padding-inline-start

The padding-inline-start CSS property defines the logical inline start padding of an element, which maps to a physical padding depending on the element's writing mode, directionality, and text orientation.

{{InteractiveExample("CSS Demo: padding-inline-start")}}

padding-inline-start: 20px;
writing-mode: horizontal-tb;

padding-inline-start: 20px;
writing-mode: vertical-rl;

padding-inline-start: 5em;
writing-mode: horizontal-tb;
direction: rtl;

<section id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    <div class="box">
      Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the
      western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  border: 10px solid #ffc129;
  overflow: hidden;
  text-align: left;
}

.box {
  border: dashed 1px;
  unicode-bidi: bidi-override;
}

Syntax

/* <length> values */
padding-inline-start: 10px; /* An absolute length */
padding-inline-start: 1em; /* A length relative to the text size */

/* <percentage> value */
padding-inline-start: 5%; /* A padding relative to the block container's width */

/* Global values */
padding-inline-start: inherit;
padding-inline-start: initial;
padding-inline-start: revert;
padding-inline-start: revert-layer;
padding-inline-start: unset;

Values

• {{cssxref("<length>")}}
  • : The size of the padding as a fixed value. Must be nonnegative.
• {{cssxref("<percentage>")}}
  • : The size of the padding as a percentage, relative to the inline size (width in a horizontal language, defined by {{cssxref("writing-mode")}}) of the containing block. Must be nonnegative.

Description

The padding-inline-start property takes the same values as physical properties such as {{cssxref("padding-top")}}. However, it can be equivalent to {{cssxref("padding-left")}}, {{cssxref("padding-right")}}, padding-top, or {{cssxref("padding-bottom")}} depending on the values set for {{cssxref("writing-mode")}}, {{cssxref("direction")}}, and {{cssxref("text-orientation")}}.

It relates to {{cssxref("padding-block-start")}}, {{cssxref("padding-block-end")}}, and {{cssxref("padding-inline-end")}}, which define the other padding values of the element.

Formal definition

{{cssinfo}}

Formal syntax

{{csssyntax}}

Examples

Setting inline start padding for vertical text

HTML

<div>
  <p class="exampleText">Example text</p>
</div>

CSS

div {
  background-color: yellow;
  width: 120px;
  height: 120px;
}

.exampleText {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
  padding-inline-start: 20px;
  background-color: #c8c800;
}

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample("Setting_inline_start_padding_for_vertical_text", 140, 140)}}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• CSS Logical Properties and Values
• The mapped physical properties: {{cssxref("padding-top")}}, {{cssxref("padding-right")}}, {{cssxref("padding-bottom")}}, and {{cssxref("padding-left")}}
• {{cssxref("writing-mode")}}, {{cssxref("direction")}}, {{cssxref("text-orientation")}}