Tables are much more in a web designer’s armory when presenting data than one might have assumed. They’re easy, tidy, and, with the right touches of styling, can be used to great professional effect. However, do you find, sometimes when using tables, that it looks too tight or overcrowded in the cells? You’re not alone. That is where cell padding and spacing come into their own. These two properties may look like minor things, but they leave a good impact on the readability as well as aesthetics of your tables.
What Are Cell Padding and Cell Spacing?
Let’s start by clarifying these two terms because they sound similar but do completely different things.
- Cell Padding: This is the space inside the cell, between the cell content and the cell border.
- Cell Spacing: This is the space between individual cells in a table. It’s like the table’s breathing room—important, but often overlooked.
Think of cell padding as adding a cushion between your text and the walls of the cell. Cell spacing is more like placing a buffer between each cell, ensuring they aren’t crammed together like passengers on a crowded subway.
Why Should You Care About Padding and Spacing?
Good question! I mean, aren’t tables functional regardless of padding or spacing? Sure, but are we being honest here? Who wants to squint at data squeezed into tight cells, or worse, the rows and columns just running together without any clear differentiation?
Presentation counts in a digital-first world. A nicely spaced-out table will be the crowning glory of your website, where data becomes better to digest. When people’s attention spans are reducing (after all, attention is given for less than 15 seconds on a web page), the difference that an accessible and aesthetically pleasing table could make would be the one thing that saves it. Therefore, we create every design that gives the user an eye-pleasing experience. You can check out other designs, like login page design that attract the user.
How to Add Padding and Spacing in HTML
Without CSS: In older HTML standards, the cell padding and cell spacing attributes were the go-to for controlling these spaces. For example:
<table cellpadding="10" cellspacing="5">
<tr>
<td>Cell 1</td>
<td>Cell 2</td>
</tr>
</table>But wait, this is considered outdated now. In fact, if you’re still using this approach, you’re missing out on more modern, flexible ways to control your table’s appearance.
Using CSS for Cell Padding and Cell Spacing (The Modern Way)
Enter CSS, the modern web styling hero. CSS gives us so much more control over how we style table padding and spacing. Here’s how you can do it.
Cell Padding with CSS
To set padding inside each cell, you can use the CSS padding property. Here’s a quick example:
<style>
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
td {
padding: 10px;
}
</style>In this example, the padding property gives each table cell 10px of space between its content and its border. Notice the border-collapse: collapse? That’s important when working with cell spacing (more on that later).
Why it matters: Using CSS for padding makes it easier to apply consistent styles across your site and is much more responsive than relying on old-school HTML attributes. You can also explore our About Us page design to further understand the styling.
Cell Spacing with CSS
For cell spacing, things are slightly different. Unlike padding, there isn’t a specific cell-spacing property in CSS. Instead, you use border spacing:
<style>
table {
border-spacing: 5px;
}
</style>This will create a 5px gap between each cell. If you’re using border-collapse: collapse, though, the borders will merge together, and the spacing won’t show. It’s all about balance. Learn about the border-collapse property used in styling tables.
Tips for Perfect Cell Padding and Cell Spacing
If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent more time than you’d care to admit tweaking table styles. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up along the way to get the perfect cell padding and spacing setup:
- Start small: Use small padding (e.g., 5px) and spacing (e.g., 2px) and adjust incrementally.
- Responsive design: Keep in mind that padding and spacing affect table layout on mobile devices. Too much padding can cause overflow issues on smaller screens. Use media queries to adjust accordingly.
- Experiment: Play around with different styles like borders, backgrounds, or hover effects. Sometimes just changing one property makes your table go from “meh” to wow.
Real-World Example: A Responsive Pricing Table
Let’s bring this to life with a quick example. Suppose you’re building a pricing table for a SaaS product. You want it to be clean, modern, and easy to read.
<style>
table {
width: 100%;
border-spacing: 10px;
text-align: center;
border-collapse: collapse; /* Helps with spacing in smaller screens */
}
th, td {
padding: 15px;
border: 1px solid #ddd;
}
th {
background-color: #6a5acd;
font-weight: bold;
color: #f8f8f8;
}
/* Responsive Design */
@media screen and (max-width: 600px) {
table, tr, td, th {
display: block;
width: 100%;
}
th {
background-color: #f8f8f8;
}
td {
padding: 10px;
text-align: left;
border: none;
border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;
}
td::before {
content: attr(data-label);
font-weight: bold;
padding-right: 10px;
display: inline-block;
}
}
</style>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Plan</th>
<th>Price</th>
<th>Features</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td data-label="Plan">Basic</td>
<td data-label="Price">$10/month</td>
<td data-label="Features">Feature 1, Feature 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td data-label="Plan">Pro</td>
<td data-label="Price">$30/month</td>
<td data-label="Features">Feature 1, Feature 2, Feature 3</td>
</tr>
</table>The padding makes each cell comfortable to read, and the border spacing ensures the rows and columns are well-separated, without feeling cramped.
Wrapping Up
By using modern CSS techniques for padding and spacing, you can dramatically improve the visual impact of your tables. Sure, this topic may seem basic, but getting it right can help make or break your web page’s usability. Whether you’re designing a simple contact list or an intricate financial report, remember those small gaps inside and around your cells? Yeah, they matter more than you think. If you want to test your skills in HTML, you can give a free HTML Quiz.
So go ahead, give your tables the space they deserve!
