-2 |
8px | |
.me-3 |
12px | |
.me-4 |
16px | |
.me-5 |
20px | |
.me-6 |
24px | |
.me-7 |
28px | |
.me-8 |
32px | |
.me-9 |
36px | |
And so on until: | ||
.me-80 |
320px | |
.me-96 |
384px |
About author
Michal Szymanski
Co Founder at TW Elements and MDBootstrap / Listed in Forbes „30 under 30" / Open-source enthusiast / Dancer, nerd & book lover.
Author of hundreds of articles on programming, business, marketing and productivity. In the past, an educator working with troubled youth in orphanages and correctional facilities.