CSS Box Model

Every element that can be displayed is comprised of one or more rectangular boxes. CSS box model typically describes how these rectangular boxes are laid out on a web page. These boxes can have different properties and can interact with each other in different ways, but every box has a content area and optional surrounding margin, padding, and border.

All HTML elements can be considered as boxes. In CSS, the term "box model" is used when talking about design and layout.The CSS box model is essentially a box that wraps around every HTML element. It consists of: margins, borders, padding, and the actual content. The image below illustrates the box model:

Example -

Width and Height of an Element

In order to set the width and height of an element correctly in all browsers, you need to know how the box model works.

Usually when you set the width and height of an element using the CSS width and height properties, in reality you are only setting the width and height of the content area of an element. The actual width and height of the element's box depend on several factors.

Example -

The total width of an element should be calculated like this:

Total element width = width + left padding + right padding + left border + right border + left margin + right margin

The total height of an element should be calculated like this:

Total element height = height + top padding + bottom padding + top border + bottom border + top margin + bottom margin