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

/* <length> values */ padding-block-start: 10px;      /* An absolute length */ padding-block-start: 1em;       /* A length relative to the text size */  /* <percentage> value */ padding-block-start: 5%;        /* A padding relative to the block container's width */  /* Global values */ padding-block-start: inherit; padding-block-start: initial; padding-block-start: revert; padding-block-start: unset; 

padding-block-start

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

Syntax

/* <length> values */ padding-block-start: 10px;      /* An absolute length */ padding-block-start: 1em;       /* A length relative to the text size */  /* <percentage> value */ padding-block-start: 5%;        /* A padding relative to the block container's width */  /* Global values */ padding-block-start: inherit; padding-block-start: initial; padding-block-start: revert; padding-block-start: unset; 

Values

<length>

The size of the padding as a fixed value. Must be nonnegative.

<percentage>

The size of the padding as a percentage, relative to the inline-size of the containing block. Must be nonnegative.

Description

The padding-block-start property is defined in the specification as taking the same values as the padding-top property. However, the physical property it maps to depends on the values set for writing-mode, direction, and text-orientation. Therefore, it could map to padding-top, padding-right, or padding-left

It relates to padding-block-end, padding-inline-start, and padding-inline-end, which define the other paddings of the element.

Formal definition

Initial value	0
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	no
Percentages	logical-width of containing block
Computed value	as <length>
Animation type	a length

Formal syntax

<'padding-left'>

Examples

Setting block 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-block-start: 20px;   background-color: #C8C800; } 

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Logical Properties and Values Level 1 # padding-properties

See also

The mapped physical properties: padding-top, padding-right, padding-bottom, and padding-left writing-mode, direction, text-orientation

Last modified: Jan 21, 2022, by MDN contributors

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