Spacings

Bootstrap includes a wide range of shorthand responsive margin and padding utility classes to modify an element’s appearance.

Notation

Spacing utilities that apply to all breakpoints, from xs to xxl, have no breakpoint abbreviation in them. This is because those classes are applied from min-width: 0 and up, and thus are not bound by a media query. The remaining breakpoints, however, do include a breakpoint abbreviation.

The classes are named using the format {property}{sides}-{size} for xs and {property}{sides}-{breakpoint}-{size} for sm, md, lg, xl, and xxl.

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
  • l - for classes that set margin-left or padding-left
  • r - for classes that set margin-right or padding-right
  • 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;
                }
                
                .ml-1 {
                  margin-left: ($spacer * .25) !important;
                }
                
                .px-2 {
                  padding-left: ($spacer * .5) !important;
                  padding-right: ($spacer * .5) !important;
                }
                
                .p-3 {
                  padding: $spacer !important;
                }
              
            

Negative margin

In CSS, margin properties can utilize negative values (padding cannot). These negative margins are disabled by default, but can be enabled in Sass by setting $enable-negative-margins: true.

The syntax is nearly the same as the default, positive margin utilities, but with the addition of n before the requested size. Here’s an example class that’s the opposite of .mt-1:

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