CSS/HTML - Horizontal list - Remove this mystery gap between list items?

Question

I am having trouble with a menu bar that I am making. It seems that there is a gap between the menu items and for the life of me I do not understand what the reason for this is.

As a description to the screenshot below, the first link (home) is the current page and it is highlighted. The second link (page1) is a hover effect while my cursor is over this item. You will notice that there is a gap (what on earth is causing this?!) between these two items that shows the background color of div that contains the menu.

It may be worthwhile to note that I am using the latest version of firefox.

Here is a screenshot of my problem:

Mystery Gap

Here is the html for the list:

<div class="nav">
    <ul>
        <li class="selectedPage"><a href="#">HOME</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">PAGE1</a></li>
        <li><a href="#">PAGE2</a></li>
    </ul>
<!-- end .nav --></div>

And here is the css:

div.nav {
    width: 750px;
    background: #52b5f0; /* Old browsers */
    /* IE9 SVG, needs conditional override of 'filter' to 'none' */
    background: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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);
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #52b5f0 5%, #3699d0 49%, #19638a 95%); /* FF3.6+ */
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(5%,#52b5f0), color-stop(49%,#3699d0), color-stop(95%,#19638a)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #52b5f0 5%,#3699d0 49%,#19638a 95%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
    background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  #52b5f0 5%,#3699d0 49%,#19638a 95%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
    background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  #52b5f0 5%,#3699d0 49%,#19638a 95%); /* IE10+ */
    background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  #52b5f0 5%,#3699d0 49%,#19638a 95%); /* W3C */
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#52b5f0', endColorstr='#19638a',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-8 */
}

div.nav ul {
    list-style: none; /* this removes the list marker */
}

div.nav li {
    display: inline-block;
}

div.nav li.selectedPage {
    background: #41ff5f;
}

div.nav li.selectedPage a {
    color: #10653b;
}

div.nav a, div.nav a:visited {
    padding: 5px;
    display: block;
    width: 120px;
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-align: center;
}

div.nav a:hover, div.nav a:active, div.nav a:focus {
    background: #41ff5f;
    color: #10653b;
}

EDIT:

I do have this in place earlier in the css:

ul, li {
    padding: 0;  
    margin: 0;
}

JsFiddle Link:

http://jsfiddle.net/Gbg7J/

please provide a JsFiddle to facilitate a fast and accurate answer to your problem ... — henser, Feb 19 '13 at 13:26
Sometimes margin:0 is not enough, try setting li{margin-left:-1} or -2 etc.. — Gaurav Pandey, Feb 19 '13 at 13:27
gaurav, @ANK That seems like a bit of a hack and i would be worried about this output over a wide variety of browsers :( Surely there is some valid explanation for this? — Craig van Tonder, Feb 19 '13 at 13:32

score 40 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

The gap is caused by the tabs and line feeds separating your list items; inline block elements (or any element that participates within the inline formatting context) are sensitive to their structure in your HTML.

You can either remove the spaces completely:

 <ul>
    <li class="selectedPage"><a href="#">HOME</a></li><li><a href="#">PAGE1</a></li<li><a href="#">PAGE2</a></li>
</ul>

Use comments:

<div class="nav">
    <ul>
        <li class="selectedPage"><a href="#">HOME</a></li><!--
        --><li><a href="#">PAGE1</a></li><!--
        --><li><a href="#">PAGE2</a></li><!--
    --></ul>
<!-- end .nav --></div>

Leave the HTML alone and use float instead (and clear the container):

.nav ul li {
    float: left;
  /*display: inline-block;*/
}

.nav ul {
    overflow: hidden;
}

Or set font-size: 0; on the parent and then reset it on the li

.nav ul {
    font-size: 0;
}

.nav li {
   display: inline-block;
   font-size: 16px;
}

^{Also, take a look at both: How to remove the space between inline-block elements? & http://css-tricks.com/fighting-the-space-between-inline-block-elements/}

O... My... Word... I would have battled for hours with this as i would never have thought that the white space could have caused something like this. I guess it is just something to be aware of! Thank you so much for your help!!!! — Craig van Tonder, Feb 19 '13 at 13:35
Some further reading at [csstricks](http://css-tricks.com/fighting-the-space-between-inline-block-elements/) — skube, Nov 15 '13 at 18:01

CSS/HTML - Horizontal list - Remove this mystery gap between list items?

1 Answers1