CSS padding-top Property

CSS padding-top property sets the top padding to HTML Element(s).

The syntax to specify a value for padding-top property is

padding-top: value;

The following table gives the possible values that could be given to padding-top property.

ValueDescriptionExamples
lengthAny valid CSS length unit. Refer CSS Length Units tutorial.padding-top: 10px;
padding-top: 5pt;
padding-top: 2cm;
Percentage ValuePadding in percent of the width of the containing element.padding-top: 20%;
initialSets padding-top to default value.padding-top: initial;
inheritInherits padding-top value from its parent element.padding-top: inherit;

Examples

In the following examples, we set top padding to HTML Element(s) with a few allowed values for padding-top property.

padding-top property with CSS Length Units

In the following example, we apply padding-top property to paragraphs with a few different CSS Length Unit values.

index.html

</>
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <style>
        p {
            border: 1px solid black;
            margin: 10px;
            width: 80px;
        }
        #p1 {
            padding-top: 20px;
        }
        #p2 {
            padding-top: 2cm;
        }
        #p3 {
            padding-top: 1in;
        }
        #p4 {
            padding-top: 4ex;
        }
        #p5 {
            padding-top: 4rem;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <p id="p1">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p2">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p3">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p4">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p5">Hello World</p>
</body>
</html>

Note: border and display properties have been specified only to understand the bounds of the HTML Elements and thus understand the extent of padding applied for these HTML Elements.

padding-top property with Percentage Values

In the following example, we apply padding-top property to paragraphs with a few different percentage values.

If padding-top is specified in percentage values, and if width of the HTML element changes, then the padding also changes. For example, try to resize the browser window, and observe the top padding for these HTML Elements.

index.html

</>
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <style>
        p {
            border: 1px solid black;
            margin: 10px;
            width: 80px;
        }
        #p1 {
            padding-top: 5%;
        }
        #p2 {
            padding-top: 10%;
        }
        #p3 {
            padding-top: 15%;
        }
        #p4 {
            padding-top: 20%;
        }
        #p5 {
            padding-top: 25%;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <p id="p1">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p2">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p3">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p4">Hello World</p>
    <p id="p5">Hello World</p>
</body>
</html>

padding-top property for a few HTML elements

In the following example, we take a few HTML elements like h1, p, a, span, and pre, and set padding-top for these HTML elements.

index.html

</>
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <style>
        h1, p, a, pre {
            display: block;
            border: 1px solid;
        }
        h1 {
            padding-top: 25px;
        }
        p {
            padding-top: 25px;
        }
        a {
            padding-top: 25px;
        }
        span {
            padding-top: 25px;
        }
        pre {
            padding-top: 25px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Heading 1</h1>
    <p>A paragraph.</p>
    <a href="#">Anchor Text</a>
    <p>A paragraph with a <span>span text</span>.</p>
    <pre>pre
hello
world</pre>
</body>
</html>

Conclusion

In this CSS Tutorial, we learned about padding-top property, and how to use this property for HTML Elements, with examples.