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. It corresponds to the padding-top, padding-right, padding-bottom, or padding-left property depending on the values defined for writing-mode, direction, and text-orientation.

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

Initial value	0
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	no
Percentages	logical-width of containing block
Media	visual
Computed value	as <length>
Animation type	discrete
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

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: unset;

Values

The padding-block-start property takes the same values as the padding-left property.

Formal syntax

<'padding-left'>

Example

HTML Content

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

CSS Content

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

.exampleText {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
  padding-block-start: 20px;
  background-color: #C8C800;
}

Specification

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Logical Properties Level 1 The definition of 'padding-block-start' in that specification.	Editor's Draft	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

[1] Available since Gecko 38, but behind the preference layout.css.vertical-text.enabled, then disabled by default. The preference has been removed in Gecko 51 and this property cannot be disabled since this version.

See also

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