CSS scroll-padding-left Property

Posted in CSS Tutorial

Updated on Oct 13, 2024

By Mari Selvan

👁️ 20 - Views

⏳ 4 mins

💬 1 Comment

Photo Credit to CodeToFun

🙋 Introduction

The scroll-padding-left property in CSS is used to set the left padding of the scroll snap area of an element.

This property is particularly useful when working with scroll snapping, as it allows you to define the space that should be left between the left edge of the container and the snapping area.

💡 Syntax

The syntax for the scroll-padding-left property is simple. It can be applied to any element that has a scroll container.

Syntax

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element {
  scroll-padding-left: value;
}

Here, value can be any valid CSS length value such as pixels (px), percentage (%), em units, etc.

🎛️ Default Value

The default value of the scroll-padding-left property is auto. This means that, by default, the browser will determine the padding based on its internal algorithms and the element's content.

🏠 Property Values

Value	Description
length	A fixed length value, such as 10px, 2em, etc.
percentage	A percentage value of the container’s width, such as 10%.
auto	The browser calculates the padding based on the content.

📄 Example

In this example, we'll apply a left padding of 20px to the scroll snap area.

index.html

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>CSS scroll-padding-left Example</title>
  <style>
    .scroll-container {
      scroll-snap-type: x mandatory;
      overflow-x: scroll;
      display: flex;
    }
    .scroll-container div {
      scroll-snap-align: start;
      flex: 0 0 100px;
      height: 100px;
      margin-right: 10px;
      background-color: lightblue;
    }
    .scroll-container {
      scroll-padding-left: 20px;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Scroll Padding Left Example</h1>
  <div class="scroll-container">
    <div>Item 1</div>
    <div>Item 2</div>
    <div>Item 3</div>
    <div>Item 4</div>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

🖥️ Browser Compatibility

The scroll-padding-left property is supported in most modern browsers, including the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. However, it is always a good practice to test your website across different browsers to ensure compatibility.

🎉 Conclusion

The scroll-padding-left property is a valuable addition to the CSS toolkit for developers working with scroll snapping. It allows for precise control over the left padding of the scroll snap area, ensuring a smooth and visually appealing scrolling experience. Experiment with different padding values to see how this property can enhance your scrollable content.