Spacing

For modifying the appearance of an element, UX4G offers a broad variety of concise responsive margin, padding, and gap utility classes.

Margin & padding #

Apply shorthand classes to an element or a subset of its sides to assign responsive-friendly margin or padding values. Includes assistance for both vertical and horizontal properties as well as support for all attributes. Classes are constructed using a standard Sass map with dimensions between.25 and 3 rem.

Using the CSS Grid layout module? Consider using the gap utility instead.

Notation #

There is no breakpoint abbreviation present in the spacing utilities that are applicable to all breakpoints, from xs to xxl. This is so that a media query is not required for those classes, which are used from min-width: 0 and up. However, a breakpoint abbreviation is present for the remaining breakpoints.

For the xs class, the names are formatted as {property} {sides}-{size} and {property}{sides}-{breakpoint}-{size} for the sm, md, lg, xl, and xxl classes, respectively.

Where property is one of:

m - for classes that set margin
p - for classes that set padding

Where sides is one of:

t - for classes that set margin-top or padding-top
b - for classes that set margin-bottom or padding-bottom
s - (start) for classes that set margin-left or padding-left in LTR, margin-right or padding-right in RTL
e - (end) for classes that set margin-right or padding-right in LTR, margin-left or padding-left in RTL
x - for classes that set both *-left and *-right
y - for classes that set both *-top and *-bottom
blank - for classes that set a margin or padding on all 4 sides of the element

Where size is one of:

0 - for classes that eliminate the margin or padding by setting it to 0
1 - (by default) for classes that set the margin or padding to $spacer * .25
2 - (by default) for classes that set the margin or padding to $spacer * .5
3 - (by default) for classes that set the margin or padding to $spacer
4 - (by default) for classes that set the margin or padding to $spacer * 1.5
5 - (by default) for classes that set the margin or padding to $spacer * 3
auto - for classes that set the margin to auto

(You can add more sizes by adding entries to the $spacers Sass map variable.)

Examples #

Here are some representative examples of these classes:

.mt-0 {
  margin-top: 0 !important;
}

.ms-1 {
  margin-left: ($spacer * .25) !important;
}

.px-2 {
  padding-left: ($spacer * .5) !important;
  padding-right: ($spacer * .5) !important;
}

.p-3 {
  padding: $spacer !important;
}

Horizontal centering #

"Additionally, UX4G also includes an .mx-auto class for horizontally centering fixed-width block level content—that is, content that has display: block and a width set—by setting the horizontal margins to auto. "

<div class="mx-auto" style="width: 200px;">
  Centered element
</div>

RESULT

Centered element

Negative margin #

Padding in CSS cannot use negative values, although margin attributes can. By specifying $enable-negative-margins: true in Sass, these negative margins can be made active even though they are disabled by default.

With the addition of n before the requested size, the syntax is almost identical to that of the default, positive margin utilities. Here is an illustration of a class that is the inverse of.mt-1:

.mt-n1 {
  margin-top: -0.25rem !important;
}

Gap #

Developer can utilize the gap utilities on the parent grid container when using display: grid. This can eliminate the need to provide margin utilities to specific grid objects (children of a grid container display). Gap utilities are created using our utilities API and are responsive by default. They are based on the $spacers Sass map.

<div class="d-grid gap-3">
  <div class="p-2 bg-light border">Grid item 1</div>
  <div class="p-2 bg-light border">Grid item 2</div>
  <div class="p-2 bg-light border">Grid item 3</div>
</div>

RESULT

Grid item 1

Grid item 2

Grid item 3

Grid item 4

All of UX4G's grid breakpoints have responsive choices, and six sizes from the $spacers map (0–5) are also supported. Since .gap-auto is essentially the same as .gap-0, it does not exist.

Sass #

Maps #

Spacing utilities are declared via Sass map and then generated with our utilities API.

$spacer: 1rem;
$spacers: (
  0: 0,
  1: $spacer * .25,
  2: $spacer * .5,
  3: $spacer,
  4: $spacer * 1.5,
  5: $spacer * 3,
);

Utilities API #

Spacing utilities are declared in our utilities API in scss/_utilities.scss. Learn how to use the utilities API.

"margin": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin,
      class: m,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    "margin-x": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-right margin-left,
      class: mx,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    "margin-y": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-top margin-bottom,
      class: my,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    "margin-top": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-top,
      class: mt,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    "margin-end": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-right,
      class: me,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    "margin-bottom": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-bottom,
      class: mb,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    "margin-start": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-left,
      class: ms,
      values: map-merge($spacers, (auto: auto))
    ),
    // Negative margin utilities
    "negative-margin": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin,
      class: m,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    "negative-margin-x": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-right margin-left,
      class: mx,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    "negative-margin-y": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-top margin-bottom,
      class: my,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    "negative-margin-top": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-top,
      class: mt,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    "negative-margin-end": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-right,
      class: me,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    "negative-margin-bottom": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-bottom,
      class: mb,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    "negative-margin-start": (
      responsive: true,
      property: margin-left,
      class: ms,
      values: $negative-spacers
    ),
    // Padding utilities
    "padding": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding,
      class: p,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    "padding-x": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding-right padding-left,
      class: px,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    "padding-y": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding-top padding-bottom,
      class: py,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    "padding-top": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding-top,
      class: pt,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    "padding-end": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding-right,
      class: pe,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    "padding-bottom": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding-bottom,
      class: pb,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    "padding-start": (
      responsive: true,
      property: padding-left,
      class: ps,
      values: $spacers
    ),
    // Gap utility
    "gap": (
      responsive: true,
      property: gap,
      class: gap,
      values: $spacers
    ),