Spacing elements

So let’s say we have a “bar” with some items inside. Like a header or footer. Let’s also say we want those items to be spaced evenly, meaning they have the same gap everywhere. Shouldn’t be a big problem. Let’s take a look:

1. Margin

We can’t just add margin: 2rem to the elements since there is no margin collapsing on the horizontal axis. And it also doesn’t work when using Flexbox. Leaving a double sized gap in between. Wishing there is something like margin: 2rem collapse; where you can enable/disable it optionally.

See the Pen Spacing elements (no collapsing) by simurai (@simurai) on CodePen.

2. Pseudo classes

Using margin: 2rem 0 2rem 2rem and then a pseudo class like :last-child { margin-right: 2rem } to add the extra margin works as long as you don’t need to hide that element with display: none. Maybe a rare case, but I’ve been running into this issue once in a while. Would be cool if there is something like :last-displayed that would ignore elements that have display:none.

See the Pen Spacing elements (pseudo) by simurai (@simurai) on CodePen.

3. Margin + padding (best)

The easiest way I think, is to add margins to all elements (like in the first example), but then also add the same value as padding to the parent element. Like this:

.Header {
  padding: 1rem;
}
.Header-item {
  margin: 1rem;
}

That way all elements are evenly spaced and you still can use display:none without having to worry about breaking it. A little flaw is that you have to keep the 2 values in sync, but if you’re using a preprocessor, it can just be a single variable. Or maybe you could use REM’s to control it with font-size from the :root.

See the Pen Spacing elements by simurai (@simurai) on CodePen.

Other?

There are more ways but I’m not aware of a simple one that also let’s you use display: none. Let me know otherwise.

• Maybe the Visual Format Language in GSS? Looks quite slick.

Update

A couple more options:

• Using Grandpa’s table, still need to test this
• Using calc()
• Using Adjacent selector
• More selector “hacks”: 1, 2

Hmmm.. gotta try some. I kinda like the 3rd one. Keeps it independent from the parent and is not “too” complicated.