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Cover image for CSS inline, block, inline-block
Suprabha
Suprabha

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CSS inline, block, inline-block

Let's understand the difference between Inline, Block, Inline-Block.

1️⃣ inline

2️⃣ block

3️⃣ inline-block

<p>
    Lets checkout how inline, block and inline-block works. You can or can't
    set the <span>width</span> or <span>height</span> for few display
    properties.
</p>
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1️⃣ inline

Inline elements takes there own width and height, you can not apply the width and height, and if you try to apply then it won't have any effect.

These are the inline HTML elements 👇

  • span
  • a
  • img
  • u
  • small
  • strong
  • b
  • ... many more
.inline {
    padding: 5px;
    border: 5px dashed #ff527b;
    width: 200px; /* ❌ It will not work */
}
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css display inline

2️⃣ block

A block-level element always starts on a new line. A block-level element always takes up the full width available.

A block level element has a top and a bottom margin, whereas an inline element does not.

These are the block HTML elements 👇

  • h1
  • p
  • div
  • header
  • main
  • table
  • section
.block {
    display: block;
    padding: 5px;
    border: 5px dashed #ff527b;
}
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css display block

3️⃣ inline-block

inline-block It’s formatted just like the inline element, where it doesn’t start on a new line.

It’s essentially the same thing as inline, except that you can set height and width values.

.inline-block {
    display: inline-block;
    padding: 5px;
    border: 5px dashed #ff527b;
    width: 200px;  /* ✅ It will work  */
}
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css display inline-block

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Top comments (6)

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afif profile image
Temani Afif

why you the border won't work for inline element? it will

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suprabhasupi profile image
Suprabha

Thanks for notifying, its was by mistake.
Fixed it 🙏🏼

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abhilearnstocode profile image
Abhii

Agreed 💯

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naveenchandar profile image
Naveenchandar • Edited

Yeah correct but even padding/margin will work on those elements MDN.

 
suprabhasupi profile image
Suprabha • Edited

Check this out:
You will find answer and many more tag

developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

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suprabhasupi profile image
Suprabha

Inline element don't except external width and height.
developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...