Why is there an unexplainable gap between these inline-block div elements?

html

responsive-design

best-practices

layout

byAnton Shumikhin·Nov 3, 2024

The unwanted gap you’re observing is because of whitespace characters (spaces, line breaks, and indentation) in your HTML. These are treated as actual characters by inline-block elements. Here’s how you can obliterate these pesky gaps:

Set the parent element's font-size to 0. Then, re-establish the original font-size for the children.
Ensure your tags in the HTML are directly adjacent to each other with no whitespace in between.
Comment out the whitespace between elements. Yes, you can do that!

Example:

<!-- No more gap with a simple trick! 💥👇💥 -->
<div style="font-size: 0;">
  <div style="font-size: 16px; display: inline-block;">Box 1</div><!-- Whoop, there it is!-->
  <div style="font-size: 16px; display: inline-block;">Box 2</div>
</div>

Painless layout alternatives

If you find yourself grappling with this issue often, use these strategies and save the day:

Give the parent element the power of display: flex;. This magic wand eliminates gaps between child elements.
Or you could wield the float: left; sword on each child element, driving away unwanted spaces.
Use white-space: nowrap; on the parent, herding the children in a straight, gap-free line.

The real score on inline-block spacing

Here’s the plot twist: inline-block elements follow the rules of typography! If your children's font-size is set in em units, the size of your villainous gap might be around 0.25em or approximately 4px, depending on your font size. Combat these typographic "gaps" with some whitespace collapse or stellar Flexbox moves.

Dealing with whitespace

Consider these when working with HTML:

When HTML is served dynamically (say, from server templates), avoid accidental introduction of whitespace.
Manual minification is a field littered with chances for glitches, so trust automated minifiers to banish spaces.
But remember, minifiers have their blind spots too due to preservation rules, necessitating manual checks.

No-go solutions

Margin and padding alterations are dead ends. Here's why:

Adding margin:0; on div elements is a futile attempt at battling the whitespace phantom.
Negative margins are treacherous shortcuts leading to chaos, especially in responsive layouts.
You might consider adding a border, but remember, while it might close the gap visually, it’s not actually solving the root problem.

Box-sizing: your layout friend

Maintaining layout sanity with these tips:

Recall box-sizing: border-box; includes padding and borders within the element's width – a true layout savior.
The spacing between elements can be influenced by padding and borders; always factor these in when tackling layout conundrums.

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