border-spacing
The border-spacing
CSS property sets the distance between the borders of adjacent cells in a <table>
. This property applies only when border-collapse
is separate
.
Try it
The border-spacing
value is also used along the outside edge of the table, where the distance between the table's border and the cells in the first/last column or row is the sum of the relevant (horizontal or vertical) border-spacing
and the relevant (top, right, bottom, or left) padding
on the table.
Note: The border-spacing
property is equivalent to the deprecated cellspacing
attribute of the <table>
element, except that border-spacing
has an optional second value that can be used to set different horizontal and vertical spacing.
Syntax
css
/* <length> */
border-spacing: 2px;
/* horizontal <length> | vertical <length> */
border-spacing: 1cm 2em;
/* Global values */
border-spacing: inherit;
border-spacing: initial;
border-spacing: revert;
border-spacing: revert-layer;
border-spacing: unset;
The border-spacing
property may be specified as either one or two values.
- When one
<length>
value is specified, it defines both the horizontal and vertical spacings between cells. - When two
<length>
values are specified, the first value defines the horizontal spacing between cells (i.e., the space between cells in adjacent columns), and the second value defines the vertical spacing between cells (i.e., the space between cells in adjacent rows).
Values
<length>
-
The size of the spacing as a fixed value.
Formal definition
Initial value | 0 |
---|---|
Applies to | table and inline-table elements |
Inherited | yes |
Computed value | two absolute lengths |
Animation type | discrete |
Formal syntax
Examples
Spacing and padding table cells
This example applies a spacing of .5em
vertically and 1em
horizontally between a table's cells. Note how, along its outside edges, the table's padding
values are added to its border-spacing
values.
HTML
html
<table>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td>8</td>
<td>9</td>
</tr>
</table>
CSS
css
table {
border-spacing: 1em 0.5em;
padding: 0 2em 1em 0;
border: 1px solid orange;
}
td {
width: 1.5em;
height: 1.5em;
background: #d2d2d2;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}
Result
Specifications
Specification |
---|
Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 2 (CSS 2.2) Specification # separated-borders |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
border-collapse
,border-style
- The
border-spacing
property alters the appearance of the<table>
HTML element.