How wide is the default `` margin?

Question

What’s the default margin that HTML sets for its <body> tag? I noticed that there’s some automatic margin, but I’m wondering if anyone knows how much it is (and whether it’s in px or %, etc.).

It will vary between browsers. Consider using normalize http://necolas.github.com/normalize.css/ — Jared, Oct 29 '12 at 18:56
Link has changed to https://necolas.github.io/normalize.css/ — stevenvh, Aug 04 '22 at 13:57

score 74 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 12 '22 at 16:13

74

In most major browsers, the default margin is 8px on all sides. It is defined in pixels by the user-agent-stylesheet your browser provides.

Some browsers allow you to create and use your own user-agent-stylesheet, but if you are developing a website, I would recommend staying away from changing this, since your users most likely will not have a modified stylesheet and would then see a different page than you do.

If you want to change it, you can just do this:

body {
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px;
  ...
}

But if you have a large project and want to be more complete, use normalize.css. It resets a lot of default values to be consistent across browsers.

edited Jan 12 '22 at 16:13

Andrew Morton

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answered Oct 29 '12 at 19:07

Jon Egeland

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18

Don't need the px – Neil Jun 05 '17 at 12:47
4

you also don't need to reset the padding. – tacoshy May 10 '22 at 18:41

Vickar · Answer 2 · 2018-05-04T08:18:57.960

6

According to W3School's CSS reference, the default properties and values for a body tag are,

body{ display : block; margin : 8px; }

And one can quickly get the computed details of any element by accessing the Computed Pane in the Chrome Dev tools.

edited May 04 '18 at 08:18

answered May 04 '18 at 08:02

Vickar

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score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 29 '21 at 05:57

-1

css default values https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_default_values.asp

body{ display : block; margin : 8px; }

answered Jun 29 '21 at 05:57

Balaji

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score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 16 '22 at 10:28

-1

* { 
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
}

The body can also be reset using the asterix tag.

answered Dec 16 '22 at 10:28

Sefa_Kurtuldu

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along with all other elements that have margins and padding for purposes. You would need to re-add them to all elements. A global reset is not advertised as a "solution" to a minor body margin issue. – tacoshy Mar 24 '23 at 12:14

How wide is the default `` margin?

4 Answers4

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